Successful CEO Discusses When to Quit Day Job to Start a Business

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Excerpt of an upcoming interview series on Entrepreneurship with Bulldog London Dry Gin CEO, Anshuman Vohra and Skymark Ventures.

Director of Photography -- Philipp Stuvecke
Set Manager / Sound Recordist - James Wu
Grip / Swing - Cesar Archangel Montiel

[jeanalexandre]

My advice is make all your move in silence. Some company will try to fire you if they know you running a side business. Only quit your job when your side business could you replace your salary tip number 2 do not use your first name or last name when naming your business. Reason everybody wants you to do good but not better than them. They will not support your business

[easierhabits]

Getting to a business that can sustain you is a four-phase process. Just like Anshuman says, if you're in stage one (figuring out what you want to do), you shouldn't quit your job. In fact, doing it part-time is BETTER than having all day to work on it because you're not used to spending so much time on it. All that extra time is going to drive you crazy, and you'll waste it. Much better to start a job or a hobby or something where you start growing yourself in easy-to-manage, limited time boxes. Here's my advice:

Phase 1: figuring out what you want to do. Keep your day job. You want to try out a number of hobbies, side gigs, or even volunteer to help other people to get a better sense of three things. What do you like doing? What are you good at doing? Who's interested in paying for something you're good at doing?

Phase 2: validating whether or not you have a valuable product or service. For most people, your business should be a side-gig unless you have a lot of savings or very few financial obligations (like a house, or family). Now you should have theories about what you want to do, who will pay you for it, and why. You need to test them. This is often a combination between offering products or services for free so you can get feedback or driving traffic to take some action (like sign up for an email waitlist for your product).

Phase 3: Growing your income. Your business is getting regular income, but not enough to cover your costs + save some extra. At this point, you should have a validated product that makes money, and some idea of how to scale that income so it can cover your expenses. How do you get repeat business? Do you have a repeatable customer acquisition model? This is the first phase where most people should start considering quitting. Be cautious, because nailing that repeatable customer acquisition model takes a lot longer than you think. However, since you already have some direction, your business can actually benefit from the extra time testing and improving your marketing and offers. You've already developed some market research, product development, sales, and customer services skills. You're not going to be at a total loss. Of course, if you don't have the savings to give yourself at least 6 months to a year, either keep your day job or switch to a part-time income to stretch out your savings.

Phase 4: Your business covers your expenses + gives you some to save away. At this point, if you have a day job, you're essentially working 2 jobs. Quitting here should be a no-brainer, even if your business is not yet replacing your day job. The big exceptions would be if you discovered a fatal flaw in the business. Perhaps you actually don't love it (probably didn't spend enough time in phase 1), the work-life balance is terrible and you can't fix it after several attempts, or the business has reached an income limit and is unlikely to ever meet your long-term financial goals.

[shaunsafety]

You may need to leave your job though as keeping it will only waste your energy.

[QPowerSports]

I worked a full time job for 16 years while I grew 4 separate business’s and employees, before I even considered leaving my job.. I was able to make them successful before I lived on their earnings and proved to myself they where sustainable.

[rishavbanerjee]

I believe if you are after securing your paycheck you will take longer than usual to establish your business successfully. If you can do it its fine but ideally I'd say it's not the best option. You should be able to give 100% or nothing at all

[pato]

I am in this postion at the moment. I have been running my business for a few years but it requires a lot of money to build and i am not at a point where i can quity day job..my day job is easy, okay money and requires very little commitment on my part. The problem with this is that i mentially left that job a long time ago and it shows in my work. I worry sometimes fhat i am taking advantage of my employer. I have two young kids so i really rely on the paycheck. I gope that in the next two years as my business starts to come together i can walk away from my day job but i think i am still some way away from that. Ive thought about getting funding to build my business faster but its a risk im not prepared to take. At this stage im just taking baby steps to get to a point where i can produce enough stock to maintain a living and possibly hire a small staff in the future to help free up time.

[ubedsheikh]

My father is having a construction business since past 30 years, my younger brother is working with him as he left the college due to lack of interest but I am working as a BIM engineer in a company. I am planning to quit job in terms of joining the business and to take it to a great extent. What should I do ? What would be the next step ? When should I quit. I am little bit confused. Please give your valuable suggestions.

[sdcharger]

Some get a job or a career others want to be entrepreneurs. 🤷🏾‍♂️👌🏾

[boot-strapper]

Sadly my jobs all my energy and then some, so I cant do jack shit after work to hustle on a side thing.

[Dreas_Redpumps]

What, it felt like he was talking in riddles 😕😐??

[akashgjoshi]

What 'successful' company is he a CEO of?
Literally anyone is labelled as a successful CEO/Expert nowadays. So pathetic!