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My Top 3 Tips For Starting A New Business… Before You Leave Your Current Job Or Business

As an entrepreneur, I often get asked this question:

How exactly do you transition from being an employee to being in business?

My answer is always simple. There are two types of people in the world: there are waders and there are divers. You’ll see how important this distinction is as we go on.

I’m going to outline my top three tips for starting a business before you leave your current job. After being in business myself for decades (and struggling for 12 long years), this advice comes from my firsthand experience — and could save you a LOT of valuable time and money in the long run.

Here we go…

1. Find Out How You Work

First, you need to decide what kind of person you are. Do you like to just dive into things, take a big risk, just go for it and put all your attention on it at once, or do you like to just wade in slowly?

Simply asking this of yourself will come into play when choosing whether to start a business (or not).

Regardless of who you are, one of the things that really bothers me is when people drop their current income to zero in order to start something new. I’m not just talking about a job here — I mean income.

When you’re starting out in business, it’s crucial that you take care of cash flow. There is no point in jumping in and running hard only to find out you've run out of cash two months in. Instead, it’s super important to make sure you have money coming in, so you can give your business the chance it deserves.

I don’t care if you’re a diver — suck it up for a little bit. Don’t lose your income. You can lower it, yes, but don’t lose it.

Why is this? If you are starting out in business and cut yourself off financially, you won’t be happy. Let me tell you now, you’ll be stressed, in fear, and full of anxiety.

You’ll start coming from a place of scarcity, as opposed to abundance. There won’t be any joy in your new business, and it will feel like a burden… before it’s even started.

Do you know what that is called? That’s called diving with no water into a pool.

And what's going to happen if you jump into a pool with no water? You’re going to crack your head right open. I have a million students, and I’ve heard thousands upon thousands of stories about this. It happens all the time — but the good news is that it’s easily preventable.

2. Start Your Business Part Time

Whether you're in a business that you think is not doing well and you want to get out of that business and into a new one, or if you are in a job and you want to get into a business that you love… here is the route I highly recommend you take.

Keep your current situation and start your new situation part time.

Of course, this would mean working overtime, late at night, and on weekends.

Let me say right now that if this is unappealing to you, you shouldn’t start a business. Because if you want to be successful in business, you will have to work weekends and you will have to work at night. Boohoo!

The truth is, when you own your own business, at the beginning you will have to work your freaking buns off, with 1,000% attention and 1,000% focus. That’s how it works.

I didn’t make up the rules. It’s just the way it is.

If you’re not going to stay in your job, while working nights and weekends on a part-time basis and earning some income with your new business (until it's stable enough for you to fully transition), then my humble advice to you is to forget about starting a business altogether.

3. Get Educated In Your Field

This is a big one so pay close attention.

If your new business situation is in your current field, and it’s very similar to what you’re already doing, then you've got a nice head start!

But if you want to jump into something new and different than you’re doing right now, what do you have to do? You need to get hands-on experience in the trenches.

Even if it seems like a downgrade at first, it’s really an investment in yourself, your knowledge, your skill — and the assurance that your business will succeed instead of thinking short-term.

If you get a job in the field you want to run your business in, then you learn the ropes… on someone else’s dime.

(You do this at the same time as building your business on nights and weekends.)

The truth is, people go to university for four, five or six years to get skilled in their chosen field, and they pay to go. But if you do it this way, instead of you paying them, they’re paying you a little something.

Think of it as an investment in your business – and your future success.

In my book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, I tell a story about when I was 95% sure that I wanted to open a restaurant. I wanted to open a restaurant, so I took my own advice and I started working in different jobs in the restaurant industry.

I was a broiler cook, a sous-chef, a host, a busboy, a waiter and a manager at a pie store, because I thought I was going to have a dessert restaurant, so I wanted to meet bakers. I was going through the garbage every night to see the boxes they threw out, and who their suppliers were.

I had seven different restaurant jobs in four months. I would leave each one of them, sometimes even before I got paid fully, because I was simply there to learn.

I learned the most important thing about the restaurant business for me: that I would never be in the restaurant business.

Can you believe it? That’s honestly what I learned: that I don’t want to be in the restaurant business. This was the most valuable advice I could’ve ever received.

When you work before diving head first into a new business, you go to school on someone else’s dime. You learn what it’s like to be in the business, not to look at it from the outside.

You want to be inside the business. You look in the trash can. You learn the suppliers. You learn everything you can about being in that business: the pitfalls, the good stuff, where the money is made and where the opportunities are.

Here’s a statistic: 80% of all new businesses fail within the first five years.

You’ve heard that 100 times, and it’s true — except for one thing: 65% of all new businesses succeed if the person was already in that industry.

If they were just creating a new niche within the industry they were already in, then the chances of success skyrocket.

If you’re serious about having your own business, you need to know how you work, be prepared to do the work, and be humble enough to admit you don’t know everything.

By taking a step back and seeing your approach as a slow and steady investment in your future, you’ll be able to play the long game — and reap the rewards.

So there you have it. My top three tips for starting a business, before you leave your current job.

Again, like I mentioned, I have many years of firsthand experience with starting businesses. I started 14 different businesses throughout 12 years and out of the 14, almost every single one of them failed. If you follow my guidelines above, I assure you your chances of success in business will dramatically increase.

For Your Freedom,

Before starting a new business or leaving your current job or business, having an idea or vehicle that’s going to create wealth is absolutely critical.

Unfortunately, most people try and succeed with the wrong vehicle at the wrong time and wonder why they struggle.

So to help you with this, I’ve created a template that will give you a step-by-step blueprint for generating highly profitable ideas on demand.

Click here to download your “How To Generate Million Dollar Ideas Every 60 Seconds” template now.

 

Join the Discussion Below

27 thoughts on “My Top 3 Tips For Starting A New Business… Before You Leave Your Current Job Or Business”

  1. Leandro Bortolotto says:

    Excellent tips. I’m already following it this time 🙂

  2. BEN says:

    I was unable to download the free template

    1. T. Harv Eker says:

      Ben,
      Please email our team at support@harveker.com and they can assist!

  3. Mbugua says:

    Great as always. Having gone the way Harv followed, l agree with everything he says here. l`m still struggling and although l have spent alot of time trying to make things work, at least l`ve learned alot of stuff l didnt know when l started many years ago.

  4. Thanks a lot Harv. Real valuable piece of advice, especially for me at this stage of my life.

    Over the last 10 years I’ve run my own business which is working smoothly and has given me the chance to learn an immense amount of techniques and procedures. Most of them thanks to your Millionaire Mind book.

    Now; I’m creating my second company, something not related to the previous one and one which can make some passive income come easier without the whole amount of work my current company requires. I wouldn’t have been able to come all this way through if I hadn’t used your advice to start the way.

    I became an employee of my own company, which has the cons of being the owner, and the cons of being an employee, so I really need to move forward now and this was the kick in the ass I was waiting for.

    I’ll let you know about it guys.

  5. Susie Howe says:

    Great share and wisdom today.

    When I co-founded my first business I worked as a waitress at night for 7 years, answered the phone and did the accounting during the day in our home office, AKA the kitchen table, in the beginning. I was also able to be home with our four kids while we did this.

    We worked weekends, and we did everything we could do to network locally in our spare time. I hired trainers and I went to classes to learn how to manage the business of our business.

    Although we did take a consistent paycheck it was conservative; we used excess to build our business with vehicles, equipment, and tools.

    We invested in personal development courses for ourselves, our employees, and our children and we all grew together.

    It was one of the best journey’s of my life. Thank you for the topic.

  6. Maria says:

    Great! Although I think is also important to mention that there’s still the momento where you have to take the risk… Not for everyone, but for example in my case, I started working part time as a coach, and then there was a momento when I needed more time because companies don’t work on weekends, or after work I had limited times to work (of course now I have more information about the business I’m in)… But still, there was a time when I said, I need to start my business and have the time to make it work… What did I do? I planned and saved money, and then I trusted… I all the thoughts and fears I’ve been managing them… And has also been an amazing experience… The point, I think, is to be willing to sacrifice some things for something bigger… If you have done the work, then is also important to decide how much time you’ll be working in those other restaurants, because you could be there all your life if you don’t manage your fears..
    Thank you and regards!

  7. Vilius says:

    That’s the main rules if you want to do business. From my point of view the third one is very important. When you do that ,you will know fully about business in real life.

  8. jeng cua says:

    Hi Harv!

    Thank you for sharing this! I quit my full time job on May of 2012 giving up my full steady pay check actually 2 pay checks because my husband and I quit together at the same time since we are working in the same company as an Expatriate.

    It’s tough and totally agreed with you. I used to get involved with Network Marketing business for 7 months before I decided to jumped into this online business world. We tried farming business and it’s tough to manage people since farmers are not all the same. We tried trucking business as well.

    I am so blessed and grateful, that I have no regrets leaving the corporate world and I am so happy to read your book ” Secrets of the Millionaire mind” and now started to share your speed wealth to my students, family and friends. All the best Harv!

  9. Grazyna says:

    Love your Lesson !
    Thank you so much.100 % truth !
    Singe 2 years I struggle over IT people and the right marketing !
    Nor beside professional knowledge we need badly to understand
    it well.I am blessed to learn so much from you and people like John Assafat about it.I did so different experience in the last 2 years with IT people, have to change again my Homepage again(5 times in 1 year 🙁🙄😱 !)
    So I came on the new business idea,to make a online shop with some unique medical tests,you inspired me -Thank You Harv!

    Have a great time and amazing succes on each field of your great life !

  10. Jorge says:

    Thank you very MUCH Harv I BLESS you! Cheers

    Jorge G.

  11. mary says:

    I have a business….I want it to grow. I can’t figure out a problem to solve?? Ugh

  12. Anna Gray says:

    It is not always possible to get a job in the field that you want your business to be. Example: I am a co-founder of an international law firm. This year, the firm will be 10 years old. Before we started, I was a partner at another law firm. But my business partner was not. He tried to approach starting a new business the way that Harv suggests. But he simply was not able to. He sent out about 1,000 resumes to different law firms, all with a zero result. After he got tired of sending out resumes, he came to me, and we opened our first offices. So, while Harv’s advice is generally good, it will not work for everyone.

    1. Farid says:

      I am pretty sure Harv knows that this may not work for everyone depending on circumstances. I think what everyone should take from this is, work around what you have or what is at your disposal.

  13. Rachaell M Joandet says:

    Excellent recommendations help me a lot thanks Harv Eker

  14. Wasi Saleem says:

    This is one of the best articles I have ever read as a new online entrepreneur/confidence coach. I’m struggling to hold onto my job because I want to put my 1000% into my business, but I know the wise thing for me to do is to continue to work and transition into a job that has more to do with my passion of confidence coaching and work on my business on the side until I make more income from my business than I would at a typical job that’s bringing in decent cash flow.

  15. Farid says:

    Thank you very much Harv, you are a blessing.

  16. shashi says:

    Thanks Harv. Good advice indeed.

  17. Kathryn Hale says:

    Thanks for encouraging me to be patient and intentional about my transition to maximize my success

  18. LNWeaver says:

    That’s an interesting point that you should keep some of your former income starting out. I guess it’s important to maintain cash flow. I bet entrepreneurs figure out how much capital it will take to get a business off the ground. Restaurants need specific equipment, for example.

  19. I really like your recommendation to figure out how you work as an individual. It makes sense that some people might function in such a way that works perfectly for their business while somebody else might need some sort of service to help make up for their absence. It’s something to remember because even a business phone system could help some individuals in keeping communication with customers while other people might do everything from their personal phone.

  20. Oxana says:

    Mr. Harv Eker, thank you for the great lessons! I love to learn! Please tell me there will be lessons in Russian language? Thank you in advance for the answer!

  21. samson okotchi says:

    thanks for such wonderful ideas please more tips

  22. Philip Allen says:

    It makes sense that the business success rate soars if you know a market (or have studied the top 10 businesses via Google / Clickbank) because People only become customers IF they have Access to money & Believe the Benefits they get from your product exceeds the value of what they exchanged to get the money to buy from you.
    So Does your advertising target benefits to customers or is your advertising spending just a way to reduce your company’s tax bill?

  23. muyibat says:

    i have been in part time fitness business along with my pay job for the past 6 years but am afraid to leave my pay job but my business also need my attention seriously . Fear of unknown is disturbing but I need to focus on my business. however passive income is my desire .
    how do I go about it?

  24. One of the main aspects of Online business is to survey on a target demographic for the service or product. It is crucial to make sure you are delivering to right customer. This will give you insight into your customer’s buying decision and save lots of time of experimenting.

  25. Thank you for taking the time to provide such an informative and helpful post.

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