Taking the Leap from Full-Time to Your-Time

Going from receiving a nice paycheck weekly or bi-weekly, walking into an office, or having coffee and bagel in the morning to not knowing where you’re going to end up the next day, is a scary change. Every Entrepreneur who has a full-time gig and is looking to make the jump always has doubts, fears, and concerns which are all reasonable. 

When to quit or not quit, now that is the question! Here are a few suggestions that will help you decide when to make the leap:

Number 1: Getting things DONE 

The second that you feel you are under performing both in your own venture and at work; it is time to re-evaluate the situation and determine whether or not to put one on hold. Don’t get me wrong, every successful Entrepreneur will tell you that they went to their 9am to 5pm job, then went home and spent until 11pm or even later working on their company. But you must realize that if your responsibilities are not being completed for either side, you might get fired, delay your product launch, or feel like your life is always in shambles. 

Some people can manage doing 30 things and others simply cannot, you need to determine your comfort level with working on more than one thing at a time. 

Number 2: What STAGE are you at? 

If you’re just in the ideation stage or recruitment stage, most of the time it does not require you to work on your venture 120 hours a week. You can get by with sending a few emails, maybe a quick phone here and there, or grabbing lunch with a potential co-founder/employee. As you begin to work with a team and if you’re serious about your venture, then if you’re not willing to devote 100% of your time, do you think they will? If you haven’t guessed NO, you definitely should have. 

I am firm believer of “Attitude reflects Leadership” a great scene from Remember the Titans. If you’re in charge of running a company, your attitude and commitment will transcend to the rest of the group, so make sure you set the right example. 

Number 3: Start to gain serious CUSTOMERS

When a venture starts to gain or attract a large enough customer base, it might be a good time for the team to be working on the venture full-time. As you begin to sell your product, you NEED to continue to grow and build in order to turn into a viable business. Customers don’t want to buy a product from someone who might be there or they might have to wait a few days to hear back. SELL SELL and the SELL some more, keep growing and make sure to keep your customers happy since they are always right! 

Number 4: Don’t have a CHOICE 

In certain cases, you just don’t have a choice. Receiving funding or due to a contractual agreement with your employer might mean that you have to quit your job before you start any operations. Make sure that you check you employee contract and are aware of what you can and cannot do. Also, most venture capitalists or angels will not give you funding if this is a side gig and want to make sure the team and the founding members are completely committed to the venture. 

If you have any other recommendations to help that Entrepreneur figure out if they should quit, please share them below. 

If you have any other questions, send me an email or post a comment.

Ashkan

Ashkan [at] GreenhornConnect [dot] com 

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