The majority of us don’t have the funds to just jump from employment to self employment in a single bound. What if the venture fails? How will you keep paying the bills?

For most of us starting the new venture on a part-time basis is the answer. You can test your ideas out, maybe build a simple website rather than the flashy one you plan on for later etc. Now this part-time approach requires just as much commitment as the other way and thats where the approach sometimes falls over. We find ourselves juggling family commitments as well as work commitments, friends, activities and the rest all tend to soak up our time and energy. Here are a few pointers that might help you do it part-time:

Firstly make sure your family is onboard with the idea. You’re going to be spending many hours working on it. Best they understand what you are up to and some hours are set aside for it.

Are there aspects of your existing employment that could be useful to your plan? Maybe you can even spend some of your down time like lunch periods researching your ideas online? Understand I’m not suggesting you steal from the company, just be smart about the knowledge you have gained and your use of time. You will need to be aware of your own employment conditions on the subject of other interests.

Share the load with someone. Find someone to partner with and you’ll have not just a way to spread the work load but a sounding board for ideas. Two heads are invariably better than one so you’ll have someone to talk about your ideas with and agree on a consensus. Talk about it and inevitably one of you will think of something the other did not.

Set definite times for yourself and your partner to work together in one spot. It might be just one weekend day spent together while the other hours are worked alone on weekday evenings. Having that little bit of added pressure to live up to the others expectations provides motivation to perform as none of us likes letting others down.

Start small. If your great business idea has come about through a hobby interest then use your leisure time to test your idea in a small way. If the idea works and a profit is produced at the small part-time level then it will almost certainly scale up to larger profit at the full time level.

Use the findings of your small scale tests to set your targets as to what level is required in order to support you and your partner in a full time venture. Is it a certain number of website visitors? A weekly number of sales leads? Ensure the triggers for jumping in full time are agreed by you and your partner. Then when you know you can or will hit those trigger points you know its time to go full time.

Good Luck with it.