Juggling a new business: Don’t quit your day job!
One of the frequent questions I’m asked as a virtual assistant is, “How do you know when to quit your job and start your business from home full time?”
My answer to the question is “Why quit?”
Perhaps you may not be fully satisfied with the work you are doing at your current employer, but don’t quit the day job and jump into a new business. There is a great article on Start Up Nation titled “You Don’t Have to Quit Your Day Job to Succeed in Business”.
You’ll find a great discussion of how to run a side business while still bringing in money from your main job. The bottom line is that it takes some multi-tasking skills, but if you can swing it, you can start your “side business” slowly, grow your client base in a more organic (and less stressful) fashion, because you aren’t using the side business to “pay the bills”.
Wouldn’t your business flourish from full attention though? I’ve always found when I’ve worked with Real Estate Brokers or Insurance Company owners, the employees who worked for them part-time always seemed to do very poorly. One could argue that it’s simply a matter of time spent on the job, but how focused and motivated can you be when you have to do something else for part of the day?
Yes, spending full time hours on your business can help it flourish. However, it’s not required. Also, if you don’t have a solid client base that demands full time work, having your day job available to bring in income during the slow times could be the extra edge you need to keep going. Another thing to consider is that a virtual assistant is not an employee, but a business owner that is working with you. A real estate broker will have more than one customer and will still be working on your needs. A virtual assistant working full time may have several clients and may not be working on your tasks full time. So you can get the same amount of time and attention from a part time virtual assistant if you need occasional work, just as if they were working full time on their business.