{"id":69195,"date":"2023-06-27T11:31:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T15:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/?p=69195"},"modified":"2023-07-10T16:20:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T20:20:31","slug":"how-to-start-a-business-when-youre-still-employed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/how-to-start-a-business-when-youre-still-employed\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Start a Business When You\u2019re Still Employed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"starting_a_business\"<\/p>\n

Starting a new business is always a risky venture and one of the things that a budding entrepreneur can do to manage their risk is to start a business while retaining their day job. At first glance that might sound a little crazy \u2013 after all many people swear that it should be \u201call or nothing\u201d when it comes to startups but it\u2019s a good idea. <\/span><\/p>\n

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that people who hold down their job and start a business are far more likely to succeed than those who go all in on a new venture and quit the day job.<\/span><\/p>\n

The approach also doesn\u2019t mean that you can\u2019t eventually become a corporate behemoth; Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple whilst still working for Hewlett-Packard. Henry Ford started his automotive group when working for the Edison Illuminating Company.<\/span><\/p>\n

But how do you go about starting a business while you are working a full-time job? We\u2019ve got some hints that should point you in the right direction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Get The Money Under Control<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

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It\u2019s money that makes the modern world go round and it\u2019s money that you want to keep an eye on when you start a new business<\/a>. While keeping a full-time job going can help ease the financial burden of your initial costs \u2013 you do need to make sure that you understand the costs and that you are accounting for them with your salary. <\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll want to have a \u201ccash cushion\u201d set aside to cover unforeseen costs \u2013 such as travelling to meet vendors or potential customers or for moving the idea from the drawing board to manufacturing a prototype. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ideally, you should also have a plan for when it\u2019s time to transition from part-time entrepreneur to full-time business owner too. You want to make sure that the new business is generating enough revenue that it won\u2019t leave you destitute when you make the jump but at the same time \u2013 you probably don\u2019t want to put that decision off forever; there comes a time when a business, in order to reach its full potential, requires full-time focus and energy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Make Sure You Are Allowed to Start a Business<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"200567130-001\"<\/p>\n

Get your employment contract out and go through it with a fine toothed comb. What does it say about working for yourself? Many contracts forbid employees from taking up alternative employment. If you intend to work in the same space as your employer \u2013 you may well find that they have a non-compete clause that could leave your business grounded.<\/span><\/p>\n

You should also be very wary of all inclusive intellectual property clauses in your employment contract. Some employers demand the rights to everything you create while you work for them \u2013 including things that you create in your own time. There\u2019s very little point starting a business when your former employer can just turn up any time with a lawyer and grab all its assets out from under you.<\/span><\/p>\n

If there\u2019s nothing in the contract about working for yourself; you may be legally allowed to start a business but you might want to find out your employer\u2019s attitude towards working for yourself too. An \u201cat will\u201d employee can be dismissed all too easily and you might find that an angry boss can leave you stranded without your planned safety net.<\/span><\/p>\n

In many cases, however, employers won\u2019t mind if you run a profitable side business<\/a> as long as it doesn\u2019t distract you from your day-to-day work. You\u2019ll need to plan how to ensure that the two halves of your life don\u2019t conflict. It can be challenging when you work Monday to Friday and standard office hours to have the meetings you need with vendors and customers \u2013 you may need to tap into your paid vacation time to get things done for the business every now and again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Consider Outsourcing<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"outsourcing\"<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re going to try and run a full-time job and a part-time gig it makes sense to try and unburden yourself of work wherever possible. Outsourcing used to be the option available only to the biggest of businesses but today \u2013 there are numerous ways to outsource even the smallest task. <\/span><\/p>\n

Freelance sites such as Upwork.com, Freelancer.com, 99designs.com, etc. can put you in touch with a range of professionals in almost any field of human endeavor. That\u2019s not to say that you shouldn\u2019t do the work that interests you \u2013 that\u2019s part of the joy of running your own business; it\u2019s just that you should get rid of anything that you can afford to get rid of that isn\u2019t an essential use of your time. <\/span><\/p>\n

You could even hire a receptionist or personal assistant to act virtually for your new business and it shouldn\u2019t cost more than a couple of dollars an hour to get someone in India or the Philippines who speaks good English to take care of this for you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Cross Lines Between Work and Personal Projects<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"july-18_13_-1\"<\/p>\n

That means don\u2019t work with clients who are already working with your day job\u2019s business unless the relationship has been approved, in writing, by your employer. Don\u2019t work on your own projects on company time \u2013 that\u2019s a great way to get sued for abusing company resources and a sure fire way to get fired.<\/span><\/p>\n

You need to compartmentalize between the work and your business; anything less can leave you open for legal action and serious reputational problems further down the road.<\/span><\/p>\n

Leave Some Time For You<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"kids-having-fun-smallstepsbigchanges-com_\"<\/p>\n

When you\u2019ve got a full-time job and a side project \u2013 it can be really hard to leave some space for yourself in your schedule. If you don\u2019t though; you\u2019ll end up burning out.<\/span><\/p>\n

You still need to eat healthily, sleep well, get some exercise and maintain personal relationships. These are the core components of a balanced life. Sure, you\u2019re going to have to make some sacrifices as you push towards that point where you can quit your job and work full-time on your own business but don\u2019t make too many sacrifices. There\u2019s nothing to be gained by having a heart attack during the process.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Starting a new business is always a risky venture and one of the things that a budding entrepreneur can do to manage their risk is to start a business while retaining their day job. At first glance that might sound a little crazy \u2013 after all many people swear that it should be \u201call or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":69196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-69195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69195"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80077,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69195\/revisions\/80077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}