Corporate vs owning your own business

​The transition from the corporate world to owning your own business – a practical guide.

In one’s transition away from the corporate world to owning your own business, there are two major factors that would influence your decision of the way forward. One being your financial status and your skill set.

Assuming these are in place, I am just going to focus on the essentials that you need to take on your new journey.

By having exposure to the corporate world, you would only have achieved relative success by employing very specific processes over the years. Some of the processes you would have followed would have been understanding and adhering to the budgeting process, evaluation of financial statements / achievements every month end, monitoring marketing strategies, being able to adapt to change, interaction with customers, identifying market opportunities, etc.

The most important aspect of all would have been the personal discipline you employed in working towards implementing and achieving all of the above.

In the corporate world, you probably walked out of a boardroom at some time or another and thought, “I would have done that differently if it was my decision to make alone”.

Having your own business gives you that opportunity, to make the decision in the best way you see fit.

However, once you have made the decision to take the “LEAP” to leave the corporate world and buy your own business, there are a few things you would have considered:

1. Why am I making the change?

a. Is it to make more money?

b. Is it to live my passion?

c. Is it to be my own boss, and make decisions and changes the way I see fit?

(Remember, never let personal pride get in the way of lateral thinking.)

2. In the corporate world, when the time came to prepare your annual business plan and / or budgets, you would generally have a team of operational people and financial guru’s around the table to assist in producing the end result.

a. In your own business, you will be the operational team as well as the financial guru who has to produce the business plan for the year, as well as review your results at every month end.

Remember - the reason why the company you are leaving, is called a corporate business, is that it has been successful in achieving its goals for a number of years. Therefore, it is important that you follow the processes mentioned above to achieve a similar type of success in your own business. Have knowledge of the industry you are looking at starting / buying your business in. It is important to know what factors influence your business, what the market trends are, etc.

In conclusion,

1. Remain motivated;

2. You have the freedom to make your own decisions, so make them, and work at them every day;

3. Never be afraid to ask and learn more. Never have we had so much information at our disposal as is available on the worldwide web today;

4. Maintain your self-discipline; and

5. Remember that there is no better fulfilment than that of personal achievement.