Most people that I talk to about starting an internet business have dreams of quitting their day jobs. That can be incredibly exciting. However, as Brett over at StartSEOCompany.com shows in this guest post, quitting your day job before your business is established can be risky. One of the luxuries of internet business can be the ability to get started while keeping your day job, and that is something you should really consider as you plan your escape from your current job and start to realize your internet business dreams.
Don’t Quit Your Day Job To Start an Internet Business
by Brett (guest)
I know four guys who quit their jobs to start a brick-and-mortar business a couple years back. They were all related, brothers and second cousins I think. They’re from the South so they like to keep their business ventures in the family.
Anyway, these four aspiring entrepreneurs pooled their collective wealth and took out some small business loans to start a mattress shop not far from their hometown. After all the capital was raised and a building was picked out to rent, a date was set when they would finally quit their jobs for good.
After kicking their careers to the curb, they met at the local tavern to celebrate their independence from the 9 to 5. I wasn’t in attendance that night, but I’m confident there was lively conversation of mattress-market domination and the checks to be cashed on the road to success. In addition to the dialogue, I’d bet there were a healthy number of adult beverages consumed that evening as well.
What an exhilarating weekend of full of planning and anticipation among brothers turned business partners.
Monday Morning Hangover
The grand opening of the mattress shop was on a Monday. The new owners had set money aside for marketing: a week of ad space in the local paper and a spattering of grand-opening posters distributed around town.
But, as you probably assumed from the headline, this story didn’t end as planned that one boozy weekend.
The mattress store opened at the beginning of the recession in early 2009, which didn’t help matters. But honestly, it probably wouldn’t have mattered much if the economy were in boom times either. None of the men had any real marketing experience or understanding of the business of selling mattresses.
And most importantly, none of them had ever owned a business.
Sadly, the result would have been pretty much the same regardless of the downturn: Closed for business after a few months.
The reason, I’m telling this story is that these guys made the same mistake as a lot of online entrepreneurs: They cut the safety net of their day jobs before they ever tacking a practice swing at owning a real online business. And that my friends just doesn’t make sense.
Between four guys, a few of them could have kept their day jobs to help fund the business, give them the opportunity to forge relationships with customers, and get the mattress store over that initial hump. And if they did decide to close up shop, they’d still have cash coming in for the essentials and could chalk the mattress business up to learning or a life experience.
Your first attempt at an internet business will probably fail like the mattress shop too. But seriously, who cares!
I started an online auction business when I was in college and it failed miserably because I had zero understanding of how to market something online. But I didn’t drop out of college or risk quality of life to start it. I built it in my free time, it failed, and I moved on.
My advice: Start small, learn, and keep you’re day job with any business—online or off—until you’ve got consistent revenue coming in and 3 months of savings in the bank in case things go wrong.
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Brett teaches others how to start client based digital marketing businesses at StartSEOCompany.com.
