Quitting a steady job to build your own business is no small decision. There’s a lot to think through, and it’s not just about having the courage to leave your comfort zone. You also need to consider what your finances and daily life will look like once the regular paycheck stops.
If you’ve wanted to start your own business for a long time, resigning may eventually be a step you need to take. But before you hand in that resignation letter, make sure you’ve done your homework.
So what should you prepare before quitting to start a business? Let’s get into it.
1. Get Your Finances in Order
The one thing you can’t skip is making sure your finances can hold up. Once you resign, your new business probably won’t bring in money right away, so you’ll need a financial cushion to cover your day-to-day expenses during the transition.
Start building an emergency fund that can carry you for the next several months. Ideally, it should cover around 6 to 12 months of living costs, especially if your business will take a while to turn a profit.
Beyond the emergency fund, take another look at your monthly expenses, any loan or installment payments, and the capital you’ll need to launch. Once you know those numbers, you can work out how much to save before you actually leave.
2. Research Your Business Idea
Already have an idea? Don’t rush to spend money on it yet. Before you quit and get started, make sure the idea has real room to grow.
Start with market research. Find out who your potential customers are, what they need, what’s trending, and which similar businesses already exist. A competitor analysis can also show you what could set your product or service apart.
Then do some simple validation. You could sell a small batch of your product, ask potential customers for feedback, or test the waters on social media. Validating early gives you a sense of whether the idea has potential before you put more time and money into it.
3. Put Together a Solid Business Plan
Once your idea starts to look viable, the next step is a clear business plan. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate document. You can begin by jotting down the key points that will guide you once the business is up and running.
That might include your target market, what you’ll offer, your marketing strategy, startup capital, sales targets, and financial projections. Think through the risks too. What if sales fall short of your targets? What if your capital doesn’t stretch as far as you expected in the first few months?
Planning like this can also help you decide how to divide your income while you’re still employed. For example, some can go to daily expenses, some to your emergency fund, and some to long-term assets.
If gold is one of the assets you’d like to build up, you can track prices in the Treasury app, where gold prices update every minute. That means you can see prices in real time before deciding when to buy, and keep an eye on the market while you work on your business plan.
4. Build Up Your Skills
Running a business takes skills that may be very different from the ones your current job requires. Besides knowing your product or service inside and out, you may need to learn about marketing, customer communication, financial management, and digital marketing.
You don’t need to master everything at once. Figure out which skills matter most for the kind of business you want to build, then use your time before resigning to start learning them. It’ll leave you better prepared to handle the many demands of running a business, and to work through problems on your own.
5. Talk It Over with Your Family
Quitting to start a business isn’t purely a personal decision, especially if you have a family or dependents. A change in your income affects the whole household.
So it’s worth talking things over with your family first. Explain why you want to start a business, where your finances stand right now, how long it might take for the business to start earning, and what risks you could face.
Open communication helps your family understand your decision, and they can support you through the transition, and through everything that comes after you’ve left your job.
6. Get Mentally Ready for Change
Financial readiness matters, but so does mental readiness. Business rarely goes exactly as planned. Sales may be inconsistent, your targets may feel out of reach, and strategies you worked hard on may not pan out the way you hoped.
You need to be ready for uncertainty and whatever challenges come up. Don’t let the decision to quit be driven only by a desire to escape your job, with no plan for what comes next.
Staying open to learning, reflecting on your mistakes, and trying new approaches will help you get through the tough stretches of building a business.
7. Set Up a Safety Net
Besides an emergency fund, consider assets that can be part of your medium- and long-term financial planning before you resign.
Gold is one option. It can be a useful way to diversify your assets for long-term goals. And if you need cash for an urgent expense or startup capital after you quit, you can use the Jamimas feature in the Treasury app.
With Jamimas, you can use the gold you own as collateral to get emergency funds through a pawn arrangement. You can put that money toward urgent needs or as seed capital for your business, while your gold stays safely held as an asset. Once the business starts producing results, you can repay in installments according to Jamimas’s terms in the Treasury app.
This lets you run your business without having to give up your gold. You can also build your safety net gradually while you’re still employed, so you have assets to draw on when you need them in the next phase of your life.
Quitting your job to start a business can be a big step in your career. But the courage to take that step should come with solid preparation.
Getting ready takes time and effort. You’ll need to think about a lot: building your emergency fund, calculating your startup costs, and making sure your finances stay secure through the transition.
Building up savings and assets for life after resigning can’t happen overnight either, so it’s best to start while you still have a steady income. One way is to set aside money regularly to build long-term assets, with gold being one of them.
