How to Smoothly Make the Transition from Employee to Business Owner
Are you an employee of a company who is thinking about starting your own business? If so, you’re not alone. Many people dream about breaking away from the nine-to-five routine. However, before you make this life changing decision, there are certain factors that you need to be think through, so that the transition goes as smoothly as possible.
Become More Self-Disciplined
When you’re an employee you probably have a manager or boss who gives you your tasks, telling you what work to do and when to do it. However, when you work for yourself, you’re the boss. You’re responsible for dealing with clients, deciding what hours to work and what direction you want your business to take.
Things can get out of hand quickly, so it’s important to learn how to plan properly and manage your time more effectively. Once you do these things, it will be easier to control current and future events that take place in your business.
Become More Assertive
The way you approach your business, staff and clients is important. It’s important to be in control and learn to be assertive. This does not mean you have to be aggressive with other people, but you have to be able to get your point across to others so that they understand what you want, so that you can all work more efficiently. If this is something you find difficult this guide to assertiveness provides some useful tips.
Take Control of Your Finances
A business can’t survive if its finances are out of control. From the start, you have to ensure that you get to grips with this aspect of your business. Get advice from a financial professional and aim to always have a healthy cash flow. This is achieved by always getting paid quickly or getting part paid or fully paid up front and avoiding unnecessary expenses. As the saying goes “Sales are vanity, profit is sanity and cash is reality.”.
Multi-task and Become a Jack of All Trades
Working for yourself involves a lot more than simply doing your work each day and picking up a pay cheque at the end of the month. Ultimately you are responsible for everything that goes on at your business.
This means that there are many other skills and tasks you have to become familiar with. For instance, a typical business owner has to know how to sell, how to buy, how to manage finances, how to manage people, how to do his or her daily tasks and much more. You do not need to be an expert in everything but you do need to know enough to stay on top of tasks that you’ve delegated and ensure they are being properly completed.
Delegation
‘No man is an Island’ and this expression is particularly true when it comes to business owners. Attempting to do everything in your business yourself is a recipe for disaster. This is why you need to learn how to delegate and let others help you with different aspects of your business. Initially, you can outsource specific tasks to contractors and temporary workers. Eventually you may be in a position to hire full time staff as your organisation grows.
Deciding to leave the security of a full time job and start working for yourself is a huge leap of faith. However, if you address each of the points above and make the necessary preparations, you have a much better chance of building a successful business.
