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
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.
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
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
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).
