Jon Carmen did the safe thing. He kept his day job in the
high-tech industry and started his online guitar string discount
store in his spare time. He built his Web site and filled orders on
evenings and weekends. Then, what was just a fun hobby for two
years turned into his sole support when Carmen, 33, was laid off
from his day job in May 2001. Suddenly he was faced with a tough
question: look for another job, or dare to take this
entrepreneurial gig full time?
Fortunately for guitar players roaming the Web, Carmen chose the
latter. But even with two years of business-building behind him, he
faced some serious challenges in taking his part-time hobby down
the full-time road. "[When it was part time,] I cared about
it, but I wasn't trying to achieve something—it was just
something fun," says Carmen, founder of String This! Inc.
"[I thought,] 'It would be fun if it turned into
something, but if it doesn't I've got a full-time job.'
But when [the business] was what I was living off of…it
became a lot more stressful."
Those are just a few of the issues entrepreneurs deal with in
taking a business full time, says Romanus Wolter, author of
Kick Start Your Dream Business. Giving
up the security of a steady paycheck for a life of selling can be
disconcerting at first, to say the least. Says Wolter,
"It's like, 'OK, this is fun,' but every day you
get up now, you're going to have to sell your
business."
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Still, starting part time at first has its
benefits—checking out the market, making mistakes when you
still have a paycheck coming in, building a client base and finding
out whether there really is a clear demand for your product. And
only you can decide when the time is right to go full time.
"It's ultimately up to the entrepreneur—no one can
tell you 'This is the time,'" cautions Wolter.
"There are a lot of benefits and obstacles. You have to decide
yourself—does it work with your schedule? Your family? Your
life?"
Wolter suggests using vacation time from your full-time job to
do a test run. In that one- or two-week period, you can find out
what it's like to devote your whole day to the business.
"Having your own business is a way of life," says Wolter.
"You need to do a reality check—do you really like
it?"
Carmen didn't have the luxury of using vacation time, so he
just jumped right in after his layoff. He spent his first days
taking a close look at his business plan and all his business
functions to find out what needed to change. "We did a lot of
tweaking to the business to make it more profitable," says
Carmen. "When you run the business as a hobby, you don't
give it as much of a critical eye. [When it's full time,] you
go through everything with a fine-tooth comb."
Carmen's eye landed on his shipping and handling charges
specifically. He thoroughly audited his costs and changed his
shipping policy and pricing to his new calculations. The plan
worked so well, Carmen decided to sell his six-figure-grossing
business last month. Now, with the experience of starting part time
to learn the ropes, he plans to start another business. This time,
he'll hit the floor running and be a full-time entrepreneur
from the start. Though Carmen hasn't settled on a business to
start yet, he is sure of one thing: "I've caught the
bug." The entrepreneurial one, that is.
The part-time to full-time road isn't easy, but it can be an
exhilarating journey. Says Wolter, "If you follow the steps of
testing it in the marketplace, it can work for any business."
And it can be a fun trip.