Starting a Business While Still Working Full Time

Starting a business may likely be a better track for you to achieve financial freedom than staying in your current full time (read dead end) job. However, only few out there have the courage to ditch their day time job and plunge into the business world right away. Just think of the financial obligations you’re shouldering now and imagine the chaos and the whatnot if suddenly the business you embarked on hit a bumpy ride.

If the fear of venturing the business on full time basis is hampering your goal to build a successful business, there is one, less risky way to go about it. The solution is simply to nurture the business while you’re still employed, working for other people. It sounds like a pretty viable choice considering you can benefit from the gain of the both worlds. Also, your steady income as a worker can be the cavalry and may just be able to prevent apocalypse when your business appears to be sinking.

In addition to this, with a back up income, you have the advantage to continually fine tune your business until it hits the right track and once it does, you can safely look forward to tendering your resignation and focus on your business full time. If you are good in identifying business opportunities that can leverage on other people’s time and skills, then you can minimize your involvement in daily operation, and you’re well on your way to reaching your end goals.

While growing your business and at the same time working as an employee sounds like a marriage made in heaven, the undertaking does not come without its own problems and risks.

One scenario that frequently occurs whenever an employee starts a business while being employed is this: every time they face problem, the tendency to quit the business altogether is so great that the likelihood of them going out of the business becomes very real. You don’t want to make the same mistake like those folks who ambitiously kick start their business and eventually end up going back to where they are most comfortable at, which is their 9 to 5 job.

In the Cashflow Quadrant book, the author Robert Kiyosaki divided the business world and employment world into two different quadrants – the right quadrant and the left quadrant. Someone in the working world is categorized into the left quadrant and another who owns a business belongs to the right quadrant. Each quadrant requires a completely different mindset and you can’t simply solve a problem in the right quadrant while still thinking as if you’re in the left. Make no mistake about it.

Weigh up all the options, the pros and the cons, and draw a plan how you’re going to begin your business, be it on full time basis or part time while you’re still working for other people.

Other posts you may want to read:

1. JOB is Just Over Broke? Should I start a business instead?
2. Starting a Business? Really?
3. The Advantages of Minding Your Own Business
4. EPF Retirement Scheme for the Self-Employed
5. LHDN to Track Down Income Tax Evaders

Author's bio: Zul is the founder and principal contributor for the SKOR Career blog. He is the author of two books, The Malaysian Job Seeker's Dilemma and Buat Duit Tanpa Kerja Makan Gaji (How to Make Money Without a Job), available in major book stores nationwide. You can reach him at zulkiflimusa[at]gmail.com.