5 tips for starting a business while employed

We all want to earn much more on our own instead of relying solely on the salary we receive for selling our knowledge or labor to others.

Sadly, although this salary may not be very large, it is the sole source for all daily expenses, including rent, food and living costs, entertainment, shopping, children's tuition, and countless other expenses. In other words, we depend entirely on this salary.

So, is the only way to start a business to accept the risks of venturing into the unknown and leave your current job, whose salary is your main source of income?

Many other factors matter to entrepreneurial success, such as expertise, capital, and connections, but the most important thing at the beginning is a detailed, well-grounded, systematic plan for working after hours at night.

Here are points to bear in mind to help you start a business while still working for someone else:

Keep Your Work Secret

Now that you are CEO of your own company, you may want to boast to friends and colleagues about this new beginning. Unless you are ready to spend time finding another paid job to cover everyday expenses instead of focusing on growing your own company's business, you should keep it as secret as possible.

Your current boss certainly will not be happy to learn that, besides company work and related tasks, you are building an empire of your own, even if you do it in your personal time.

Simply because after devoting so much time, energy and mental effort to your own venture, you cannot fully restore your capacity for work at the office the next day.

Work unpaid overtime

It is far from comfortable to work for a living and then take on another equally important job.

For many people, this is true self-torture, but I believe you can overcome it if your dream is wealth and achievement like other entrepreneurs.

If you plan to maintain a stable salary, at least initially, you must work outside office hours instead of pursuing other entertainment.

Getting started is always difficult and risky, but what it promises to bring later is truly encouraging. Try to maintain a steady after-hours work schedule to develop your own business.

This means acting as your own company's CEO between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. the next day, while maintaining normal performance at your office job from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Make Use of Internet Resources

Years ago, starting a company was complicated and required substantial money and time. Today, for a few million dong, you can have your own fully legal company in no more than one or two weeks. Consulting and service firms are ready to meet your needs easily.

Once you have developed a business plan and chosen a name for your company, quickly establish a virtual office on the Internet.

This does not cost much—perhaps less than five hundred thousand VND—and takes only 30 minutes to obtain a usable domain name and email address if you choose dot com, or a little more effort for a national dot vn domain.

To connect with customers and make an impression, you need a website introducing your business with content and design as professional as possible.

For a small fee, you can use Templatemonster's service, with templates you can download and customize as you wish.

The next step is to design business cards immediately, as professionally as possible, with the company name, your name, and, most importantly, your new CEO title. Once again, the Internet’s convenience and accessibility prove extremely useful.

You can immediately find a website offering design and printing services, along with home delivery, at extremely reasonable prices.

Focus on Developing and Retaining Your First Customers

After running your startup for a while, you will certainly want to free yourself from the constraints and limitations of your current job to focus all your energy on developing your own business.

Ambition is an excellent quality for any self-starting entrepreneur, but you need to ensure you have established a real business and a reasonably stable income before officially setting out to conquer a new world.

Through learning and practical experience, you will certainly discover that finding the first customer to accept your company’s product or service is not easy, but finding the second, third and subsequent customers is harder still.

The difference between taking on an independent project to earn extra income and running a company lies in finding and retaining customers. You always want customers to use and recommend your products or services to others, whereas with an independent project, all you need is to complete it well and receive full payment.

Maintaining Faith in the Most Realistic Way

You should work as hard as possible to build your own empire while continuing your current job until your company earns more profit than your salary.

Try to avoid any distractions or decline in performance at the office. You need to maintain your current image so that if your startup does not go as expected, you can continue working and earning your usual income.

A perfect plan is not one for explosive growth or quickly leaving your current job, but one for steady development while continuing to work for someone else for as long as possible.

Nothing is more convenient and secure than running and developing your own business while retaining a regular income to cover daily expenses, even if it means less sleep and giving up many leisure activities.

Source: techinasia.com