Episode 46 | How to Transition from Full-Time Employee to Full-Time Business Owner with Less Stress!

Sophia Noreen: Hello everyone, welcome to another fantastic episode of the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen, and I'm going to be your host for today.   I wanted to bring up this topic so many times in past episodes, but today's the day that we are going to talk about when should you leave your nine to five career or job because a lot of individuals really struggle with this situation.  Many people are sitting in a stable income career or stable income job, and they want to go full-time in their passion project, their side hustle, or they decided to start their entrepreneurial journey but they have not yet taken the plunge and said, "I'm done."

And guys, truthfully, I'm not done either.  I am still employed by the government as a clinic manager, and so I still am transitioning from the traditional nine to five job or career moving into space where I would be the one completely in charge of my own destiny.  I say that with a little bit of reluctance because I do know there are multiple things that will come in your way when you're on your entrepreneurship journey. 

When you are starting your own business, that you do not have full control over.  We spoke about it in past episodes when we speak about productivity and we speak about the circle of control,  but let's face it when you're working your nine to five job, when you're working in your career, when you know that there's money coming in, it is really, really satisfying. But at the same time, you feel like you're not truly committing to your business and your goals in your business.  

But I want to speak to why it is important to be really diligent before you actually go and say, I'm done with my nine to five. I'm done with my career in this format, or I'm done with this particular job that's bringing me a stable income.

The reason I want you to be really diligent before you actually go ahead and take that leap is that many people forget that financial security or financial income is essential for your happiness and for your productivity that you will need to be productive in your business or your side hustle. 

Many people forget that it's really, really, really difficult to have that upbeat attitude, to want to strive every day, to want to be able to show up and be your best self if you are struggling to make the rent, or struggling to make the mortgage, or struggling to feed your family. We do not want you in that situation. We want you to be in a situation where you feel gratification from your business, not a hardship. And so,  one of the reasons that I continue to work part-time is because one, I do enjoy my job.  I actually really enjoy the clinical work that I help facilitate in the clinic.

Now, I am a manager at this point but I trained as a physiotherapist and I work as a physiotherapist. For our US friends, a  physiotherapist is exactly the same thing as a physical therapist, it's just another name. And so, I trained professionally in that career and I continued to love supporting other health care practitioners in the clinical setting.

I actually genuinely love my job, but at the same time, it provides me the security, the financial security that I need at this point because let's face it. This is a brand new business, in all honesty, but it's only been around for about three years. And within those three years, we only sell it for about eight weeks, maybe 12 weeks now within a 12-month cycle.  So really and truly, this is a brand new business. For me to expect it to pay the bills plus pay all of the financials for the business.

Now, I'm speaking about Also Sophia, which is a product-based business. If you have not heard, we do have a product-based business. This is the Boss It Podcast, and the Boss It Club is our service side of the business,  which we just started last year in 2020 September. So really, both sides of the business, the service side and the product-based business are very new.

It will require some investment. it will require time to be able to get out there, and one thing though we have to realize is that eventually, you do want to have a transition plan out of your traditional career or your traditional job.  The reason I say that is because it's really difficult to start even considering leaving your traditional job or your traditional career if you don't have a transitional plan.  For many people too risky, right?  

When you assess your own risk tolerance, you have to ask yourself, will I be okay if I step away from this career? Or will I be okay if I step away from this job?  And if the answer is no, I have to pay the bills financially. I need to understand that if I leave my job, will I get another job?

These are things that you need to consider before you even consider the thought. Do you have to think about what are the plans that you need to make for your smooth transition out of the traditional job setting?  Now, with my situation, I went part-time. I worked full time. I worked full-time for a number of years, and then I went full-time into a manager role.  And then I went part-time into a manager role that allowed me the flexibility to satisfy all the domains that I had, that was important to me in my life.  So now what you can consider doing is, okay perhaps you could find a career or find a job that'll allow you to work part-time or work casual, or work as a contractor.

That way you're not leaving the job necessarily from having a full-time stable income, and then you go straight to zero, and you're like, "Great. Now I need to get that client." or "Great. I need to sell X number of products to make rent."  We don't want that for you. We want you to enjoy your business journey. We want you to enjoy the entrepreneurial journey. 

In order for you to enjoy it, we need to ensure that you are basically taking care of all the risks. We want to mitigate the risks that you will be taking when you step away from a stable income job or career. What you can start doing is brainstorming. So I want to try to transition out of a full-time career or job, what are other options for me to do while I build my business up? Now, naturally, people are leaving their full-time job or careers because they don't have time.  And if we look at a few domains in your life, we know that time, energy, money, all will contribute to you being able to execute your business. 

Most of the time, the reason why a business will fail is because of a lack of execution. If you don't have time, money, or energy, especially time and energy, after you go through your nine to five career and job, and then, of course, you take care of all the other elements of life such as family if you're raising a young family, there's not much time and energy left. 

So if you're leaving your career,  you're leaving your full-time career and job because you need to take back your time and energy, and this was my situation because you want to refocus that time and energy to not just your family but also this budding new business. Then you need to, of course, look and see, "Okay. Is there something else? Is there another type of job?  Is there another type of career, or is there something else I can do in the meantime while my business is still growing?" Because there'll be times when your business will not be able to provide you the stable income that your nine to five business and career we're offering.

It's just the risk of doing business. You can speak to any entrepreneur who is now extremely successful. I always referenced Sam Walton, the late owner and founder of Walmart, because it is the biggest retailer globally. He even went through many hard trials and tribulations.  I know before they went public on the New York Stock Exchange, there were $2 million in debt, and that was in the 1970s. So I know with inflation that's much higher than 2 million today. 

The reason I bring that up is that his family was, of course, feeling the effects of carrying that large debt.  So every entrepreneur will have these struggles, and you're not going to be the only one, so why don't we try to mitigate? 

Now, my suggestion is to think about what types of jobs could you do to Moonlight? What types of jobs could you do as a contractor?  If you're fortunate enough to secure a full-time permanent rule, would that work for you?  And that is the first step I think, and one of the most important steps I think in building up a transition plan out of your full-time job and into your full-time business.

The next thing you need to consider then is your timeline. What timeframe do you want to make this transition?  Are you someone who likes to get things done immediately, and you'll execute the plan within weeks, or are you somebody that needs time psychologically to change your behaviors, or change your mindset?

Because there's a big difference, and we will likely talk about this in another episode on the podcast and on the YouTube channel, but we will talk about an employee mindset versus an entrepreneurial mindset.  They're different, so we won't talk about it in this episode but in a future episode, we will definitely, definitely, definitely talk about it because I think it's a very important topic,  especially when you're transitioning into running your own business.

But those are the things that you have to consider. Does it take you a while to transition? Does it take you a while to manage change? Do you want to have support from many people in your circle, in your family's circle, and your friends' circle to support you as you transition from your full-time career into your full-time business?

If you do, you may want to take time and build that network of individuals around you, who will rally against you as you take that plunge. And that is, in my opinion, one of the more important things that people should do when they are planning their transition plan is develop a network of friends. Develop a network of families who are rally against you and be there for you because it will be difficult.

You will have days when you're like, "Did I make the right decisions?" and you'll be doubting yourself. That is another big thing you should do, which you should consider when you make your transition plan, is to have a network of individuals. So not only do we look at the timeline, we need to look at the people who will support you during this timeline. Who's going to be there for you when you're doubting yourself?

There are a few more points I would like to touch on, but I'm going to wait because I feel like they need a full episode on their own because it really dives into that employee mindset versus the entrepreneurial mindset, and the thing is that you really need to have so that you can execute as an entrepreneur.

One of those things is your habits and how you are going to reallocate your time when you have the time now because you've left your full-time job. So we will save those two concepts for future episodes, and if you have not done so yet, you can definitely subscribe either on the podcast or on the YouTube channel, because that will help you immensely if you are now transitioning out of your full-time job or transferring out of your full-time career.

The last thing we'll talk about right now is your mindset, and how you need to basically tell yourself that "Yes, you can do this." It is really difficult when you're leaving your full-time job.  You will have doubt after doubt about if you made the right decision.  And remember, if you have planned your transition well, that doubt will be less. 

If you have given yourself the opportunity, the timeframe, if you have safeguarded with taking additional moonlighting jobs, or if you work part-time in addition to running your business, then the doubt will be less. Again, if you have a network of individuals surrounding you even if you have doubt,  they will stand up and say, "No, you got this. You got to give it a try. You will always, always regret it if you don't." 

I got the quote behind me, and for those who are listening to the podcast,   the quote behind me says, "In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take."  So again, if you are listening or watching this, you're likely somebody who has been thinking about, what am I going to do? How am I going to get my business off the ground, if I have no time or energy at the end of the day because I've worked all day long for somebody else, or for something else? 

And again, there's no shame in having a full-time job.  There's no shame in being an employee, and there's no shame in being a part of a bigger team or organization. But if you do have that burning desire to do your own thing, then you have to listen to that burning desire.  You have to listen to that wisdom or the intuition that you are being presented with, and you need to just go for it. But please, please, please have a good transition plan out of your full-time career or your full-time job,  because in the end, we do not want you to be stressed out when you are transitioning and transitioning to your full-time journey as an entrepreneur.

We want you to enjoy it because again, it is a journey. It's not a one-and-done. You will not see all the results overnight. It will be an up and down hilly climb,  but hopefully, it will keep going up.

Okay guys, so I'm going to go from the top.  We spoke about having a solid transition plan when you go from a full-time employee to running your business full-time. That transition plan can incorporate you taking another job before you go full-on into your business. So again, we spoke about looking at your options, make sure you have a good contingency plan. If for whatever reason you're not getting the clients or you're not getting the customers that you anticipated, we also spoke about giving yourself a timeframe. 

Ask yourself, are you somebody who needs to adapt to the change quickly? Are you somebody that needs more time to adapt to the change? Or are you someone who can pull the plug and get it done right away?  And then with that, you need to have individuals that will support you. I actually think most people should have a good network,  despite if you are a fast changer or a slow changer, you should have a network of individuals who will lift you up when things are not going as planned. 

Finally, we spoke about your mindset. You need to really provide yourself with those things that are going to keep you motivated and keep you grounded and say to yourself, you are doing this because there's a burning desire, there's an intuition within you that is motivating you and pushing you forward.  Having that mindset saying, "If I don't try, I'll never know." or having a can-do mindset saying, because it's been brought to you this though, this energy, this wisdom has been brought to you, it is your responsibility. 

That's how I reframe many of my doubts.  If, for example, I'm having a bad week, day, month, we launched two seasons out of our three during a pandemic so guys, if I didn't have that can-do, needs-to-be-done attitude, I likely would have shut down Also Sophia, but I didn't because it's been brought to me to complete and accomplished. 

So whatever it takes, change your mindset because once you rally that mindset behind your transition plan, and you can write it down somewhere, it will become a lot easier when you have small hiccups along the road.

Again, guys, we will talk about in future episodes the difference between an entrepreneurial mindset and an employee mindset, because we have a few bigger topics that I want to speak about, but we will save that for our next episode together.  

Okay, guys, that's all I got for today, and remember, make a plan and take action because yes, you can have it all.  And we'll see you guys next week, same time, in the same place. Bye for now.