Karen* had had enough and she was ready to resign; “Right Now! I’m out of here” and she did.
I remember the day so clearly. Karen and I were working together in the same department of large Corporation and she was so very frustrated … like the rest of us. She didn’t know what she as going to do, she just knew she was “Out of here”
20 years ago the options felt more limited. Most people “escaped” by changing jobs.
Fast forward to today and the options have certainly expanded with starting your own business being a really viable option.
There are 3 paths to starting your own business:
- Take what you are doing right now as an employee for the Corporation or business that employs you and start your own business doing the same thing eg an architect working in an architect firm could start their own architect business. a mechanic working for a large car manufacturer could start their own mechanic business and so on
- Take your hobby or some thing you love doing and make that into a business. You might be a lawyer right now and because you love taking photos you are the one who takes all the family photos etc and maybe this could be a business for you?
- A completely new idea. These are the people who see a gap in a market and create some thing completely new. I met a man who set up a business from a new design for clothes pegs. He wasn’t an engineer, he wasn’t particularly interested in washing clothes and hanging them out. He just saw an opportunity for a new design of clothes pegs. Many of the technology innovations are created by people who aren’t particularly technical they just have great ideas.
Whichever path you are considering there are similar steps to follow. And here are just seven questions (of the 77 steps) to get started in your own business:
- What is your product/ service?
- Why would anyone want it?
- Who wants it?
- How are you going to find them?
- How much is it going to cost to provide/ produce?
- Will it make money?
- Will it make enough money to replace your current salary?
Years ago I took the leap from Corporate to starting my own business and there are lots of great reasons to be very happy with my choice.