How to Quit the Corporate World, Bootstrap a Business and Survive

So you want to quit the corporate world and start your own business?

I admire you for that!

Cause I know it takes a lot of courage and self-believe to take the change your world.

To help you along your journey, here I share with you all the strategies and things I have done that has allowed me to survive 9 years of been my own boss.

Money

Having money doesn’t guarantee future success but it can buy you more time to work on your business until it can sustain itself and fund your lifestyle.

I highly recommend saving as much as you can. Have at least 6 to 12 months of savings to cover your monthly expenses.

A good way to find out where you are financially, I like to calculate my “Business/Life Runway” on a monthly basis.

This indicator pretty tells you how many months you have left before you go broke.

To calculate your Business Runway

Savings/Monthly Budget = Number of Months

1. First step is to calculate how much savings you have plus any future earnings
2. Second work out your average monthly budget for all your expenses for life and business.
3. Then Take your Savings divide by your budget to give you how many months you have left.

I found it really helps me to make better decisions on what I should focus on to ensure my runway continues to look healthy.

Business

Starting your own business is really hard especially if you doing it yourself.

You will find that you be wearing a lot of different hats all the time from sales, marketing, operations, support and even the toilet cleaner. Most of the time I felt I was out of my depth, but as time went by I got better through reading books, taking courses, taking action and failing a lot.

I recommend that you to start the business before you quit your job so you do hit the ground running. It will save you time and money.

Lastly stay on your path, don’t let other people’s “opportunities” distract you unless it is part of your plan. Because I failed to “Say No”, it end up costing me. 

Mind

Look after your mind. This is one of the most important thing you can do to ensure your survival.

I am no expert but here are some things that has helped me immensely on my journey.

• Meditation – has helped me be more focus, productive and reduce stress. If you never done meditation Brendon Burchard has a great mediation guide on Youtube. (Skip to 10:00 to get straight into it)
• Learning – This will keep your mind sharp.  
• Sleeping – Make sure you make this a priority, rest is important.
• Quit the world – Quit or limit yourself to social media, television, news and anything that distracts you.
• Massage – Whenever I feel drained or stressed out I like to go for a massage. For that 90 minutes I feel a release of stress and anxiety.  

Health

This should go without saying. Without you nothing works.

How I manage my health is by scheduling it into my timetable and making it a priority.

• Eat right – I aim to eat clean 5 times a week where I avoid process foods as much as I can. Think fresh food like meats, vegetables and fruits. I found that by doing weekly meal prep can really help, plus it will save you time and money.
• Exercise – I try incorporate some kind of exercise everyday which could be running, walking, weights or just 100 pushups.
• Go into the Light – I am guilty of not doing enough of this. Some fresh air and sunlight can do wonders to your mind and give you a boost of vitamin D. It can also be a great stress reliever.

Relationships

Maintaining good relationships with your friends and family is important no matter how busy you get.

I prefer quality over quantity. So most of the time I will be missing from a lot of group events and only pop my head up once in while to catch up individually. Apart from saving me time, I found that my relationships are deeper and more meaningful.

If you have a significant other, don’t neglect it or waste it. Make sure you spend the time to keep the flames going and communicate. One of my regrets, but it is what it is!

Hustles

Lastly if your runway is looking a bit thin, you don’t have to give up your business, there are tons of side hustles available including freelancing and the gig economy.

Don’t go broke because of pride, suck it up and just do them.

You must always protect and keep your dream alive.

There you go, that is how I managed to survive these past 9 years of my entrepreneur journey. I hope you found these insights useful and if you have any other tips please share in the comments below.