How to Escape the Corporate Rat Race and Create your Dream Life

It’s interesting how some things are coming back again to you after years.

I was an English teacher long time ago and I taught managers from different companies to communicate in English. I worked on my own, I was a master of my time and a class schedule and I even had a tiny English school. But I found out there were actually some disadvantages too. You need to dedicate your time when the client has time, so my classes were from early morning till late evening. When the client cancelled the lesson you are not paid. When there is a period of time when no one wants any lessons such as during summer holidays or Christmas time you are not paid. Basically the money I earned was very uneven, some months were great, some other were very insecure.

Finally I decided to go to corporate to gain that security and build my career there…

Time has passed and after 15 years in the corporation, I started to feel overwhelmed, burnt out and sometimes bored. I started dreaming again about building my own business, not to work for somebody to build theirs. I wanted to be my own boss where I don´t need to beg for holidays, do something I am passionate about, have more time for my family and friends and have financial freedom. So I finally decided to quit the corporate rat race and create my dream life.

So how can you escape the corporate world and live the life you want?

1. Know your Why

You are choosing to take on the extra workload of building a business, in addition to your current job – this is a massive undertaking! It’s going to stretch you in every human way possible, financially, timewise, physically with all the extra hours you’ll need to put in, emotionally when times get tough and even spiritually when you will need inspiration from elsewhere just to move forward that day when it seems hopeless.

Why do you want to take on such an enormous challenge on top of everything else? There has to be a great purpose that drives you each day to get out of bed and be motivated. When times get really challenging and they will, your why, if strong enough, will be the only thing that carries you forward in that moment.

You constantly need to challenge your why and see if it is as strong as you think it is and is it long term…not just a feel good wish of yours. Your why will fuel your passion and this will come out in every action you undertake. Follow your heart. Be a part of something you believe in. Do something that matters. This could be anything – big or small, local or global, personal or world-changing. The key thing is that it has meaning for you. Don’t settle for less than you deserve.

2. Think about pros and cons of leaving your corporate job

Leaving your job can make sense due to various reasons. In fact, many people consider making career changes right now. While there are many advantages to changing your career, there are still some risks related to it. Let´s see some of the pros and cons of leaving your job you need to know in order to make a profound decision regarding this important topic.

3. Follow what you’re good at

There’s never been a better time to start a business. But, quitting your day job and launching a business isn’t that simple, especially if you aren’t sure what kind of business you should start.

First, start with what you have – your skills. What education or work experience do you already have under your belt? If you have graphic design experience or a photography background, this can help lay a foundation for a business instead of starting from scratch.

Then, consider your other strengths. What are you good at? What do people ask your advice about? When you start with a skill set you already have and enjoy, it will make launching a business much easier. Use already gained knowledge or certifications. Are you Microsoft or Adobe certified or are you a coach?

4. Think about your niche – scale down as much as you can

The most important aspect of setting up and running a successful business is knowing your ideal clients within your specific niche. Choosing a niche market is a crucial step for anyone starting a new business. After all, it’s impossible to create a product or service that meets the needs of all audiences. People are different, and so are their interests and demographic profiles. By defining a niche for your brand, you determine the audience you’ll be talking to, and consequently, the strategies you’ll be using to convince them to buy from you.

Whether you open a business in a unique industry or a saturated market, it’s critical to differentiate yourself from the competition to win over your audience. The more specific you get, the more likely you’ll be able to differentiate yourself from competitors. This is especially important as the competition among almost every industry grows. For example, niche product ideas for shoes for women would be shoes for plus-sized women or shoes for nurses, niche product ideas for health and wellness could be oil diffusers or mushroom-infused coffee. My niche in coaching is trading psychology.

5. Check if there is a need for your business

True business opportunities meet needs or solve pain points people have in their lives. The best way to discover these needs and pain points is by being intimately involved in a particular field or industry. Most successful entrepreneurs have worked in the industry they start their business in, in a related industry, or are very familiar with the products, services, and problems through personal experience. They discover a need and verify it through first-hand observation. You generally don’t discover pressing needs by joining a think tank, learning how to brainstorm, or sitting in a university class.

There are many aspiring entrepreneurs who have fallen in love with an idea; it’s clever, cute, and even fun. The only problem is, no one needs it, wants it, or is willing to pay for it. I tell them, “You have a great solution—now you need to find a problem it solves.” It’s far easier to do it the other way around: Find the problem first, and then create the solution. If you need the product personally, that’s great. If all your friends, family members, colleagues, and work associates need it, that’s even better.

6. Assess your finances

Map your finances. Starting any business has a price, so you need to determine how you’re going to cover those costs. Do you have the means to fund your startup, or will you need to borrow money? If you’re planning to leave your current job to focus on your business, do you have money put away to support yourself until you make a profit? It’s best to find out how much your startup costs will be.

Many startups fail because they run out of money before turning a profit. It’s never a bad idea to overestimate the amount of startup capital you need, as it can be a while before the business begins to bring in sustainable revenue.

Make a plan for how you will fund startup costs. There are plenty of options available to a budding business owner. The first and most common place to seek capital is with friends and family. If that is not enough, expand the search to angel investors and venture capitalists. Should these options not provide the amount needed, then apply for business loans through banks and small business associations.

7. Research your competition

It is important to know your competition to truly understand where you stand so that you can determine the profitability of the market. Understanding your competitors will enable you to identify market gaps and fill the gap. You’ll get to establish your unique value proposition and determine whether the market is oversaturated or not. Knowing your competitors will give you an idea of how to outrank them by studying their strengths and weaknesses. Competitor analysis and monitoring your performance will help you be well-equipped with making improvements along the way.

Just because you have a brilliant idea does not mean other people haven’t also had the same idea. If you can’t offer something better and/or cheaper than your competitors, you might want to rethink starting a business in that area.

Why is research so important?

It will give you a better idea of whether your business has potential or not. You will also learn how big the market for the product or service might be. Assess the market before opening your doors. Understand the industry you wish to enter, as well as its major players and your future competitors.

8. Get to know your ideal client in detail

Do your market research and get to know who your ideal client is in in-depth detail. Understand who they are, what they need and the language they use to define it, then tailor your offerings to their needs. This audience will be the driving force in each decision you make. Understanding who needs your product or service can help fine-tune your offerings and ensure your marketing and sales strategies are reaching the right people.

It is crucial to make sure you are delivering what your customer wants, not what you want. This will give you insight into your customer’s buying decision and save you lots of experimenting down the road.

Here’s the trick: Make sure you are part of your target audience. Think about it. If you’ve been camping your entire life, you’ll understand the problems, desires, and language of other campers. As a result, it’d be much easier to sell camping products online. Plus, your marketing will be more successful because you’ll have a better understanding of how to communicate with other campers. On the other hand, if you’ve never been camping in your life, you’d probably struggle – a lot – to sell camping products online.

So, when choosing a target audience, ask yourself:

• What are my hobbies and interests?
• Is there anything that I know a lot about?
• What do I spend most of my time thinking, talking, and reading about?

As the business consultant Peter F. Drucker said, “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

9. Educate yourself

There are many things that you will need to know or do as an entrepreneur. Your current education cannot cover all necessary competencies to enable you successfully to start and run a business. You need to continuously educate yourself.

As an entrepreneur, you will have many roles in your small business. But, it doesn’t mean that you will need to give up on your dream to become an entrepreneur and build your own business empire. You will simply need to educate yourself and build your knowledge, skills, and experience, or as a possible option to outsource some of the things that are not important for the company.

Being an entrepreneur requires you to wear many hats, which often means that you have to take on more roles than you would be comfortable with. In a big company, there are a few essential roles that make the company tick, helmed by various people — HR, marketing, accounts, administrative, etc. Starting your own business means you’ll need to take on all of them.

Consistently acquiring new skill sets and experiences is the hallmark habit of a great entrepreneur.

10. Hire an expert – you don´t need to create everything yourself

Entrepreneurs often feel they need to be capable of handling every business need themselves. For example, if you need help building an ecommerce store or an expert specialising on SEO marketing, it has never been easier to get to Fiverr or Upwork and find your wizard there. Remember, as an entrepreneur your job isn’t to do everything – it’s to establish and grow a successful business!

Hiring an expert can save a lot of your valuable time. In general, experts can move more quickly, as they already know what needs to be done for a project and have experience doing it. Experts don’t need much oversight. In fact, with many projects, you just have to explain your goals and desired outcomes and the expert can drive work on the project right away.

You can focus on what really matters. Hiring experts to do the core tasks of your project will help you focus on other areas of the business that need your attention the most. By allowing the experts to be experts, you can give yourself the freedom to put more attention to the other things that need to be done. It will also help you spend less of your time and energy worrying about the project because you know that an expert is doing the heavy lifting for you.

11. Test your business before you leave

Don’t wait to leave your current job before starting your own business; start it while you still have it. Dedicate whatever time you have available to starting the business and see if it is viable, scalable and something that you will enjoy doing full-time.

Test your business as a side hustle to refine your mission, define your target audience and navigate the roadblocks you will encounter in your first year of entrepreneurship. If you don’t take the time during the evening and on weekends to work on your side hustle, then you probably don’t feel strongly enough about it. Start having an “affair” with your future business. If you can’t do that, then you would be better off not putting your “marriage”—which is your full-time job—at risk.

Conclusion:

While there are no guarantees that your business will succeed or fail, thinking about those steps that helped me to escape the corporate job and conducting a feasibility study will help you determine whether your idea will make a profit much before you make any substantial investment be money, time & energy.