How Do You Know When to Quit Your Job to Launch Your Business?
By Brad Sugars •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
How do you know it's time to leave your comfortable job and start your own business?Ask yourself the following questions:
• Do you have cashflow from your business that you're currently working on? And you are working on it part time, right?
• Are you able to make at least half of what you’re currently making from your full time job, with projections to replace your current income quickly, say, within three months, if you went to work in your business full time?
• Do you have access to a credit line if you need cash flow, realizing that business credit is tight and you'll more than likely have to finance any of your future growth with cash flow?
• Do you have a product or a service people want to buy? Do you have a flow of new orders or new customers ready to buy? Do you have a systemized way to attract qualified customers?
If not, and if you are now in the dreaming or planning stage, use your current position to fund your research, and find ways to carve out extra time after hours to get as much information as you can about your business idea, the market demand and your competition.
As my mentor, the late Jim Rohn said, "Wages build a living, but profits build a fortune." So, you can work on your wages during the day, and your fortune at night. But don't make the jump unless you have something to jump onto -- or into. Rohn also said that "Time is more valuable than capital." So use your time to build up value in your enterprise that will at some point bring value, and profit, to the marketplace, as well as profit for you.
While it's a good time to start a business, you want to have something to start, with a plan in place and the know-how to generate sales and cash flow from the start.
