Marketing Career Zone

With more and more Marketing professionals feeling uneasy about their job prospects, many are considering whether now is the right time to start their own business or go freelance. Are you one of them?

Whether you are thinking about starting a business on your own, investing in a franchise, going freelance as an interim marketer or going into business with a friend or colleague, your ability to market what you’re offering is going to be the single most important skill you have. Your income will be directly related to the number of products you sell or how much of your time you can sell to customers or clients.

Are you ready to think about running a business or going freelance?  Answer yes to one or more of these questions and you could already be on your way:

• You’ve got a clear idea of the products or services you might sell
• You spend spare time dreaming about your idea
• You’re secretly jealous of other people who have already done it
• You can fairly spot where you bosses are making mistakes
• You love learning about and talking about business
• You watch TV shows about entrepreneurs and
• You’re starting to think that you might be ‘unemployable’ because you can always see opportunities to do somethng better or faster and you get frustrated when politics and procedures hold you back - you just want to get on and start making it happen!
• You get the sense that you’re destined for bigger and better things

Going out on your own is a very exciting option, but it can also be daunting because it can be daunting thinking about giving up a regular income and either investing your savings in the business or taking out a loan at a time when you might be trying to reduce the amount the debt you have!

As someone who’s made the leap herself, I can certainly say that it’s worth it.  The freedom you have is amazing and you don’t have to spend weeks if not months waiting for decisions to be made by commitee.  You decide that you want to change something in your business and you make it happen.  Plus, you can take 100% of the credit for your successes - there’s not some office weasel lurking in the background ready to pass off your achievements as their own!

Of course, it also means a certain amount of sacrifice.  Unless you’ve already run a business or you have an in-depth knowledge of running someone else’s business, the learning curve is steep and you’re often learning by making mistakes along the way.  You will be unable to accurate predict your income for at least the first few months.  If you’re going into a B2B market it can mean giving up evenings to attend networking meetings at the chamber of commerce.

One way around this is to do your homework before you jump in feet first.  Talk to other people you know who either work in small businesses or run a business.  Ask them whether they would be prepared to give you some of their time to act as a mentor and teach you about how they did it.  Read business biographies and business books (you can see an extensive range of books in our Store).  And, most important do your due diligence - find out if there really is a market for what you’re offering (even if what you’re offering is your time as a freelancer) and write a business plan.

The more planning you put in at the early stages, the greater your chances of success.  Don’t wait until the day after you’ve resigned to think about what kind of business you’re going to start!  Allow yourself at least six months to build up your business in your spare time before giving up the day job and when you do, find out whether your employer would let you work part-time while you’re getting your business off the ground with the option to come back if it doesn’t work out.  This is not the time to vent your anger at the company in the exit interview - you never know what the future might bring!

Copyright Hannah McNamara 2008