Challenges of Starting a Business while Holding onto Current Job

While it is tempting to hold onto current job while you are starting a small business; it may prove to be quite challenging.
As we mentioned in the previous blog post many of our friends, colleagues and aspiring businessmen want to jump into small business out of frustration resulting from jobs (or lack thereof) in this difficult economic environment. However, they still want to hold onto their current job to ensure they have a fall back place in case things don’t work out with new business and several other reasons.
While it is certainly understandable that people would want to play it safe and keep the current job while business is getting established you should not underestimate the challenges of operating in this fashion. Below we have highlighted many of the challenges you will face when working at your job and starting a business at the same time. We hope that by understanding these challenges you will make informed decision and understand what to expect if you do decide to go forward.

1. You may not simply have enough time to do both
   As we mentioned in the post on myths and realities of starting a business running a small business is a 24×7 duty. You add to this the demand of your current job and you are setting yourself up for a very demanding schedule. Even when you hire a manager and employees to take care of many business tasks there are still many items that you, as an owner, have to look after. Be prepared to say good bye to your evenings and weekends at the very least.
2. You may miss out on sales and networking opportunities
   If you have a day time job that requires you to be at work from 8 to 5 (or majority of the day) you may not be able to participate in many of the networking opportunities that mostly occur in the day time. If there are large sales opportunities where you need to meet with the potential customer in the day time you either have to delegate it to someone else to take time off from your work.
3. You may not be able to focus well either on job or on business
   Many business owners we know who are in this situation complain about this. You are always thinking about what might be happening at the business when you are at the job and may not be able to focus on your job. This may hurt your rating at the job. Now, if you are planning to leave your job in few months anyway you may not care about it; but you still want to be careful about not sacrificing your work at the expense of business and vice versa.
4. Your business may not ramp quickly or may even decline
   While it is certainly possible to run business with manager and employees in your absence it will not produce the same results as when you are running it yourself. It is even more critical that you are physically present at the business in the early stage. Without you being there; the business will not grow as quickly as it can and may even decline putting you in a very precarious position.
5. Some franchises require you to run your business full-time
   Many of the franchises we have come across explicitly rule out applicants who cannot devote their full-time attention to the business. The reasons are obvious. They don’t want owners who are not going to pay full attention to the business. Otherwise it will not only hurt their business; but also damage the franchise reputation.

Have you gone through this type of experience yourself? What is your opinion?