I need your experience and advice to help me make a #life changing decision.
Hi #steemit community,
My dream is to develop software as a service that makes someone’s day better, answering only to my users and enabling me to pay my bills and work remotely now and again. I’ve no desire to be rich, I just want to enjoy what I’m doing, be proud of the product and spend time with my family as much as I can. I want to start my own #business and I need #steemit community help.
Why am I so scared to take the plunge? How do I know if i’m ready?
About me
I am in my early thirties and work in IT project delivery in the the UK. I am responsible for delivering the company's IT projects including; web applications, mobile apps and third party system integrations.
I fell into IT project delivery having spent years web testing and PHP programming. I am passionate about agile, lean and scrum methodologies and get a lot of satisfaction improving processes and working with new technologies and delivering beneficial products for our users.
Entrepreneur?
Back in the 90’s as a teenager I lived with my parents and started a number of business ventures including building, overclocking and selling PC gaming rigs. I did OK for a kid with no overheads, but ongoing support and maintenance of sales was too much for me to worry, after all I had to worry about my AOE micro ;-)
I moved on to study A-Levels at college leaving business creation on stand still and went on to obtain a degree in Business Studies. I’ve read loads of motivational books inc. The four hour work week, The lean startup and Business model generation.
A history of entrepreneurship, a decent education and a degree in Business, this guy is guaranteed to become the next del-boy, right? Wrong. Somewhere along the line I got scared. I lost the courage to give it a go and remain a slave to the pay check.
How do I push myself to take the plunge and why have I not already?
Starting a business isn’t rocket science, right? My father did it. My siblings have done it. Why can’t I do it?
- Waiting for that perfect idea
-- I feel that my ideas are never quite good enough, they are not “the one”, “the next FaceBook” or “#steemit”. - Reliance on the pay cheque
-- I quickly got comfortable with a small but regular income. Can’t beat buying family and friends presents, drinking and eating out, even funding a car (embarrassingly it was a Yugo). - Negative feedback from family and friends
-- It will never work. Stop wasting your time. - Lack of energy to progress ideas
-- Eagerness to please my boss. I ceaselessly quested for praise at work. I wanted my boss to be proud of me. I spend a lot of my energy on this never-ending goal, leaving me less energy to progress my ideas. - Competition
-- I needed what my peers had. First a flat away from your parents, then a flashy car (although I’ve never had much of a flashy car lol), then it’s wining and dining in nice restaurants and before you know it 10 years have passed, you’ve spent thousands on pointless crap and you’re still a slave to the paycheck. - Lifestyle
-- Upsized property, good food, car, sky subscription, holidays and an eve-online subscription (oops, did I type that?). I am scared to jeopardise this. How to I crush this fear? - Savings/funding
-- With little savings I always used as an excuse not to invest in an idea. Now that I have savings, what am I waiting for? Am I scared? Might as well spend the money on replacing the kitchen, right? - Experience
-- I once lacked project delivery, business management skills and contacts to help me along the way. Having built IT delivery teams and delivered a myriad of projects over the years this is no longer the case. I am well versed in MVP to prototype an idea cheaply.
Do you really have to quit your job?
I have read many times that it’s hard to make a new business idea work unless you really need it, and you won’t need it until you quit your job. How can I quit my job with a young family and mortgage? Why can’t I start a business and hold down a full time job? Should I pay for a business coach? Why can't I validate an idea in my spare time?
What more could I want?
I work at a fantastic, forward thinking company and enjoy delivering some really cool IT projects with a group of extremely talented people. I get paid enough to pay my bills and buy the odd Indian takeaway, go on a couple of short holidays a year. I am settled down with a wonderful woman and father to a baby girl (now just over 4 months yay).
The guilt
There’s a constant nagging feeling that I am not pushing myself, that I could be more, that I could have more free time to spend with my family and not have to commute for hours per day on the expensive and unreliable UK transport system. I’ve carried this daemon with me all my life, it won’t shut up.
A snapshot of a few a few seconds of my thoughts
Can I ever be happy working for someone else? What is wrong with me? Am I scared of failure? What if I let my family down? Do I need the next one in a million idea? Can I copy another business model but execute more effectively or offer a slightly different USP? How do I know if i’d be successful, how do I pick the right business? Should I buy an existing business? Should I start something from scratch? Should I go solo or recruit a team? Should I go into business with the Mrs? Should I go into business with a friend? Is it the idea I need, or a shove in the right direction? Should I count my blessings and get on with my job and life and forget running my own business? Is the grass greener on the other side? Will I have less time for my family if I go solo? Should I try contracting as an IT Project Manager, Product Owner or Business Analyst first to ween me off the regular pay cheque, knowing that i’d have to spend even more time commuting into London?
Am I crazy?
Why #steemit? What do I want from the community?
I’ve seen some very successful #entrepreneurs posting on #steemit, I would love to gain guidance from this community. Can you help me? Am I ready to start an idea? Where should I start? What should I avoid? Has anyone out there been in my position? What did you do? Do I need a push? Help me #steemit community.
Thanks to everyone for their insightful posts, there is a great deal of quality content here and we, the community, are to thank for that. Can you help free me up of guilt and push me to be someone better?
Cheers
Jimbo