Should You Quit Your 9–5 Job and Become a Solopreneur? Let’s Ask Emma
Are you still wondering if becoming a Solopreneur is for you? Hunched back, pale skin, and swollen limbs all seem to be in the cards for the future office worker
That looks scary, right? This is not a Halloween costume. You could be looking at your future. Yikes.
UK-based Fellowes, a company manufacturing office supplies, teamed-up with behavioral futurist, William Higham, to predict how office workers will look like by 2040 — enter Emma.
How many times per day do you catch yourself sitting at your desk with a hunched back? It happens to me all day long and I’m fairly tall which makes it even worse.
That’s not all — bloodshot eyes, varicose veins, swollen limbs, and pale skin are only a few of the consequences.
It’s not too late to change so let’s not panic just yet. I took a leap and you can, too.
Let’s first look at the current state of your life.
You shouldn’t make any harsh decisions before you’re ready to.
When I first started reading about entrepreneurship, following your dreams and quitting your job, it all sounded wonderful but my reality was very different.
I was living by myself in a foreign country; as much as I believed in myself and in what I was doing, I couldn’t just quit my job and hope for the best. Maybe that’s why I’m still not a millionaire, who knows.
If you want to do this, you need to make sure you have a plan to fall back on. Once you have that part figured out, it’s time for a reality check:
- Does your job cause you physical or emotional discomfort (e.g. headaches, back pain, exhaustion, anxiety, depression)?
- Do you find yourself thinking about how to complete tasks at work in your personal life?
- Do you spend more time talking about work with your loved ones rather than their lives?
If you answered yes, as I did, on any of the questions above, you’re most likely overdue a career change.
How to Go About Becoming a Solopreneur
As I said, I couldn’t just quit my job. If I didn’t make it, I wouldn’t be able to pay for my rent or even buy a flight ticket back to my home country.
For a while, I tried to continue my full-time job and do it as a side hustle.
I was waking up in the morning and listening to podcasts before work, then I was reading terabytes of information when I got back home, and finally, I’d try to write in the evening.
I couldn’t keep up that rhythm for long.
I first went into solopreneurship because I was unhappy with my job. It was only inevitable I’d forget about it once I started succeeding at work.
So I decided to bid my time. I kept learning new skills at the office while studying and reading about personal branding, social media marketing, building an email list, and so on.
Eventually, I felt I was ready and I had learned everything I could have from that job. That’s when I quit and moved back to Portugal.
Being a solopreneur is hard — you’re doing everything solo, — so you must have a support system in place. For me, that was my family.
Should you mimic the steps I took to become a Solopreneur?
Not at all, that’s exactly my point. For me, it meant honing my skills and keeping in touch with my industry. For you, it might mean taking a course, or going part-time, or quitting your job.
Offices can be wonderful learning environments, but you need to understand it should not be your “forever job.” Get what you need and get out.
All you have to do is focus on the end-goal, not on how fast you’re getting there. As long as you devise a plan to get you out of that office job, you’re on the right track.
A good way to prioritize your tasks effectively is to separate them between must-do’s and it-would-be-nice-to-do’s (I know, it’s not the catchiest name). I cover this method at length in a different story article.
Once you split your goals, it’s easier to move forward.
I preferred to prioritize acquiring knowledge over taking action. Does that mean I’m taking longer to achieve what I want? Yes, it does. But this is the pace I’m comfortable with, and I’m okay with the progress I’m making.
Sure, there are days I curse myself, and I wish I had done everything from day one. I’m only human, after all. But then I look back at everything I learned, and I look at everything I can do today.
Today, I’m capable of doing so much more and adapting so much faster to change — and that’s only possible because I progressed at my own pace.
Find yours and stick with it. Don’t let demotivation, or jealousy, dictate your actions. You have to rely on discipline instead.
Discipline is the ability to make yourself do something you don’t want to do in order to get a result you really want to get — Andy Andrews
You Still Have Time to Course-Correct
Remember, Emma is what we look like 20 years from now. If you want to avoid that future, you still can. You’re only married to your job for better, not worse.
5 Steps to Become a Solopreneur
- Do a reality check on your current situation;
- Prepare a backup plan;
- Decide on the best course of action for you;
- Prioritize your goals between must-do’s and it-would-be-nice-to-do’s;
- Start implementing at your own pace.
Whether you start today, next month, or next year, there are no wrong answers here. It took me 3 years to be serious about being a Solopreneur so you can take your own time, too.
Once you decide you’re ready to become a solopreneur, be sure to check out The Free Solopreneur Starter Kit, a compilation of free tools and resources to help you get started.
Do you see yourself in Emma? Do you agree with this prediction?
Join me for weekly tips on How to Be a Solopreneur.
My name is Mauro Sacramento, currently a Solopreneur and Writer. I’m originally from Portugal but I’m currently living in Bulgaria. I’m obsessed with Superheroes, Netflix, anime and video games!
