Starting out on your own is a costly and heavy-duty affair and that is why many entrepreneurs find themselves working their day jobs while innovating, creating and networking after hours to get their visions or dreams realised. It’s heavy going being chained to a desk while still trying to get to those meetings, doing branding and marketing on social networks, as well as trying to determine when it’s finally going to happen.
It’s easy enough to become despondent when you’ve working long hours after your day job, and feeling like nothing is moving, but successful entrepreneurs will tell you that you need to stay the course and remember that when you feel like you’re always going to be a paid employee, consider the following:
Branding
You are your brand. Walk your brand and talk your brand. Even in your day job, you are a brand within the company you are working for, and instead of feeling like it is a weight on your shoulders, look at what you are learning each day and apply it to your own business strategy. Keep up the professionalism at work, because you are still doing job, and remember that the business connections you make within your day industry could be good entrepreneur connections later on. Look at how many consultants for major corporations go out on their own, and clients want to go with them because the consultants have built a brand for themselves.
Ever the Student
Education is the key to a successful career. You can never fully know everything and when you, as a new entrepreneur, are still in the learning phase it’s important to remember that each and every interaction with a client is a lesson to learn. Learning about new things such as technology, using social platforms and hyper-linking between then, getting your product visuals out there through digital marketing and becoming master of your advertising, is a constant learning process. Evolve with it.
The Exit
Building a new business is a gutsy and bold move for entrepreneurs, and even though you are looking forward to leaving your full-time position to pursue your business endeavours, always remember to leave a great impression behind. Your current colleagues may end up being your future clients. Once you leave the employee world to become a full-blown entrepreneur, always remember where you came from, what your full-time position offered you in the way of lessons, and the support you received. Building bridges is one of the most important building blocks for business entrepreneurs.
Vida Denning is a freelance writer who felt she needed to finally work for herself when she did a long-term temp position at office space in Dubai. She had a blast and wanted to stay longer but could not because she was not working for herself.