How to Start a Business on Your Own While Having a Regular Job

Many employees think of starting their own businesses to pursue their passion and find fulfillment doing something they love. Others want a side hustle to earn extra backs a week to supplement their 9-to-5 paycheck, while a majority want to create an extra stream of income as a path to the financial freedom land.

Whatever your need, leaving your full-time job to pursue a business idea can be a scary proposition. Bills won’t stop coming! Luckily, things have changed a lot in the digital age. With the advent of online lending and eCommerce, it’s now easier than ever to start a side hassle right from your house. 

Gone are the days when you had to fulfill tough conditions from the traditional owners of capital. Today, you can easily obtain small business loans from a fintech lender at favorable terms and start selling smartphone accessories, shoe protectors, or jewelry and fashion accessories right from your living room.

This article will help you decipher how you can start your own business while keeping your 9-to-5. Let’s dive right in!

Steps to Starting Your Business While Having a Regular Job

Don’t Void Your Employment Contract

New startups may take six months to several years to start generating profit. Thus, you’ll need a steady flow of income until your business breaks even and starts paying you. That’s why you need your 9-to-5 so that you can pay bills as your business grows.

Make sure that your entrepreneurship spirit doesn’t lead you to blindly sever your relationship with your employer. You need to review your employment contract to make sure whatever you do doesn’t interfere with your ability to execute your employment contract.

• Also read this: 5 Things All Startup Businesses Need

Know Your Passion

Running a business alongside your full-time job won’t be easy. It requires real passion and effort to do something else after a long day of work. To surmount the roadblocks and avoid sinking into depression, you need a business idea that aligns with your passion so that you can find the energy to push yourself to wake up early in the morning or sit late at night pursuing your dream.

Think of what you would like to do after you retire, or something that you’ll passionately do without getting paid. Once you have found your passion, build your business idea around it.

Start Building Savings

It takes money to build a side-hustle from the bottom up, and it won’t be easy to get a small business loan from a bank without business revenues or trading history. 

Start saving money to fund your business. You can decide to set 10% of your paycheck every month to build a solid cash reserve as you prepare for the launch date. That’ll help you cover the initial costs of your business without any form of debt. 

After running your business for one year or so, it’ll be easier to obtain small business loans from online lenders to float operations, expand, and grow in the market.

Prioritize Your Time

Keeping a full-time job and building a part-time business on the side leaves with a tight schedule. You won’t be able to maintain the same lifestyle as before. Overhaul your schedule to create enough spare time to focus on your business.

Decide what’s important to you, and cut all non-essential activities. Maintain a list of activities that you’ll cut out, and a target list of business activities and responsibilities you’ll accomplish each day before or after work. 

Outsource

Don’t try to accomplish everything by yourself. Since you’ll be keeping your full-time job, know when to enlist additional help running your business. For instance, figure out who will fulfill orders or answer customer queries when you’re at work.

Don’t Choose the Wrong Business

Any business that doesn’t qualify as part-time will be out of the question. You can only venture into a business that doesn’t consume much of your time and effort. Consider part-time business ideas like blogging, eCommerce, freelancing, online tutoring, or part-time good/grocery delivery.

Partner with the Right Lender

Finally, you’ll need money to keep your business growing and running smoothly. Most businesses fail due to a lack of financing. That’s why you need to access small business loans quickly to buy inventory or cover a cash crunch. 

You’ll win out here if you seek financing from fintech lenders rather than traditional lenders. Unlike banks, online lenders offer simple online application processes and have short approval periods of 1-2 business days.

• Next read: Things to Know About Starting a Business in Singapore