Hi There
Today, I shall provide you with some useful tips to adopt during a severance process – that is when you need to move away from what seems a productive engagement as an employee into starting your own business and becoming an employer.
As I was developing this write up, a number of funny thoughts came rushing through my mind – the much of these you know that you have not done! Recently, I stumbled over a statement which read “No employee has ever made the list of Forbe’s richest men on earth” and unfortunately, this remains the innate desires of many of us who are employees. We forget that to make it to this list our bosses first of all need to make it to the list before us. Every employee lives within the dreams of his employer!
So, anchoring on the penultimate desire of man which is self-actualization, the need to create your own dream becomes important. Dreams, incidentally are not created in void; they are in consideration of your desires, availability, opportunities and resilience [R.O.A.D] to succeed.
In all of these, we require experience to learn from those who are leaders in their own right, who must not only become a compass to us, but a source of inspiration that will nurture us until we are weaned into independence.
The task ahead of us therefore is HOW do we start our own business while still an employee? Do not forget that in our introductory lines, we began with a dream of what you truly want to become in life which includes but not limited to the kind of business you want to do.
Having decided on what you NEED to do as a business, you must therefore develop a conscious effort to do the following:
1. Save as much money as you can. You must cut down on your expenses as much as you can and ensure that the disposable income part of your salary is not disposed. Consciously learn the habit of backing the crowd until you get to the end. The reason is because, no business ever receives your total attention and commitment if your earnings or equities are not involved. Even a would-be investor or financier will always ask “What’s your stake in this? For more on how to save, read our article on Developing a savings culture.
2. Make yourself very invaluable in your place of employment. Outside, the general law of retributive justice, being productively relevant in your place of work gives you the confidence that you need to negotiate anything at any level. It becomes handy as a referral point when you finally step aside and attracts mutual respect between you and your employer.
3. Try as much as possible not to do any of your personal work in the office during your contractual time especially in an environment that is poorly controlled. I always believe that you can save yourself the time used for explaining incidences into something else. Considering that you are an employee with a mission, then sacrifice of your convenience is what the price is. The office you work should never suffer for it. Even the holy bible says that you cannot serve two masters at the same time.
4. Talk less about what you are doing to others. In fact my take is do not even discuss your personal dreams or ambitions with colleagues or their close associates who are your mutual friends. You may never know their level of interest in your well being.
5. Do not wait to fully disengage before starting the business except you are completely sure that the cash flow is good enough to sustain the gestation period before break-even point. Most times, I advise that you fund your expenses with your savings and or your disposable income from your salaries until such a time, the business can fund your expenses. This approach is less risky but does not show the ruthless doggedness that some CEOs adopt. Most times, the acres of pains experienced becomes the motivation to succeed.
When we imbibe some of these principles, the severance process from being a servant to leader becomes seamless. We then build upon them and continue on some leadership and purpose driven skills, we become better and closer to self-actualization.
See you at the top as we strive to make Forbes’ next list of millionaires.
Festus EREWELE
The Coach.