Finding Value in your 9-5 Job While Cultivating the Resources to Become an Entrepreneur

By: Marie, guest blogger

If, like most of us, you are stuck in a job where you feel like a 2/7ths of a person, here are some coping methods for surviving (and finding value) in your 9-5 job while cultivating the skills and knowledge to become an entrepreneur.  

Have a hidden agenda: Your employer might even like it.   

Wow, she’s really so passionate about marketing, sales and improving our numbers! She seems to want to learn everything! Whether you sell Bic pens, maxi pads or you are a high profile stock broker , think of your current employer as a place to get a free education and find aspects of your job you can apply to your own business in the future. If you don’t have a job that provides the opportunity to practice many entrepreneurial skills such as sales, marketing, product design or finance, think about getting a new one and make a strategic plan to fill in the gaps in your business knowledge.  

Are you really 110% passionate about selling more maxi pads or pens for your current employer? No, probably not. But you are 110% passionate about figuring out how to sell your own products down the line, so soak up as much free knowledge as you can from your employer with your own end result in mind. Hopefully, your extra passion will yield rewards both at work and in your future business, where you can pocket all the revenue from the entrepreneurial skills you honed at your present job, not just collect a small bonus at the end of the year. 

In some cases, choosing your job carefully can have other benefits. For example, I knew that I wanted to have a social media component to my future businesses.  While working in the marketing department of a prominent architecture firm, I had a chance to work on campaigns with some of best consultants in the industry. They had launched campaigns for big companies like Verizon and Pizza Hut. On my own, I would have never been able to afford them, but through my company, I got exposure to their knowledge and saw them create a campaign.  

Learn to Multi-task: Really multi-task, not just read e-mails and pick your split ends at the same time.

If you are innovative and entrepreneurial, chances are you thrive on finding ways to do things better and being in control of your own schedule and activities.  If your job doesn’t provide these freedoms and rewards, it’s probably driving you insane (hence the split end picking and endless trips to the water cooler). 

In almost any job, there are mundane aspects that don’t require full attention. 

If you work in a place where every other person has the headphones on and spends the day listening to Pandora, try plugging into Audible.com instead. Google the “Top Ten Books For Entrepreneurs” hit download, and thank your employer for paying you to educate yourself out of your job and into your own business.  

Get shot with rubber bullets: You can always return unscathed to the comfort of your cubicle. 

Having a job while trying to launch a business or pursue an idea is both great and incredibly frustrating. You have the salary you need to support yourself if your business isn’t generating income, but the 40 hours per week you work make it hard to focus on your business as much as you would like.

So what is a rubber bullet and why should you want to get shot with one?

Rubber bullets are small business lessons or even failures that lacks the consequences of real world business failures.  Rubber bullets let you learn from your mistakes quickly and with little risk. They can save months (or even years) of wasted time and prevent you from loosing money.  

So, where and how can you find these rubber bullets? 

One way to get shot with rubber bullets is to create experiments to test and validate business ideas with a minimal investment of time and money. Both the Four Hour Work Week Blog and App Sumo (more information below) outline how to spend $0-$250 to test a business idea before quitting your job and spending your life savings.  

If you are craving something more interactive, events like Startup Weekend (also descried below), provide a “safe” platform to test ideas quickly, find co-founders, get feedback from serious entrepreneurs, and if your idea is successful, possibly acquire the help of venture capitalists and start up experts to make your dream a reality. If you attend Startup Weekend and your business idea fails, great! You got access to advice from experts quickly and learned in a weekend rather than a decade. 

Additional resources: 

Four-Hour Work Week Blog

www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/

Watch out, this one is like crack. You find yourself dazing off while staring at the boring rows on Excel spreadsheets and then it hits you, stronger than a 3 pm sugar craving:  a compulsive urge to see the bright orange background of Tim Ferris's blog and find out what awe-inspiring feats of creative money making. If the Hindu pantheon of Gods included one for entrepreneurship and lifestyle design, Tim Ferris would be it.  Vishnu, even with your 9 arms Tim Ferris manages to do more than you. Living vicariously through Tim and his blog, you can accumulate hacks on everything from staying in a four-start resort for next to nothing to launching a business over the weekend. 

One word of caution: Tim is undisputedly a marketing genius. Achieving the goals he outlines in his book maybe a bit harder for mere mortals without a supply of marathon-like energy 365 days of the week than he would like to admit. An interesting read and good resources nonetheless.

AppSumo
www.appsumo.com

Do you like to watch videos of skinny nerdy guys in fat suits? I do. Entrepreneurship lectures of Harvard Business school beware, your stuffy Power Points can't hold my attention like the fat jiggling from Nevil's middle section as he discusses increasing pay per click conversion rates by 300% or how to make copy writing about sans serif fonts sexy. These uber-nerdy 20 somethings were among the original employees of Facebook, Mint and other companies, between them they've done millions in business. So yeah, I think it's legit. 

StartUp Weekend

www.startupweekend.org 

StartUp Weekend is a 54-hour long working session that brings developers, designers and experienced entrepreneurs together to validate and create real businesses, are great places to test the real world viability of new business ideas (especially ideas related to technology) in an intense setting with the help of experienced mentors. 

Participants find out if their idea has what it takes to succeed in the course of the weekend.  Local venture capitals, marketing and legal experts are often on the panel of advisors and will provide hard-hitting advice on key aspects of your business strategy (and shoot you with some rubber bullets).  

University Alliance Scholarships- Internet Marketing, Supply Chain, etc.
http://www.universityalliance.com/
Every year, the University Alliance gives away 50 scholarships for about $2,000 each. Although this scholarship won't be enough to take all the courses required to gain a certificate in one of the fields they offer like Internet Marketing, Supply Chain Management or Sales Management, it provides the opportunity to take a crash course in a subjects that can help you grow your business. If your employer has a tuition reimbursement plan, request the remaining $3,000 or so (to cover the other two required classes) for the certificate you choose.

Meetup Group

www.meetup.com 

Meetup.com is a free way for people in the community to connect, share interests, expand skills and socialize. Scott Heiferman, Co-Founder & CEO of MeetUp and serial entrepreneur, tells the story and describes the value of Meetup.com best.

In the meantime, hopefully these resources help you develop skills and find like-minded people to help cultivate 7/7ths entrepreneurial ideal (while surviving and finally eliminating the 9-5).