Anyone who has thought about starting a new company has had to wrestle with the idea that their life was going to change drastically as a result. Most people have grown comfortable in the typical 9-5 workweek that ensures a steady cash-flow and routine of a corporate safety net.
For a time, people already in the workforce may be able to run their side business as a hobby but in order to fully develop an idea most people know that they need to focus as much time on it as they can.
Lately, I have gotten to this point but frankly I didn't really know what to do.
Should I just get up and leave my job, burn my bridges and jump into my new life as many authors suggest?
Should I try and sneak my company development into my current work schedule?
Should I just drop my business?
For the truly courageous entrepreneur the best move indeed may be to simply pack up and leave and burn all your bridges. This ensures that you will be as motivated as you can to make it work. Honestly, especially for those of us who have enough money to support ourselves for a year this is probably the best way to go.
At this point in my life I could not stomach the first option.
A friend recently pointed out that other startups have been successful even though they spent their first year as a side project of people who had full time jobs. 37signals is the name of the company and the advice is start small and develop a cash-flow that can be built on. Here is a link to their blog post on this.
These two approaches seem to represent extreme ends of the spectrum. I for one did not want to burn my bridges, but I do want to move things along more quickly than I could while working at my job. Also, my better half is not willing to drop out of paying bills completely...
So, what I am trying to do is to negotiate working only 50% with my current employer. They are not really happy with this, but they certainly think its a better deal than 0% time. This is my compromise and I believe it is enough for me to get my business moving over the next year.
Maybe this is something that you could try before one of the two extremes above.
To answer the question posed by this article, you know you are ready to do something drastic when you have a burning desire to start. If you are thinking about your business idea all the time and truly want it then the time is going to come when you are going to have to start pushing the boundaries of what you are comfortable with.
The key is to come up with a plan that will work for your life and then follow it through.
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