You often hear “overnight” success stories when it comes to people who have quit their jobs to start a business, but it doesn’t happen that way. It takes a lot of work and planning to get there. If you’re fed up with the 9-5 grind, you may have considered starting your own business. We did it and you can too. We’ll show you how to quit your job and actually start a business. Know what you’re getting into before leaping from your cushy paycheck to starting your own business. The Bar Has Never Been Lower If you want to start your own business, it has never been easier or less expensive to do so. The internet and all of the tools it has opened the possibility of starting a business to almost anyone. Funding can be raised on Kickstarter. An online store and drop shipping website can be created with Shopify. You can target local customers with Facebook ads; you can take credit card payments on your cell phone with Square, you can outsource payroll and other HR stuff to Paychex Flex. What is Your Passion? I don’t believe that you have to be crazy passionate about something to create a successful business around it, but you do have to enjoy to some extent what you do when you start your own business. Why? Because you are going to spend a lot of time doing it and if it’s something you hate, you won’t be able to stick with it long term. You can stick with a 9-5 you hate if you’re making enough money or can go home and not have to think about work until the next day. But starting your own business is so all-consuming that there is no getting away from it, at least in the beginning so while your business doesn’t have to be your one true love, you can’t hate it either. Before You Bail Quitting your 9-5 job to start your own business is not just taking a plunge, it’s more like submerging yourself into a whole new world. It takes a ton of planning, and there are many considerations. Is it Realistic? Take your product or service for a test drive to see if people will pay for it, don’t go all in cold turkey. Test, test, and test again. Don’t sink $50,000 into making cat sweaters only to find out cats don’t get cold. Do small trials, see what works and what doesn’t and make corrections based on those findings. Make it Official If you haven’t already done it, make your business legitimate by setting up an LLC or S Corp. Legal Zoom makes this process easy. Becoming legit also lets you take advantage of the many tax deductions that are available for small business owners. Not a Unilateral Decision If you have a spouse, you can’t decide to quit your job and start your own business without their approval and support. Presumably, your spouse knows that you have been working on your own business for some time. Before you tell them you are ready to quit your job to work on your business full time, make sure all of your ducks are in a row and show them. You have a runway; your business is already making enough to support you without your 9-5, you have health care lined up, quitting means you will have more time to spend together. Whatever qualms your spouse has, you need to have an answer for. If they are not on board, you may not be able to quit yet. If that is the case, ask them what they need to feel comfortable with your decision to quit. And then start working toward that. Set Some Benchmarks Set a series of goals for yourself and don’t quit your job before you reach them. You need to be free of credit card debt; you need to make enough money each month to pay your rent or mortgage for six months in a row, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices