It has been exactly one month since I quit my full-time job and dove into entrepreneurship head first. I knew that I would never feel “ready” to pursue my passion and that I just had to pull the trigger. What’s funny is that, despite feeling like I was taking a MASSIVE risk, I had actually prepared myself quite well for this adventure in entrepreneurship.
Here are three things that I did before quitting my job.
Created a Savings Buffer
There is no way I would have taken this jump without a solid savings account in place. I’m a very good saver, as I mentioned in my post about How I Bought My First House at 25, and I was able to achieve my savings goal in seven months. I actually took a different position at the company that I worked at back in February because it paid better and I knew I would be able to save money faster.
I chose to save up six months worth of my expenses as a buffer. This gave me the confidence to take the leap and know that if I don’t fill my calendar with projects right away, my expenses will be taken care of.
To save that cushion, I set up an automatic transfer from my chequing account to my savings account for $50 every two weeks to ensure that I was always saving without even thinking about it. I also have a chequing account that rounds up every purchase that I make from it and deposits the “change” from that purchase into my savings account. It’s not much, but every little bit counts! Finally, I made monthly “chunk” deposits into my savings account. After all of my bills were accounted for and I had made payments on my credit cards, I took the remaining balance and moved that chunk into my savings.
Believe it or not, I still had fun during that savings period! I was saving every little bit that I could, but also made time for games nights with my friends, hikes with Odie AND two vacations! It is possible to save fast and still enjoy life while you do it.
Networking
This is something that I don’t think I even realized I was doing until I was on my own. Often I hear the word “networking” and I think about events where you walk up to people you don’t know and exchange business cards. HA, wrong. Well I guess that can be part of it.
In my full-time job, I was working with clients every day. At no point did I consider this networking. I truly thought of it as my job, and nothing more. In reality, I was making strong connections with people who either needed my services or would recommend my services to others.
Luckily, my services complimented those of the company that I worked for rather than competed with them and I ended up having a few clients ask for my help on some projects that they had coming up. WIN.
I also had created strong relationships with some of those clients and was lucky to have them refer me to others that were in need of my services.
Lesson learned. Networking is not about exchanging business cards, it’s about creating relationships that can be mutually beneficial. It’s nice to know that I’m better at networking than I thought I was!
Grew My Support Team
Arguably the most important thing that I did before quitting my job was ensuring that I had a strong support system in place. Working for yourself and depending on your own success to pay the bills is freaking hard. In the last month, I’ve had days where I feel on top of the world and like I’m so productive and accomplishing so much, and then the next day I feel like sh*t and I get super down on myself. I constantly feel like I’m not getting enough done and imposter syndrome creeps on in.
A support system is key to dealing with both the good days and the bad. I am very lucky to have an incredibly supportive boyfriend who not only pulls his weight with the house, Odie and expenses, but also pulls me up when I’m down. Kirby and I talk constantly about our businesses, what we’re doing well and what we need to improve on. He’s very good at reminding me of what I’m doing well, and boy do I need that reminder.
I’m also lucky to have the support of family and friends that know my skills, my ambition and believe that I can do this. When I don’t believe that I can do it, they’re here to remind me that I’m being ridiculous. If anything is going to get in my way, it’s myself, and they won’t let me sabotage myself.
Quitting a secure, well-paying job was scary, but due to my preparation (which I was mostly unaware of at the time), I know that success in my business is on the horizon. And when the roller coaster of entrepreneurship hits a downhill slope, I know that I have my savings, networking skills and amazing support system to back me up.
