First, we need to talk about the responsibility what you would have when running your own business. Lots of people think it is cool to be a founder, managing director or his own boss just to do what you want. That is everything fine, but lots of people don’t understand beforehand for what you are responsible in total. After hearing some fuck-up stories from other founders lots of people decide that the second line of the business where they are is not that bad as they thought. So being an entrepreneur is truly not something that fits for everybody. I think you really need to think in the first step about if you really want to be responsible for everything (Sales / Customers, Technology / Website, Marketing, Administration / Organization, Legal, People / Employees, Partnerships, etc.) or it is maybe not better to stay employed.

When you come to the decision you want to try running your own business of course there is not the single way of truth. I want to split it up into two different approaches, in particular the Sideline Enterprise and "All in or nothing".

Sideline Enterprise

Everyone has another risk acceptance. The one feels about a bungee jumping as normal as breathing and the other has sweat outbreaks when he just thinks about it. That is completely normal and okay, but it is relevant when thinking of what about starting a business. The one needs a fallback solution in case when the own business fails and the other is so optimistic that the business will boom heavily and if will not be the case he can think about alternatives later.

A less risky approach is to start a business on the site while you are still employed with your current employer. Of course, that needs to be approved by your supvervisor, but to my knowledge that is in general not a problem as long as you will not be in direct competition with your own business to your current employer. You can than make targets based on the time you have. E.g. 40 hours for your current job, 20 hours for your side business, 5 hours for exercises / sport activities, 10 hours for family & friends per week would give you enough scope for other things.

The question is what can you achieve with 20 hours per week for your own business. A great approach is the Lean Management methodology (Lean Startup) which I can propose to start with combined with the Business Model canvas. You can Google both keywords and will find enough information what to do. Afterwards you should have a clearer understanding of how your business could look like, what are the products and services you offer, how would you sell them, why should potential clients buy from you and not from your competition. And then personally I am more the maker guy, so just go and make it and don’t talk just year after year about it.

Work, work, work. Get the shit done.

"All in or nothing"

There is just one major difference from this approach to the previous one: time. If you take the numbers from the previous one: 40 hours for your current job and 20 hours for your side business that would mean if everything else stays the same you would have 60 hours for your own business. That is 3 times more than doing it on the site. I hope you get the difference here, 3 times more is a huge number. To be honest if you really believe in what you are doing and burn for your idea you would not just invest 60 hours per week in it 😉 but that is another discussion.

If you need that 3 times more also depends on the area and business you are thinking of. There are lots of ideas out there where time matters. You need the right timing and speed to build it because the competition does not sleep (e.g. a standard B2C product like you are selling the new innovative dog leash). There are for sure other ideas which are in a niche market and no one has come to that idea or time does not matter that much because if you do it this year or next year that would change nothing (e.g. consulting for special things). Depending on those factors and your own risk acceptance you should decide for yourself what fits best.

My own opinion is that to become really sustainable successful you need to say at one certain step to go “all in or nothing”. That does not mean that you should not have any backup plans or alternatives. That just means that you should focus completely on your own thing because normally a business or idea really needs invested time to become successful.

It is important to focus and execute stuff but also take sometimes the time to get an overview of the whole thing to assess if you are still on the correct way

Hopefully the post was interesting for you and you enjoyed reading it! Have a great time until the next post will be published next month and enjoy hustling, relaxing, chilling, sporting, travelling or whatever you plan to do!

All the best – Mo ❤

P.S.: If you have questions, suggestions, criticism, an idea for a great new topic or just want to have a cup of coffee or a glass of wine or you want to work out with me please do not hesitate to contact me.