Most people, when becoming an entrepreneur, dream of running their own business full-time.  Be it working from home or in an office, the freedom of doing what you love (hopefully) as your “job” is typically a driving factor when starting a business.  While this dream is a great motivator, there are some things you need to know before making the move from full-time employee of someone else, to full-time employee/employer of your company.

1. Know Your Business

Is your business seasonal?  Can you survive on a lower income some months than others?  Lots of people see their business perform wonderfully for the holiday seasons and make double or triple the revenue of most other times of the year.  This increase in revenue can be a driving factor for deciding to move full-time into the business, but often the thought that this increase won’t last is nowhere in the entrepreneur’s mind.  Things are awesome when business is up, but always be prepared for the down season as well.

Is your business on an upward trend?  Are you making more money this year than you did last year?  Maybe your seasonality is better this year by a bit, but what about the rest of the time?  Overall, what does your revenue look like?  If your business growth has been stagnant for the past few years or quarters even, what is your plan to pick it up?

Does your revenue outnumber your expenses?  Do you actually pocket money?  If you will be doing this full-time, I would assume you would want to bring home some type of salary.  You may have been investing all profits back into the business for the past few years.  If so, you need to determine if your business can survive without that re-investment.

2. Know Your Lifestyle

Are you prepared to scale back your lifestyle if necessary?  Everyone jumps in assuming the best.  You tell yourself, “I am making money now, why wouldn’t I make money later?”  Lots of things could happen that could cause a lull in business.  Are you stretched to the limit with your lifestyle or could you eat ramen noodles for a few weeks or months if necessary?  This is a tough conversation for some people to have.  Whether it be extra money to go out or just to put in the savings to invest, there may be a time where that needs to go to other expenses.  You have to be ready for that possibility.

So in that same vein, what is the bare minimum you need to bring in every month to live and pay your bills.  You need to know that number.  Consider any extra lagnaippe and be happy to have it.  Once you have that number, figure out if your net income from the business can cover it.  If so, awesome!  If not, decide if you can cut back or wait a bit longer do jump.

3. Know Your Personality

Are you a results driven person or are you internally motivated?  If you don’t see an increase in sales after devoting all of your time to your business after jumping in, will you get discouraged or will you stay motivated and keep pushing on.  For some people, it’s difficult to stay motivated to work at a business when you don’t feel you are seeing a return on your investment, be it time, money or just the effort you give.  If you find yourself getting discouraged, or depressed even, by the results you are seeing, maybe working for yourself isn’t the best idea.

Are you a planner?  Can you stay on schedule or are you easily distracted?  I can tell you, this is something I struggle with constantly.  I WANT to be a planner, but I am very easily distracted with other things that I need to accomplish.  That being said, I will soon be writing a post detailing ways that I am trying to keep myself on task.

Can you have that tough conversation with yourself if it doesn’t work out?  Sometimes this happens.  People jump and regardless of how hard you try, how much of the above you do correctly, the revenue just doesn’t come.  You have to know when to tap out.  This doesn’t necessarily mean closing your business, this just might mean getting a part-time job to help with expenses, or maybe jumping back into the full-time work space if something interests you.

I’ll be honest, there have been times where I have been approached to jump back into full-time employment for another company and I have considered it a time or two.  Great positions with a great salary…less stress.  Who knows, that may be an opportunity in the future, but right now, I know I am right where I want to be.