Maybe the time isn’t right to take the leap…

Dear Aunty B,

I have a plan, a bit of money from my grandmother and an office (the spare room). I am ready to jump but don’t know if the time is right. I have to hand over my resignation to my really nice boss for a great job that is the envy of my friends. I have written my resignation but every time I go to hand it over it ends up in my drawer. I make up lots of excuses like the GFC and not enough research, so I stay in my job.

So many start ups also fail! How do I make the leap? Maybe this means the time isn’t right?

A,
Vic

Dear A,

Now take a deep breath. Leaving to start your own business is like having a baby. There is never a right time. Handing over that resignation is like taking a blind leap in the dark. And how attractive is that?

It does make it hard if you are leaving a great job. And in the days to follow when it is really tough you won’t have the bad days at your old job to compare.

But leave you must. You are feeling what every sane person experiences when they walk out of their job to start their own business.

And maybe you have to be temporarily insane to put yourself through the next few years of on occasion, pure torture.

But leave you must.

You are infused with the entrepreneur spirit and unfortunately that doesn’t just find a dark corner and die.

Now let me correct your assumption that so many start ups fail. They don’t! What is high is “business discontinuance”.

Many businesses that are discontinued do not fail. As study by Headd in 2003 showed that owners of one third of all companies that closed their doors said their firm was successful at closure. Now we know that entrepreneurs can be slightly delusional due to their optimistic natures.

But then they go on to say that they continued their business in another form.

The commonly quoted survey says about 80% of businesses failing never looked at the reasons the businesses had “failed”.

In fact, Australian Bureau of Statistics data says that most businesses, especially those that employ staff are alive a few years later!

So let’s take a “worst case scenario” approach and say you do fail. So what? As long as it is an honest failure and you “fail” in time to pay off your creditors. You are then dubbed an
“entrepreneur recycler” (yeah an Americanism).

So gather up your courage, close your eyes and leap!

Good luck!
Your Aunty B

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