79. From corporate job to business owner: 10 tips on how to make the transition.

10 tips on transitioning from a corporate job to being a business owner

I don't claim to be a small business consultant. I love career planning and coaching corporate professionals. However, during the coaching process, a client will eventually decide they want out from time to time! When that happens, I share how I transitioned from a corporate employee to a business owner since I have personal experience of starting a business twice. I learned a lot along the way.

This is most definitely a one-off episode. So if you are curious about what I've done to grow my business, how I do it now, how it's going, the tools I use, etc., then listen to this episode because I don't plan to talk about this anymore for a long time!

And this is the truth: I have a handful of clients at the moment who I'm sure have signed up with me because of how I managed to grow my expertise and start my business the way I did. They are doing a very similar transition (i.e., holding on to their corporate jobs until they are ready to fly solo!), and I love coaching them!

Here is the question I have for you: Are you ready to be a business owner? Is having a business a goal you want to work towards, so you can achieve it in a few years?

In this episode of The Job Hunting Podcast, I discuss the following 10 tips I recommend to help you transition from a corporate job to owning your own business in the future:

My 10 Tips and Podcast Episode Timestamps:

• 05:00 - 1. Let the idea "percolate" for a while!
• 06:14 - 2. Validate your business idea before going to market.
• 08:25 - 3. Have enough savings to support the first 12 months.
• 10:16 - 4. Before you embark on being a business owner, learn how to take care of your personal affairs!
• 12:19 - 5. Get help from the get-go.
• 14:35 - 6. Even with all the preparation above, there are still things you won't know how to do, and that's where you should invest in.
• 23:11 - 7. Get ready to get busy.
• 25:26 - 8. Be careful whose advice you follow.
• 28:47 - 9. Be careful how you spend your money, especially with vanity metrics or expenses that are not right for your business size.
• 30:53 - 10. Be patient and be positive!

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Do you have training material ready for online teaching? Then, learn more about Kajabi, the platform I use, and check if you should invest in this. I LOVE Kajabi and have built my entire website and learning programs using the platform. I have already converted many colleagues and coaches to using it. You can teach anything on Kajabi: music, farming, yoga... It handles everything: mailing this newsletter, CRM, payments, my website, and of course, my online teaching platform.*
• Do you want to be coached by my coach? If so, join me and many others from May to July for a 3-month program designed to help you launch a product or service in 3 months! I have done so many programs, and this one is by far the one that worked best for me. It goes through all the steps you need to take, in real-time, with all the resources, templates, and tools you need. I will be doing it again so that we can be colleagues!*
• Do you want a website? Here's my secret: Templates with everything you need: webpages, social media templates, all done for you, styled, branded, and easy to use. Yes, you can change the colors and photos.*
• Do you hate sending emails backward and forward to book a meeting? If you have been spoiled for most of your career by having excellent EAs (guilty!) and all of a sudden you find yourself managing your calendar, you have a newfound respect for the work they used to do for you, right? Many people like Calendly, but I'm a big fan of Harmonizely. It is effortless to use, translates well to different time zones, sends reminders, asks questions, and automatically sets up a zoom meeting. It's a blessing, and I can't live without it.*
• A link to the episode about my career story: 62. My career story: From immigrant to CEO.
• Book a free discovery call with me if you consider getting a private coach to support your next steps.
• The Optimized Job Search Schedule
• Click here to open the transcript of this episode on our new blog.