Ready to Give Up Your 9–5 and Launch Your Own Business?
May 2, 2019It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
There are many steps to consider when launching a business, not least of which is that your beloved business idea might fail. On the flip side, there is also the possibility that your business will be a tremendous success and that your focused energy and planning will pay off, either personally or financially.
The key to successfully launching a business is having the confidence to know yourself, your market, and your capability. It requires that you know your brand sits on a solid foundation and that it can persevere through volatile social and economic fluctuations. It requires that your firm and brand are diverse and flexible enough to endure a long life, and it means a willingness to take a fairly calculated risk on your target market and yourself.
When thinking about launching Singer Wealth Management, I knew I had all of the above. But just as importantly, I knew that I could help other women achieve their personal and professional goals by striking out on my own in an industry that—more often than not—leaves women behind.
Confidence and grit
Confidence is the ability to look at an obstacle and say “yes, I can do that!” Grit is the ability to keep trying until you find the right path through an obstacle without losing your confidence.
There’s a lot to juggle in the beginning stages of launching a business and running it well. Administrative and logistical tasks pile up quickly, so it’s important to create processes right at the start that will allow the business to move at a healthy clip into the future. To ensure that your growth is not inhibited, immediately put plans in place to achieve scalability while maintaining superior quality.
Here is where marathon trainers’ endurance kicks into high gear—and yours can, too.
Anyone who’s trained for distance running knows that when circumstances change, you need to be ready to shift from plan A to a plan B or even C. Course correcting can be mentally and physically exhausting, but launching a business that is sustainable requires forging ahead in the face of all elements of adversity. This is when “grit” becomes more necessary than ever.
Think long term — and celebrate as you go
When you run a relevant business, it will constantly be growing and evolving. As its leader, it falls to you to move the business along with a steady tempo and refined tactics. These will allow you to build a healthy business, achieve smart growth, and capitalize on overlooked opportunities.
The most sustainable way to launch and run a business is to manage and organize your lofty ideas. Using a long-term strategy and a solid business plan will not only encourage your success, it will make it easier to achieve. Having a strategy for organizing your great ideas will allow your enthusiasm to shine and your business to thrive as you continue to move in your desired direction.
And don’t forget to celebrate each time a task gets checked off your incredibly long to-do list! Each mini-celebration boosts your momentum.
Calculated risks + elbow grease = big rewards
Risk is the obstacle that lies on the path to great success. As an entrepreneur, failure is not an option. But our fear reminds us that it is certainly a possibility, which means it can be planned for and avoided. In the ever-present quest for personal and fiscal independence, risk is an obstacle we navigate en route to long-term success.
And then there is the elbow grease. Months without pay, long days and nights, little immediate reward—these are the early days of a start-up. Days and nights begin to blur and sleep is sacrificed as you work on the never-ending list of tasks that need completing.
Next up is the process of slowly adding employees and giving up control as your business begins to grow and evolve. You have to trust others with your company and vision so that the business may succeed, but doing so can cost significant time and money. Meanwhile, self-funding your business means that you need to have a tidy sum saved up so that you don’t have to dilute your ownership in order to grow.
But then, just like training for and running in a marathon—the many runs, counted calories, and incessant planning for worst case scenarios—all is forgotten when the finish line is in sight. This is what all the sacrifice has been for: achieving a successful launch.
- The joy of creating something amazing where before there was nothing
- Creating a start-up that builds a better industry and better communities, one family at a time
- Solidarity with all the people that have supported you along the way
The sheer grit of the early days is suddenly treasured as a necessary part of your start-up’s creation and growth. Your sacrifices are quickly forgotten, replaced by the glowing feeling of a successful launch.
From here, you learn to manage fear one step at a time. You learn to take risks while avoiding obstacles that could lead to failure.
As a passionate entrepreneur, you’ve earned this. It’s time to celebrate your delicious victory.
Did you give up a 9–5 to start your own business? We’d love to hear about it!
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