Are you bored in your job, unchallenged by your work and have an idea of a great new business? Maybe it’s time to walk out the door and go it alone.

Starting your own business can reap deep personal and professional rewards, but if you take the leap, your days of punching the clock on a regular schedule will end. If it’s work you love and you crave the freedom of operating under your own steam, starting your own small business will energise your career and make the long hours that await you melt away.

But don’t go off half-cocked. Before you quit your day’s job, here are five steps you should take to ensure you’re ready to go out on your own.

Establish goals

Ask yourself: Do you want to start a lifestyle business or a growth business? What does success mean to you?

In a lifestyle business, your goal is to have your own steady stream of income. You may plan to have a few employees eventually to help out, but you don’t envision building multiple locations, offering an ever-expanding line of products or growing your business into a national powerhouse.

A growth business is different. Your ambition is to build a venture that grows quickly, is constantly evolving and in which you regularly invest more and more money to expand locations, product offerings, customer segments and the like. You’ll be hiring people, travelling and probably working all or parts of seven days a week.

Knowing your goals is key to setting expectations and establishing revenue targets. In a lifestyle business, the goals are more modest, such as equaling or bettering your income from your current job. A growth business requires constant reinvestment and prioritising its expansion, often at the expense of your personal income – at least at first.

Think through your business

What is your product or service, and who are the potential customers? How will you attract these customers? Who will be your competitors? If you can’t answer these questions, your risk of failing to launch will be high.

This will be your life from now on: constant market analysis and pivoting when necessary. For example, NerdWallet started in 2009 by creating unique, unbiased comparison tools for such items as credit cards. The reaction upon release?Crickets chirping on the website. Just because we built it didn’t mean people would come. We hadn’t thought out the challenges of distribution and discoverability. So we invested heavily in producing high-quality personal finance content to draw customers toward our tools. Six years later, we now have 2.5 million unique visitors each month.

Have an early client base

Earlier this year, in a conversation with young entrepreneurs at Texas A&M University’s Startup Aggieland business accelerator, one of the biggest pieces of advice we shared for aspiring entrepreneurs was to make sure you have paying customers for a new business before you decide to turn down a full-time job.

If you’re starting a business full-time, your salary equals your client’s willingness to pay.

Knowing whom your potential clients are is good; already having customers is even better. Whether it’s profitable moonlighting work that is now ready to supplant your day job or a growth business that has secured an initial client, starting out with a ready revenue stream will greatly increase your chances of success. You’ll already demonstrate a product-market fit, and you’ll have users who are willing to vouch for you to potential clients.

Talk to your loved ones

Here’s the thing about starting a business: You can’t do it by yourself.

Before you take the plunge, you need to communicate your ambitions and goals to your family, friends and loved ones. Part of your success – probably a big part – will depend on their support. You’ll be working long hours, dealing with stress and uncertainty and tackling difficult challenges. You’re going to need the backing of those around you.

Adopt an all-or-nothing mentality

If you’re going to succeed starting your own business, you’ll have to break out of your corporate-employee mindset. I came to NerdWallet because I was looking for the opportunity to do more than my job at an investment bank allowed. Some people saw my move to a young startup as a risky one, but for me the risk was more than offset by the opportunities I got – in market research, product creation and business development – that allowed me to contribute on so many fronts to our ongoing success.

Thank You!

It takes a certain personality to start a business.

You certainly need to be self, people, and financially intelligent for starters. People often downplay the arduous beginning of starting a business, but people often encourage one to start a business thinking that starting a business is as easy as going to a village a picking successful business from a business tree. If it's a non-IT business your going to need a lot of tangibles to get started; start-up capital, negotiating skills, financial reputation (called credit score in the U.S.), market research on potential clients and business location(s).. you have to complete all of this (and it may not be a complete check list) while looking for or working at a job.

Start-up capital and financial reputation requires that a person is/was employed, had money saved for start-up capital, was able to pay bills on time, etc. Obtaining the start up capital isn't easy if one lacks self discipline and financial discernment. You can cut start-up cost by having a start-up business from a home office, if the home is or could be suitable for a business.

People skills goes a long way as well, the ability to strategically deploy emotional intelligences. What advice would one suggest to those who may not have proficient emotional and people intelligence? (Hypothetical question)

Great job op, I think foresight and considerations like these should be considered when dutifully suggesting that one start a business as an alternative to an ailing job economy. Even if one is fortunate to sequester the minimal to get a business going, the business could ultimately fail, potentially pitting the the person is back in a worst position had they not seeked entrepreneurship. This is great food for thought.

AAinEqGuinea:
It takes a certain personality to start a business.

You certainly need to be self, people, and financially intelligent for starters. People often downplay the arduous beginning of starting a business, but people often encourage one to start a business thinking that starting a business is as easy as going to a village a picking successful business from a business tree. If it's a non-IT business your going to need a lot of tangibles to get started; start-up capital, negotiating skills, financial reputation (called credit score in the U.S.), market research on potential clients and business location(s).. you have to complete all of this (and it may not be a complete check list) while looking for or working at a job.

Start-up capital and financial reputation requires that a person is/was employed, had money saved for start-up capital, was able to pay bills on time, etc. Obtaining the start up capital isn't easy if one lacks self discipline and financial discernment. You can cut start-up cost by having a start-up business from a home office, if the home is or could be suitable for a business.

People skills goes a long way as well, the ability to strategically deploy emotional intelligences. What advice would one suggest to those who may not have proficient emotional and people intelligence? (Hypothetical question)

Great job op, I think foresight and considerations like these should be considered when dutifully suggesting that one start a business as an alternative to an ailing job economy. Even if one is fortunate to sequester the minimal to get a business going, the business could ultimately fail, potentially pitting the the person is back in a worst position had they not seeked entrepreneurship. This is great food for thought.

the idea and the business plan is greater than the startup capital and the the truth is to Look out for NEEDS within your SKILLS and RESOURCES and start with what you have , from where you are, start locally but think Globally

from shame to fame doing these businesses at https://www.nairaland.com/3954979/shame-fame-doing-these-businesses

http://www.guruslodge.com/threads/from-shame-to-fame-doing-these-businesses.154525/