Quiting your stable day job that pays the bills and stepping into the uncertain business startup terrain is not a light decision, and must this must be handled with utmost caution. The issue at stake are increased by a factor of 10 you’re living in a developing nation like ours, where too often a whole entourage of relations might be dependent on that single salary.
But this needn’t be a job or business decision. You can indeed, with careful planning, naturally transition from your job into working in your own business full time. This is not easy though, and there’s likely to be sacrifices from either. You should therefore be prepared to put in the extra time and effort to make up for this.
So how do you know its the perfect time to quit? Tatsuya Nakagawa of Atomic Creative Group talks of ten things to work on to determine a good “crossover point”, the point at which you can make a smooth transition from day job to concentrate your own business. Tatsuya suggests you ensure:
There is a good product or service offering in place.
There are real customers.
There is enough money in the bank to sustain a prolonged dry spell.
There is enough money in the bank to sustain a prolonged dry spell.
The product or service offering is not being trampled by a major competitor.
The business will not likely go broke within three to five years.
You develop the self discipline it takes to tough it out in your own business.
You have become an expert in your chosen area.
You have enough of the right “friends” in the area.
You have key mentors and advisors in place.
While these are fine points of advice, you should also be careful not to fall into a ready-aim-ready-aim-ready— syndrome. No amount of planning can compare with the feedback you get from real users of your product or service, and there’s no other way to get that than to take your product or service to the market.
Have you been considering quiting your day job and launching your business? Whats been holding you back?
Everyone is so busy these days. The 24hrs don’t seem to be just enough anymore. And for those of us who don’t do the 8-5 thingy, folks just assume we’re always free and make all kinds of demands on our time.
And with so much to do, the default route for most people is to start the day with those simple tasks that seem to be so important. (Some even claim to be “last-minute” people who become more productive when there’s a looming deadline, but I think that’s procrastination seen through another window).
But here’s an alternative approach to starting your day: swallow the frog first! The idea is, if you swallow the frog (ie, if you do the most challenging task) first thing in the morning, the rest of the day will look pretty good by comparison. After all, what could be worse than swallowing a frog?
Start by putting each of your tasks into one of four categories:
Things you don’t want to do, and actually don’t need to do.
Things you don’t want to do, but actually need to do.
Things you want to do and actually need to do.
Things you want to do, but actually don’t need to do.
Then, first thing each day, do the most difficult task — the thing you need to do but don’t want to do. Set a time limit. I like to swallow my frog for 30 minutes. I believe I can do nearly anything within 30 minutes. Set whatever time limit that’s OK for you.
Frequently I’m not done with my frog in 30mins … but that’s OK. I simply continue and finish the task. Sometimes, I hit a dead end with my frog and I give myself permission to set it aside knowing I have moved it 30 minutes further ahead.
Whether it’s planning my daily tasks or taking some major life decisions, I’ve found the approach of swallowing the frog first to work like magic. But don’t forget, like any cool hack, this is one way of approaching the issue of task management … but it’s sure worth a try.
A major renaissance is taking root in Africa. You need to be living on the continent to appreciate the gradual — sometimes even painful — but sure drive of our respective countries towards stable democracies and economic prosperity. But who are the drivers of this renaissance?
In this thought-provoking talk from the 2007 TEDGlogal Conference held in Arusha, Tanzania, Ghanaian economist George Ayittey describes these people as the agile “Cheetah Generation”, a new breed of Africans who are taking their futures into their own hands and moving the continent forward.
This, he contrasts with what he calls “Hippos” — the lazy, slow, ornery (and thankfully, dying!) generation who have ruled and ruined post-colonial Africa over the decades.
Click on the image below to play the video. Total video length: 18mins
Whoa! So I was sending a pitch to Metro TV. From prior experience, I know that most e-mail addresses published at Ghanaian websites just don’t work. So I was going to play it safe by sending my pitch to the main (admin) account and CC to the other e-mail accounts.
And this is what I got back from Metro Sports:
To me, that’s “impressive” … given that all the e-mail addresses were functional. I’ve got bounced mails from non-existent addresses published at the websites of several big-name brands in Ghana, during the past 2 weeks that I’ve relentlessly been pitching around.
But hello Metro folks. What does this say of your corporate culture? For a client/partner/user to spend hours, produce a document for you, only to be told “hey dude … we thrashed your document because we don’t have a place to keep it”?
As a service provider, can you afford to be throwing throwing away communication from your users because you have no place to keep them? And have you heard of Google Apps? Holy Moses!
Everyone is so busy these days. The 24hrs don’t seem to be just enough anymore. And for those of us who don’t do the 8-5 thingy, folks just assume we’re always free and make all kinds of demands on our time.