How To Move From Self-Employed To Business Owner

Congratulations, you took the bold step of transitioning from being an employee to becoming self-employed.

You can now enjoy some of the freedom that being self-employed affords you.

But as you will soon realize, being self-employed is only the first step.

That is, if your goal is to achieve real freedom like having more time to spend with your family and friends not buried in work or being able to take well-deserved breaks without the fear of losing business, or if you want to achieve financial freedom, not one that is tied to how many hours you can work.

If this sounds like you, then you have to take another step – to become a business owner.

How? In this article, we will share with you four (4) steps on how to move from self-employment to business ownership.

How To Move From Self-Employed To Business Owner in 4 Steps

1. Think Different

On the surface, you might not see the difference, but in reality, a business owner and a self-employed persona have different mindsets.

And for you to move from being self-employed to becoming a business owner, you need to think like a business owner.

The self-employed person has an “if I want it done right, I have to do it myself” mindset, which no successful business owner has because that mindset is limiting.

It keeps the self-employed person tied to the business, limits the business from growing, and makes it difficult for the self-employed person to trust and hire someone else to do the job.

Another mindset that needs to change to become a business owner is ignoring the business part of running a business.

Most self-employed treat their entities as though the only thing that is required to grow is just creating products. They ignore much of the marketing, customer service, or even the big picture stuff.

2. Do Your Homework

You may not have needed to do any research in your industry before leaving your job for self-employment because of your years of experience and industry knowledge, but if you must successfully move from self-employment to owning a business, carry out some research.

You might think you know your market or industry, but it will shock you to see just how little you know.

To avert the failure that comes from entering a market with shallow knowledge and false assumptions, research the current state of the market, talk to experts on the different components critical to the success of your business and talk to your would-be customers to understand the problem you intend to solve for them.

You can also use Google and other platforms like Nigeria Stat, business publications, your competitors, etc. to facilitate your research.

In the end, you should be able to understand the problem you want to solve, who you are solving for, why it’s important for them, who your competitors are, and how you intend to position your business.

3. Create a Business Plan/Strategy

Now, put everything you learned in the previous step to creating a business plan that would guide your operations for the next three to five years.

A business plan is not some bulky document businesses create just for the sake of it.

It lets you properly document and visualize how you intend to run your business, highlighting the problem you want to solve and for whom, your solution and value proposition to target customers, the market size and potential, how you intend to finance your operations, and navigate the challenges that may affect your business, etc.

Most self-employed individuals do not make use of business plans but as a business owner, you would need to put all this information about your business in writing because it helps you take a broad look at your business and easily share that vision and strategy for success with your partners, investors and employees.

If you need help creating a business plan – Get The Small Business Handbook for a detailed step-by-step process to creating a simple business plan, plus business plan templates, you can easily customize.

4. Learn & Experiment

There are many more steps that you take in your new role as a business owner. Unfortunately, you will not find them all in one place.

Hence, the need to be open to learning. As a business owner, you have to be open to learning new things by attending seminars, or webinars, reading helpful business books, speaking with experts and networking with fellow small business owners.

But that’s not all, you also must learn to experiment. Try out new things, innovate, look for better, more efficient ways to perform business tasks–and such unlock opportunities to grow.

Being a business owner is tough, even tougher than being self-employed, but your ability to learn constantly and experiment would improve your chances of success.

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