Don't quit your day job
One of the best pieces of entrepeneurial advice that I've had so far was from my dance teacher Michelle Robinson, (an awesome entrepeneur who has set up Adelaide's best new ballroom and social dance schools Quicksteps):
"Don't quit your job until you have cash flow. It's really hard, but the longer that you can work the better off that you will be. I was running classes from a local pub until I had enough money coming in to buy the dance school floor outright. By the time I left my job I knew we would be able to pay the monthly bills, without having to worry about where the next paycheck would come from".
I took this advice on board and before leaving my job we had managed to get a $60 000 grant for our first project Spare Time. This grant will cover my wage and our business costs for nearly six months, which means that I can get on with the business of running our business, rather than spending the first few months just trying to get our first client.
Getting this grant meant that we spent six months effectively working two full time jobs- our day jobs and our start-up jobs. We put ourselves through a business development course at night to figure out our business model, participated in start-up weekends to try out our ideas and find out more about how we worked together, developed proposals in the early hours of the morning and registered our company during our lunch break. It was very hard work and there were many times when I wanted to give up and just start working on the business full time before we'd even received $1 for our work.
A few months and a very needed relaxation holiday later and I am so very glad that we didn't both quit our day jobs before we had some income. Our hard work has paid off and I can now get on with the business of working one (very awesome) job full time, whilst my co-founder Chad is continuing to work on his day-job to keep our income stable whilst we grapple with this thing called "cash-flow".
It can be really tempting to quit your job and start a start-up and for some people that is a real option. The idea of working for yourself from fancy cafe's and co-working spaces is really illusive and for some people it works out. For the rest of us, it's more likely to be a combination of awesome times and really scary I-don't-know-how-to-pay-the-bills times. If you are a risk taker and are happy to eat tinned spaghetti through the rough patches then go for it and quit your job. If you are more like me and a little addicted to your current lifestyle then put in the hard work setting up your business whilst receiving an income for as long as you possibly can. It's hard but it will pay off- your bank account will look better and when you do start working on your business full time you will be less stressed and better focussed.
Now that I've got some income- I'm going to work from a fancy cafe for the afternoon!
