Overworked, overstressed, unhappy at your full-time job and dreaming of running your business full-time… does this sound familiar? Been there, done that. In June of 2021 I realized that my dream job was to run my crochet business full-time, but there was one thing standing in the way: my full-time job. I decided that I would give myself one year to prepare to quit my day job to run my business full-time.
I ended up leaving my job 6 months into my 12 month plan.
In this post I’ll share everything I did in order to help me quit my job. These four essential tips will help you quit your job and be on your way to running a profitable, enjoyable small business!
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Does this sound like you?
Do you feel miserable in your day job? Are you daydreaming about running your small business full-time? Friend, I’ve been there. Long story short, I was so unhappy at my day job that I was crying daily (I’m not joking) and the stress of my job was starting to take a toll on my mental and physical health. I needed to get out.
If you want to read the long story about why I quit my day job to run my crochet business full-time, you can read that blog post here! After feeling caged for so long, I finally decided to make a 12-month plan to help me accelerate my business growth so that I could finally leave my 9-5.
4 things you need before you quit your job
Looking back, there were four things that I truly needed in order to prepare myself to quit my 9-5 job: a business plan, mental toughness, savings, and a plan for literally everything else in your life. This sounds like a lot, but when you think about it… it’s really only 4 things! Let’s get started.
A Business Plan
First, start from the very beginning. Let’s say that you are starting from scratch and don’t yet have a business idea, but you KNOW you want to start a business. I generally consider there to be four “archetypes” of people:
- Makers – Somebody who is most passionate about creating things, whether that’s physical products like pottery, crochet or knit pieces, art, or even things like writing or content creating. As a crocheter and knitter and somebody who loves writing patterns, I consider myself to be a maker!
- Teachers – Teachers may love to do something or be really good at something, but what really brings them joy is teaching others that skill.
- Investigators – Investigators are people who love doing research and exploring certain topics. Investigators don’t necessarily have to be experts in that topic, but they do love discussing, dissecting, and diving into a topic until they know EVERYTHING about it.
- Curators – Curators are the types of people who like to put together experiences, exhibits, or events. This archetype loves amassing a collection of activities or artwork to share with others. Curators know how to recognize and bring out the talent in others.
Now, this is literally the most BASIC description of creative archetypes. Use these as a starting point and explore which archetype you feel the most connected to.
I also have a couple of book recommendations for you if you’re not sure where to start! Both of these books are great at getting your creative juices flowing and can help spark other ideas for you.
- $100 Startup: Reinvent teh Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future by Chris Guillebeau – This book is a combination of interviews with startup entrepreneurs and practical tips for helping you find out what problem your skills can help solve. Guillebeau gives you the specifics of how these entrepreneurs got their projects started, how they started making money, and how to learn from their mistakes.
- Don’t Keep Your Day Job: How to Turn Your Passion into Your Career by Cathy Heller – This book provides great stepping stones to help you find out what it is that you’re passionate about and the steps that you can take to turn that passion into a profitable business. Cathy Heller is known for her manifestation- and mindset-based motivation.
Even if you already have a side-hustle that you want to turn into your full-time job, I recommend reading the two book recommendations above. They were very instrumental in me unlocking my creativity so that I could pinpoint exactly what I wanted to do with my business and how I could kickstart that growth.
I recommend having a solid foundation for your business platform as well. Once you know what creative archetype you are and how you want to turn that into a business, start setting up your basics. Start your Etsy shop, your website, your blog, your social media accounts, etc. Open up a business checking account. Start your LLC. Check with your state and local regulations about what, specifically, you need to do in order to run a business legally where you live. Start driving traffic to your platform and generating sales, views, subscribers, clients, etc.
Savings, an emergency fund, or another source of income
Having some money saved up or another potential source of income is crucial. You want to have a financial safety net set up in case of emergencies or in the event that your business takes some time to generate full-time income. Having a financial safety net will not only help pay your bills, but can also ensure that you are making business decisions from a place of security and not a place of panic and desperation!
Michelle from Making Sense of Cents has a great article about why an emergency fund is so important, and how you can get started on one. She provides several easy ways for you to get started on and grow your emergency fund!
How much you need to have saved will vary based on so, so many things. Generally speaking, you should try to have at least 6 months of living expenses saved up prior to quitting your job. Here are some things to think about:
- Do you have a partner, parents, or someone who can help cover expenses?
- Are there expenses that you can cut back on to help save?
- Are you able to use profits from your business or side-hustle to help save?
Another thing to consider is to take a part-time job in place of your full-time job. Having a part-time job is a great way to bring in some stable income while you deal with the volatility of having a new business! This is also a great option if you need to leave a toxic workplace but you don’t necessarily want to start over at another full-time job.
Related: 7 Easy ways to save money on packaging with Amazon
Mental toughness
Having the right mindset and mental tenacity to not only run a profitable small business, but to persevere when things get tough, is probably the most important thing on this list. Like so many other things in life, running a business is a mental game! You need to be able to make yourself buckle down and and keep going, even when things feel IMPOSSIBLE.
Maintaining your mindset through all of the ups and downs of business is essential, but it can also be incredibly difficult. You know what they say – if it was easy, everyone would do it. You will always have to be your own #1 fan. You will always have to believe in yourself and have confidence in your knowledge and abilities in order to succeed in self-employment.
One of the hardest lessons I learned was that running a small business will expose all of your weaknesses in all kinds of ways. If you experience things like trouble focusing, difficulty staying motivated, trouble setting boundaries with your workload (just a few examples :)), my best advice is to recognize those tendencies now and identify techniques to help you overcome them.
A plan for literally everything else
OK this one is a little bit of a mish-mash of items, but I couldn’t let you go without pointing out some other aspects of entrepreneurship that you need to consider. Many of these things will vary depending on your own circumstances, but I wanted to put them on your radar!
- What type of work environment do you prefer? Do you think that you can work efficiently and productively at home, or would you prefer a co-working or individual office space?
- Will you need to buy your own health insurance?
- Will you need to consider childcare or pet care options?
- Do you need to purchase any technology or home office furniture?
A lot of these additional items are designed to help you start to piece together what you want your self-employment life to look like. Start envisioning and planning for your ideal self-employment experience. The more that you can do to now to prepare for your future!
I hope that you find some of these tips enlightening & helpful! Make sure to save this post to Pinterest so you can always refer back to it for motivation, inspiration, or direction. If you find any of these tips helpful, I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail at sabrina@yarnbean.com.
