Do you want to start a business on the side while keeping your day’s job? If YES, here are 5 sure tips to run a business effectively while being employed. Coping with the demands of your day job is a big struggle in itself. And the struggle becomes even bigger when you have a side business that you are nurturing. In fact, things could get so difficult that you start considering placing your side business on hold. Does that sound familiar? Then you are not alone.
Now, get it clearly: your decision to run a business while being employed full-time is a great one, no doubt. This is especially true during these tough economic times where jobs are no longer secure and people need to earn more than what their jobs offer to make ends meet. So, starting and running a side business to earn some extra income is a smart step.
Many owners of successful small businesses started those businesses while they were still fully employed. You too can build a successful business while still on a full-time job; though it is not easy. Here are five tips for running a business effectively while being employed:
5 Sure Tips to Run a Business Effectively While Being Employed
1. Work harder
Running a side business while having a full-time job means double work. It means sleepless nights. It means reduced time for hanging out with friends and family. And it means no weekend breaks and holiday vacations. Running a small business is already hard and time consuming especially at the early stages when you are just getting to understand the market and spread word about your business.
In addition, building a business requires a lot of brainstorming, strategizing, planning, and implementation. Now combine all of that with a full-time job and the pressure suddenly doubles. Now, the double work involved should not deter you from carrying on with your plans. In fact, you should see it as a challenge that you need to overcome to be successful.
2. Manage your time effectively
Effective time management is one of the hallmarks of successful entrepreneurs. To run a side business effectively as a full-time employee, you need to gauge the time requirement needed by both commitments. You need to divide your time perfectly between both, based on the time demands on each.
How you will divide your time also depends on what your side business involves. Running a side business that requires you to meet with clients regularly or work with tight deadlines is far more difficult than running one that doesn’t entail all these.
For example, if your side business is a blog that you are building with the aim of generating revenue from direct adverts, then you can work on your own schedule and may delay writing a new post until after your office hours. But if you are running an asset management business that requires you to meet up with clients, you need to figure out when you can go out to meet them without hurting your day job.
3. Don’t allow both commitments to interfere with each other
When you are running a side business as a full-time employee, there are times when you will have to answer an email from a client during work hours; using your own smartphone or personal computer. That’s still understandable. And provided you respond to only few client queries, you shouldn’t have any problems.
But you will be infringing heavily in your employer’s rights by going out of the office for a couple to meet a client from your own business. And most employers will frown at you for using spending time they are paying you for on your side business or other personal projects. Unless you want to lose your day job, work on your side business only after office hours. And if you think this is just impossible, then you can consider sticking with one option.
4. Avoid using your employer’s resources for your business
When running a side business along with your full-time job, you could easily get tempted into using some of your employer’s resources for your business.
For example, you might want to use your office photocopier to make copies of a document you want to submit to your own client. Similarly, you might want to quickly use the office phone to call your own clients or receive calls from them. It goes without saying, but your employer will not want to be paying for expenses you have incurred in your own personal business. Aside that this won’t go down well with any employer, it’s plainly unethical.
5. Consider business ethics
When your side business is in the same line of your business as your employer, you will have the same target market as your employer. In this case, you need to be very careful, as you might easy get tempted into luring clients away from your employer to your own small business.