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Start Your Future Business Part-TimeStart Your Future Business Part-TimeBy Barnaby Kalan www.outsourcing-yourself.com © 2005 Barnaby Kalan A recent Gallup poll showed that 57 percent of Americans would like to have their own business, but only a fraction of that number actually do. What's holding people back? Probably fear. "Will I make as much money as I do now? How will I find clients? How can I run all the aspects of a business myself?" You can never eliminate fear and risk from starting a new venture. But a certain type of preparation for starting a business – while you are still employed elsewhere – can make all the difference. Here's how one of my self-employed colleagues did it, when he started out: "One of the things that I did in preparation was that I started building the business part-time. Doing it on the side, doing freelance. And building a network of clients before I went out. So that when I did leave my full-time job, I wasn't just starting from scratch. I already had some clients, I already had some projects, so it was just something to build on." "If it's possible, go out and start working on your business while you do have a full-time job. So the period between when you make the decision to start your own business and when you finally make the leap, if it's six months, a year, whatever, is packed with work, because you're doing two jobs. But it makes the transition much smoother and less worrisome." Another colleague of mine dreamed of doing something more fulfilling than the sales career he had been following, successfully, for more than 10 years. He had a vision of turning a boathouse at a nearby parks and recreation lake area into a summertime concession, with refreshments, boat rentals, games and instruction for visitors. At first he decided to work both jobs – his regular sales job and planning the new venture, with bank financing, hiring staff, equipment rentals and more to contend with. Sure it was tough. But he knew the income from the new business, even if it was wildly successful, wouldn't match his sales job income. At least not in the first or second year. To make a long story short, the business was a success. But smartly, he plowed a lot of the profits back into the business for the second year. He knows it will take time to grow it. Now he has worked out an ideal combination of independent sales consulting projects in the off season, which lets him concentrate on the recreational business in the summer. Opportunities for starting a part-time business exist everywhere. Like two stay-at-home moms who took an idea from a "Sex in the City" episode and created a cake-baking business. They pack baby toys and other items into tiered cakes for expecting mothers. Or the administrative assistant who loved welding as a kid, and waited 50 years to turn his passion into a part-time business creating unique, custom-made works of art from pieces of steel. Or the Tennessee housewife who started a successful home- and pet-sitting business with little more than a good business name and one small advertisement in the local newspaper. The point is, these successfully self-employed professionals started their dreams part-time. It is an ideal way to reduce risk, get your business set up, test the market for your services and actually get income flowing in the door before you make the Big Leap. If you're interested in exploring some new business opportunities that you can start part-time, check out http://www.outsourcing- yourself.com/resources.htm for a listing of suitable choices. ====================================================== Barnaby Kalan is an award-winning freelance copywriter and author of Outsourcing Yourself: How to Turn Your Job Into a Business for Greater Wealth and Security. To get a free chapter from his latest book, visit www.outsourcing-yourself.com ======================================================
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