Quit Your Job and Start Your Own Business: A Practical Guide
Imagine waking up one day and deciding to take some time away from work to spend with the people you love without having to check in with a boss or HR.
Now, imagine being able to take a day off and still make money while you’re out doing something that matters to you.
That’s the potential of being an entrepreneur.
And it’s not something that’s out of reach for you.
It’s estimated that there are already over 50 million entrepreneurs in the US, so why do they get to have all the fun?
If you’re looking to gain the freedom to choose your day without sacrificing your earning potential, ask yourself, are you ready to “quit my job and start a business?”
Look at it this way: a job is an agreement between you and your employer that you’ll give them your time and energy in exchange for a promise of a set income and hours.
But entrepreneurship is a promise you make to yourself.
In exchange for the freedom to choose your day, you agree to rely on yourself to earn enough to keep the roof over your head and food on the table for your loved ones.
I’m sure it can be scary to break away from the security of a job and go out on your own as an entrepreneur, but what if there was a way to do it with the confidence you’ll succeed?
With a little planning, guidance, and learning what it takes, you can set up your business for success and have the life you want.
If you’re wondering how to quit your job and start a business, this guide will educate you on the steps to take to be successful and gain the financial and time freedom you dream of.
The Freedom Decision
Picture this: you wake up tomorrow, take a leap of faith, and start your own business.
Whether you have been tossing around a business idea or looking for something, imagine how it would feel to call yourself the boss instead of someone else.
For too many, though, the fear of the unknown tends to hold them back. But for millions, the freedom that embracing entrepreneurship provides them far outweighs their fears.
Why not be one of those and leap?
Look, I’m not here to tell you to take a risk and gamble away everything by quitting your 9-to-5.
But with the right plan and strategy, you can create a business based on your knowledge and experiences to live the life you’ve always wanted.
You can monetize what you know and create a knowledge-based business that gives you the life you want with the time and financial freedom you deserve.
Look, there are many options for starting a knowledge-based business, such as online courses, coaching and consultation services, or digital products, which provide an easily scalable income opportunity.
In this guide, we’ll discuss how to quit your job and start a business using our proven step-by-step approach to help you transition from employee to entrepreneur.
Step 1: Preparing To Quit
When you’re ready to quit your job and start your own business, preparation is the key to your future success.
In other words, don’t just resign without developing a plan and strategy for transitioning from the employee world to the entrepreneur world.
The shift in mindset from employee to entrepreneur is about understanding why you want to make the change, having a validated business, and developing the relevant skills.
Let’s discuss these steps in a little more detail now.
Understand Your Why
Before you transition, reflect on why you took your job.
Was it something you were passionate about, was it convenient, or some other reason?
When you ask how to quit your job and start a business, one of the most important things to understand is your why.
Your “why” is the reason and your motivation to shift the mindset toward a journey of entrepreneurship.
Your “why” could be increasing your income, creating freedom, or making a lasting impact.
Think about this: According to Gallop, employees report growing disengagement year after year, with over 20% of current employees reporting extreme job dissatisfaction based on unmet workplace needs.
If this sounds like you, a change of scenery is in order. If that’s the case, you probably want more from your efforts at work while making a worthwhile impact.
Whatever your reason, defining and understanding your why will help you stay disciplined and motivated through your new journey as an entrepreneur.
And though you’ll leave behind your work friends, being an entrepreneur doesn’t have to be a lonely adventure—quite the opposite.
So don’t worry about going alone or stressing about how to begin.
The Mastermind Business System will provide in-depth courses and a community to validate your decision to take matters into your own hands.
Step 2: Validate Your Business Ideas
While you may be passionate about something, it doesn’t always translate to a business idea.
That said, every idea has an opportunity, so learning to explore options and validate your ideas is the first step toward starting a successful business.
Bounce your ideas off like-minded entrepreneurs through community pages and social media.
You can also test your ideas by running polls or offering an early-bird sign-up with your target customers. The point here is to determine whether there’s enough demand for your ideas or if you need to adapt and adjust them.
One way to test your business idea is to create a minimal viable product (MVP). An MVP is a good way to get something to your potential customers in exchange for feedback about its value, price point, and whether it’s a sustainable option with demand.
Just don’t overdo it with your MVP. You don’t want to put so much into your MVP that you’re left scrambling for ideas and ways to improve when building your product.
The key is to create a product to test a larger idea, like an appetizer at a restaurant–it’s not the full meal, just something to tease the appetite.
Your MVP should be an introduction, an attractive option for testing your ideas without wasting time or resources.
Step 3: Build A Safety Net
It’d be entirely irresponsible to say, quit your job, become rich, and travel the world.
Being an entrepreneur does come with some risk, but if you have a plan in place, you’re better able to overcome the dips and hiccups that may occur.
In addition to planning how to leave your job and testing to see if you have a valid business idea, the next step is to create a financial safety net.
This is one area that people sometimes forget and find themselves trying to dig out of a hole. You want to have enough resources in reserve that they can carry you while you’re trying to build your business.
Another approach to this strategy is to reduce your debts, lowering what you have to make to get by.
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Emergency Fund:
Focus on having a few months of savings to cover your bills and unforeseen costs that may arise before you can generate significant income.
Of course, you can always start a business as a side gig while you learn to be an entrepreneur.
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Reduce Bills:
That streaming service you never watch? Get rid of it. That gym subscription you use in January? Cancel it.
The goal is to reduce unnecessary bills and pay down debts, such as credit card debt, as quickly as possible.
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Secure Insurance And Benefits:
Leaving a job means that you may also be losing benefits and health insurance.
As you enter entrepreneurship, explore ways to secure your health insurance as self-employed or with a partner’s insurance.
Most health insurance can be written off as a business expense, the cost of doing business.
So, if private insurance is your option, explore how to utilize self-employed insurance to your advantage.
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Business Expenses:
If you think you’ll quit your job to start a business and not have some business expenses, you’re mistaken.
Every company will have some expenses, from taking on inventory to building a website and hosting to internet costs.
That said, most business expenses can be deductible, and to get a clear idea of what you can deduct, consult a tax professional–another potential deduction!
Step 4: Your Transition Plan
Don’t quit your job cold turkey; have an approach that allows you to phase out while you test your business ideas.
As you prepare your plan to quit, eliminate your debts, increase your savings, and test your ideas, think about what other things you can do to phase out of the 9-to-5 and into a life of entrepreneurship.
Most importantly, have the conversation at home that you’ll be transitioning from an employee position to one as a business owner.
Explain to them that you’ll be building something of value that you can grow with, freeing up your time down the road and giving you the financial freedom to do what you want.
For example, work on your business after work hours or on the weekends as you develop and test your ideas.
Once you’ve created a product with potential, consider moving on from your regular job.
Step 5: Sell What You Know
If you have knowledge and experience in anything, whether from your job or even a hobby, there’s an opportunity to explore.
Being passionate is important and will help you stay motivated with your new business, but passion alone can’t be everything you’re trying to sell. As we discussed, testing your idea and seeing if there’s a demand market for it is one of the most important steps.
Thinking about your unique skills and experiences and crafting a product around those as a digital product combines what you know with what you’re passionate about.
And by creating a product around your passions and knowledge, you’ll have an easier time positioning yourself as an expert.
Yup, if you have some experience, skills, and knowledge, you’re already an expert. You don’t need a fancy degree or title to be an expert; you just need to know more than the individuals you’re trying to serve.
Being a subject matter expert is based on what you know more than the people you offer your expertise. In other words, knowing a little more than someone else makes you an expert in their eyes if you position yourself as one.
There are so many benefits to being an entrepreneur and business owner, especially in a knowledge-based business.
With a knowledge business, you can take what you already know and build a product, such as e-books, online courses, or videos, that you can sell repeatedly to a target audience.
Step 6: Building A Successful Knowledge Business
When you think about starting a business, what comes to mind? Whatever you picture in your imagination, the one mistake most new entrepreneurs make is that they try to reinvent the wheel.
Don’t make it harder than it needs to be. Focus on what you know and are passionate about, test the idea, and get it going.
The beauty of a knowledge business is that you already have all the tools and expertise you need; you only need to figure out the best way to package it and who you’re trying to sell to.
Who’s Your Target Audience?
After creating a product and testing your idea to validate it as a sustainable model, the next step is to identify who you want to sell to. Your target audience consists of individuals who have challenges that you are uniquely capable of solving through your knowledge.
It’s easier to find a target audience if you drill down and be specific than it is to be a jack-of-all-trades.
If you’re trying to find an audience that is too wide or too general, you’ll miss the mark, but if you get really nitty-gritty, you’ll find individuals who will be interested in supporting you.
Look, you may have more than one skill, and you’re probably very skilled in many areas, but narrow your focus down to one area where the demand–in this case, a problem to be solved by your audience–and your expertise align.
To figure this out, look for trends, analyze your competitors, and look for weaknesses or areas they’re not addressing. These could be potential opportunities for you to position yourself as an expert and one that has a solution that the audience needs.
When researching your target audience and the areas where you could service them, you can look at Google Trends, AnswerThePublic, and niche-related community forums and engage with others on social media.
Step 7: Creating Your Knowledge Product
Ok, so you’ve validated your idea, planned to quit your job and start a business, and looked for holes in the market while identifying your target market. The next step is to create and build your knowledge product.
If you’ve used an MVP, your first product should be more expensive than this–which you could use as a lead magnet in the future–but the product you create should be the cornerstone, comprehensive, and high-value.
When designing your product, you’ll want to address a significant pain point or challenge in your niche. Whether it’s videos, a coaching program, or an online course, create valuable resources that address your audience’s needs.
Once you design your product, consider various platforms for launching and hosting it, such as Teachable for an online course or Patreon for subscription products.
You want your product, audience, and platform to align. It doesn’t make much sense to create a video game product and write an e-book when Twitch and YouTube may get better traction.
Build Your Sales Funnel
Once you have your product, you want to build a sales funnel for it. A sales funnel acts as a 24/7 automated salesperson for your product. The objective of your sales funnel is to take your leads through the various stages of the buyer’s journey, such as:
- Awareness Stage: At this stage, it’s all about finding potential customers and creating awareness of your product. Use engaging content such as webinars, blog posts, and social media to attract, nurture, and build trust with your target audience.
- Consideration Stage: At this stage, your target audience and potential customers know about your product but aren’t sure if it’s what they’re looking for.
Your goal here is to get your customers’ contact information so that you can continue to nurture them toward making a purchasing decision.
Create an attractive incentive like a free e-book, template, or checklist that acts as a lead magnet to get your target’s contact information.
- Decision Stage: As you’ve worked with your target audience through various stages of their buying journey, the next step in your sales funnel is to motivate them to act.
To encourage your target to act, use email sequences that include testimonials and reviews, success stories, product benefits, and exclusive offers.
Launch And Market Your Product
Ok, now that you’ve done all the background work to start your business, the next step in your journey of moving from employee to entrepreneur and making the life you deserve is to launch your product.
You’ll want to build an email list of potential customers.
To do this, you can use various methods to collect their information, but one tool that works more often is a lead magnet, such as a free e-book or webinar highlighting a unique solution to a challenge in exchange for giving contact info, like an email.
As you build your email list, it’s time to turn your attention to designing a successful launch.
Reflect on your audience, how you plan to serve their needs, and where you will find them.
Why are all these important factors to consider?
Focusing on your customers, their needs, and where you will find them can help you create a marketing strategy that will create pre-launch buzz.
Utilize sneak peeks, clips of videos, and webinars. Engage them on social media and relevant forums with content to entice your audience to buy your new product.
Contests, exclusive offers and discounts, and a countdown timer are great ways to increase the excitement around your product, so consider how to incorporate those into your pre-launch strategy.
Let me say one thing: in all the years that I’ve worked with Dean Graziosi, we’ve noticed repeatedly that people want to be part of something exciting, an event to remember, so pitch your product and make your launch strategy memorable and exciting.
Once you’re ready to launch, utilize email marketing to engage your target audience about the upcoming product.
Emphasize how your product will address your audience’s concerns and challenges, incorporating testimonials and reviews from real-world examples.
Step 8: Growing And Scaling Your Business
Once you make your first sale, getting the next one and the next one is all about refining and optimizing what is performing well.
After your launch, get feedback from early adopters and others within your target audience on ways to improve your product.
Contests, polls, and surveys are good ways to get valuable insights into what your customers enjoy about the product and what they want to be included or omitted.
Using these insights, you can refine your initial product, which will also provide your new business with growth opportunities.
As customers consume your content and complete your course, you can use this information to build new products and add-on elements to your course, like advanced material, one-on-one coaching, or a membership program, which you can then upsell using your email list.
As soon as your customers reach a certain milestone in your course, ask for a quick feedback survey and use the testimonials in your social media and email marketing.
Social proof, especially for online products, is gold.
People online trust reviews and testimonials, which build credibility for businesses and help boost conversions. So, get your early customers to share their experiences, which you can showcase everywhere.
Step 9: Use Efficient Tools And Platforms
As you plan to quit your job and start a business, it will be really important for you and your company to find and utilize tools that streamline different operations and create more efficient workflows.
Some tools you’ll need include:
- CRM: A Customer Relations Manager (CRM) tool you can use to collect, store, and organize your customers’ information and easily incorporate it into your email marketing.
- Website and Blog: You should build a blog to engage and educate your target customers and have a website to host your product.
- Customer Service Manager: You must be able to provide your customers with superior customer service at every stage of their journey and answer every concern with 24/7 real-time support.
- Payment Collection: One issue with online sales is cart abandonment. One of the most significant causes of cart abandonment is slow or clunky payment options.
- Other Tools To Consider: Forums, social media management, community and membership programs, and more.
Transitioning from employee to entrepreneur can be freeing, but success will take work.
The Mastermind Business System is all about having all-in-one solutions that include start-to-finish platforms that help you take what you know and make it a scalable business.
With the Mastermind Business System, you can access entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey, giving you cutting-edge insights, tips, and tricks to jumpstart your new business.
And having unique access to top experts like Dean Graziosi will give your new business a leg-up on the competition.
If you’re ready to quit your job and start a business, there’s no better time to start than now. Test drive the Mastermind Business System for 14 days FREE today!
