If you want to build your side business, you may be tempted to think of your day job as an obstacle between you and your success as a business owner.
If you could only free yourself from the daily grind of your nine to five, you would finally have enough time to fully pursue your dream job.
If that’s how you feel, I encourage you to pause before you submit your resignation.
Stay curious for just a bit longer as Michael Bungay Stanier encourages leaders to do and consider a new perspective about your current position.
That day job you’re so eager to escape can actually provide you with benefits you may not recognize. Benefits you can use to build your side business.
And, these positives of staying where you are in addition to the obvious reasons you’re going back to your workplace day after day.
The obvious reasons for keeping your day job
If you’re thinking about making your side hustle your full time job but haven’t taken that step of faith yet, I bet I know at least two reasons why.
First, you need a steady income. And, second, you need health insurance you can afford.
There may be other drivers keeping you at your day job, but these are the two big ones for most aspiring entrepreneurs. And, for good reason.
If you’ve been an employee of a company that offers benefits, you know the security of having health care insurance as a part of a group policy. The cost is likely higher than you want, but it’s almost always cheaper than what you’ll pay when you’re purchasing insurance on your own.
And, of course, having a paycheck arrive consistently week after week, month after month, year after year provides stability you might not initially have when you go out on your own.
These reasons for staying in your current job are obvious and important.
But, there are other, more subtle benefits of staying in your day job. And, once you recognize them, you may choose to stay in your current role a little longer.
Or, when you understand how what you have in your current position can contribute significantly as you build your side business, you may even decide to stay indefinitely.
3 ways your day job can help you build your side business
These three ways your day job can help you build your side business are based on my personal experience and the wisdom I’ve heard from many other successful entrepreneurs.
This certainly isn’t an exhaustive list. But, I hope it helps you shake off what might be a negative perception of your current position and have a more positive mindset.
By viewing each day you remain with your current employer as an opportunity to learn, you’ll position yourself to be a more effective leader in every role in which you serve. Whether that’s in the company you’re with now or in the business you own.
Here are three strategies to get you started.
1. Credibility
When you start your own business, you’re the founder and the owner. Those are impressive titles. But, they will carry much more weight with your prospective clients when you’ve been in business for a few years.
As you get started, the fact that you are the owner of your business doesn’t mean much until you’ve completed some successful projects and delivered results for your customers.
But, the title you have in your day job and the results you’ve delivered to earn and keep that title, give you credibility.
What you’ve done has allowed you to secure a position that reflects your reputation as a competent, trustworthy leader. This perception serves you well with your employer and with the customers in your side business.
You don’t have to have an executive position with a C-level title to have credibility, although that will definitely give you a voice with other executives if that’s who you want to serve as your customer.
It may not have occurred to you, but the simple fact that you are employed can help you in your side hustle.
Your employment is a reminder to your customers that another business owner or a company trusts you enough to give you money for the work you do.
It gives them assurance that they can also trust you with their money.
This may give you an edge over a competitor who is just getting started and hasn’t yet built a self-employed work history. And, technically may be unemployed.
Not only that, but if you are open with your employer about what you are doing, they may even be willing to serve as a reference for you.
That leads to the second way your day job can help you build your side business.
2. Connections
In your day job, you likely have coworkers. You may have hundreds of them or just a handful. Either way, you’re not alone.
But, when you first start your own business, you most likely won’t have any peers. That’s why they call it “going out on your own.”
You’re not flying solo in your day job.
If you are serving faithfully and leading with kindness, you are probably surrounded by colleagues who trust you. They want you to succeed in everything you do, including your side hustle.
So, why not let them help you?
When you are interacting with your coworkers each day and having normal conversations, what you are doing in your business will likely come up. They will share with you what they’re doing in their life outside of work, in the evenings and on the weekends. And, you’ll do the same.
What you will be sharing, however, will be the vision and status of your business.
You’ll naturally be talking about the products you are developing. The services you offer. And the type of customers you seek to serve.
In the course of these normal conversations, your coworkers will naturally think of their connections you may be able to help.
And, because you’ve demonstrated your competence and character in the workplace, your colleagues will be eager to connect you with their family and friends.
Once you leave your day job, these easy conversations you have throughout your day become much less likely to occur. And, the connections with customers these conversations can produce will be more challenging to build.
So, before you walk away from the steady flow of income, recognize that you are also walking away from a source of recurring connections with potential customers to build your side business.
And, there are other highly valuable opportunities you’ll be leaving too. But, if you’re not aware of them, you won’t realize what you’ve missed until you’re gone.
3. Education
One of the most valuable benefits of your day job is the education you’re gaining.
This learning may take the form of formal training.
If your employer offers instructional courses to help you in your role with the company and might someday apply to your side business, take full advantage of this opportunity.
By viewing the training material not only as an employee but also as a business owner, you may find it even more valuable and interesting.
Once you’re on your own, you will have to find and fund training like this yourself.
So, why not do what your employer wants you to do while also getting the added benefit of preparing yourself to be more successful in your side hustle?
It makes sense for you and it doesn’t take advantage of your company.
In fact, your increased attention and interest in a course will make you a more engaged student who retains more of the information you’re given. You’ll be more likely to apply the training in your role within company and in your side business.
Formal training isn’t the only education you receive in your day job that will help you in your personal work.
Every task you’re given or can observe someone else doing, is an opportunity to learn.
Because you will be the owner of your business, you will need to understand every aspect of your company. You most likely don’t have that broad responsibility as an employee.
But, someone in the company does what you will need to start doing when you’re in charge of your entire operation.
Your current colleagues know what you need to know.
That’s good news for you as you build your side business. But there’s better news.
Those experienced coworkers are probably very willing to share what they know with you.
If you just ask, they may be happy to stay after work for a few minutes to help you learn something new.
But, if you don’t stay at your day job, you won’t have this opportunity to gain this education to help you build your side business.
And, who knows, you may learn a new aspect of the work that’s done within the company and decide to pursue a new career path without leaving to make your side hustle a full time job.
You might decide you want to stay because you see a new way you can add value for your employer and for yourself as you build your side business.
And, that brings me to an important point.
As long as you are earning a paycheck from your employer, you should always be striving to add as much value as you can.
Serving your employer while you build your side business
I tried to make it clear in the examples I used in this post, but I want to be crystal clear just so no one misunderstands.
These three ways your day job can help you build your side business are NOT meant, in any way, to take advantage of your employer.
In my opinion, your side hustle should be a positive not a negative for your employer. This Harvard Business Review article supports my position.
If you are committed to working for yourself and your employer with full integrity, which I’m sure you are, there should not be any inappropriate conflicts of interest.
What you learn as a business owner will make you a better employee. And, as these three points demonstrate, your service to the company will equip you to better serve your customers.
So, I encourage you to pursue whatever side business you’ve started. Or, start a new one. It’s a great way to develop new skills and improve your existing capabilities.
But, don’t let your zeal to be your own boss prevent you from leaving your day job too early.
Make the most of the opportunity to build your side business while you’re still working for someone else.
Recognize these three ways you can learn and grow in your current role and look for others. Once you’re on your own, you’ll be thankful you made the most of the time you had working for someone else.
Let’s lead with kindness and confidence.
Greg
