Sometimes people make the jump from full-time employment straight to full-time self-employment, but unfortunately are then caught out by the demands on both their time and finances
I’ll cover the benefits of starting your new business part-time and how you can use it to your advantage.
By the end you will understand the benefits of initial part-time working and how this can increase your chances for starting a successful business.
We covered in the time demands post about how you now have a new main job in sales, and that it can take time to build up the business as a result.
You don’t want the added pressure of a new job you didn’t want combined with having to earn enough to live off it. When you are trying to make sales you could come across as desperate if you need the sale badly, but if you know your base costs are all covered you will be more relaxed and that will actually increase your chances of making the sale.
That’s why I highly recommend starting your business on a part-time basis if possible.
All your living expenses will be covered by your full-time job, and you will have a regular source of income that can provide additional funds to invest in the business. Indeed, in the early stages of a new business your earnings may be zero, so doing things this way takes a huge amount of pressure away from you.
Yes, it will be hard work starting a business part-time as your leisure time will be reduced to spend on the business. You will become what they call a ‘5 to 9’ worker in your business in addition to working the ‘9 to 5’ as an employee for someone else.
If you are covering all the business expenses from your employed income, then your first earnings from the business can be reinvested. As the business grows it will begin to support itself and provide you with an additional income source.
We’ll cover business plans later, but it is important to remember at the start that these will mostly be estimated based on how you think things will go. With actual results behind you, you’ll then have a realistic idea of all of your projected income and expenses going forwards.
Starting part-time makes the whole process easier, as when you do make the switch to full-time self-employment you will have already been in business for some time, with connections and clients in place for further growth.
One other advantage of starting part-time is that you can trial ideas that are higher risk and also ones that you are not sure about. If you have an idea for a new business that no-one has done before, it might take off or unfortunately may not.
With part-time working you get to try out the higher risk business but with no risk to yourself.
If it fails, you still have your employed role but will have the satisfaction of knowing that you had tried – rather than just thinking about maybe doing it ‘one-day’. And if it takes off you are ideally placed to make the move to going full-time in order to maximise the opportunity.
So, if you are looking to minimise risks and increase your chances of success, then part-time working initially could be of real benefit to you.