Whether you’re a mother wanting to be a mompreneur or just someone who thinks they have a great idea and the drive to start their own business, the reality for most families is that you feel you can’t dive in and begin since you would be leaving your comfort level financially. As well you might have the thought that you may not succeed in doing this and your business would fail. By continuing to work full time you can alleviate at least part of that stress to make the transition from working at a job to loving what you do as an occupation. I’ve always wanted to open my own business since I was little, so I’m told by my parents. I’ve done a lot of research over many years on what I could do so that I will enjoy my career as well as make the same salary I am currently making if not more. I narrowed it down to a few things, however to start your own business you need start up money or time or both! I could never do this until our second child came along. It forced me to finally do something about it since daycare for two children was overwhelming and quitting my job or working a part time job was not an option.
First you should do research online to find out what sort of regulations and laws you need to abide by when beginning your business. Your local government websites contain lots of useful information on this. You can do this on your lunch time while at your job as well as after work. Although it may take longer for you to do this than if you were to quit your job you won’t be anxious about paying bills either.
I was very lucky in that in the province where we live we are allowed a one year maternity leave. This allowed me time to begin the process of setting it up. However not everyone falls into this category. Therefore it may take a lot longer to start up your business. Plan to work a lot of hours on research and brainstorming various names and marketing ideas so that your business becomes successful. This may take from your personal down time but if you want to feel secure economically then this makes most sense.
You will also need money. Some ventures don’t require a lot of start up capital and others do. If you do not have the cash readily available but this is your dream and you still want to pursue it then I would suggest either using a line of credit or a loan through your local branch. Also double check with your local government who may help you monetarily to set your dream in motion. If you have your full time position or even a part time job you might not even require a loan or if you do then at least you can make your monthly payments. You won’t feel your belt tighten as much as if you had quit your job totally. At least you can enjoy setting up your business instead of worrying about how to pay your bills each month. You will have peace of mind.
Once you’ve set forth a plan and launched your new venture you will need to concentrate on marketing. If you’re like me you have no marketing experience. Try doing more research on marketing and if you have some money try doing an SEO program if you have a website to try and increase your website in rankings on the top search engines. I know that to have a web developer do your website for you can be quite pricey but there are much cheaper ways you can do this when starting out. I did my initial website through Yahoo where you can create your own website by using a template of theirs. You pay the small monthly fee for web hosting through them which is quite affordable. This helped my business a lot when starting out. My name got out there where people could see it. Then when I felt my company was progressing enough I hired a trained professional to revamp my site. You could also do some trade shows if you feel they would bring in funds that way. If you’re willing use your vacation time to do the trade shows. Usually one day off of work is sufficient enough for weekend trade shows. Flyers are also another way you can get your name out. Again, it depends on the type of business you are doing. You would need to research accordingly. This all takes time. I didn’t receive my first “real” customer call, not family or friends, until two months after starting everything up. Even then, it took another five months until I received the second call. In the meantime if you’ve taken a loan of any kind you will need to pay the monthly bills that are associated with this. In my situation even after a good ten months of working on my business it still wasn’t enough for me to quit my regular salaried position.
If you are not like me and didn’t have any time off at all, don’t think you cannot work on your business at all while you are at work. That’s not to say that you take up any of the company’s time that you are working for but on your lunch time you can make phone calls and reply to emails as need be or run errands.
Once word of mouth progresses you will start to see things flourish. However as you grow you have more expenses such as supplies to purchase or people to hire which result in more wages being paid. As well by then you should have found the best advertising for your business. So you will want to advertise more in those areas. I found that part to be a lot of trial and error. So although you start to see progress, you will also find that you are still not making enough money to quit your full time position. Therefore you should continue to work both jobs as necessary.
You will have to sacrifice quite a bit since you might be working long hours every day at your regular job and then at night on your own business and possibly weekends also. I find that I hit various plateau’s throughout the year which put me at a different level of income each time. The more customers I receive with each plateau, the less money I temporarily make as I need to purchase more supplies. But once that initial cost is over I again return to a comfortable income. All the while you will note you must pay back the loan as well as your regular monthly fees that you may incur on your business. Two and a half years later and I have just paid off what I have spent on my business and now everything I make is solely profit! Some businesses may take a shorter time frame to reach that stage and others may take longer. This is something you will have to deal with as it comes. There is no sure way to tell how long it will take for your business to get going. Some businesses fail, but as long as you are continually working full time you will not have the added stress that you cannot pay your bills and have just increased your debt with the start of your new business. If the type of company you have started does not allow you to work full time, then I would suggest taking a part time job to cover some expenses during the month. The less stressed you are, the easier it will be on yourself and your family members.
If I had quit work initially my family and I would be in deep financial trouble. Although it’s a lot of hard work in the end I believe it will pay off. I am still working full time but the extra money coming in from my business while it is still in it’s growing stages helps my family in many ways by letting us live a better life. I can already see the “light at the end of the tunnel”. You will too. It pays to not quit your day job.


