A think piece by S.Papadopoulou, MSc.
“All rising to great place is by a winding stair”
Francis Bacon (1561-1626). Essays, Civil and Moral, Number IX “Of Great Place
In his Civil and Moral Essays, Francis Bacon prods people who zealously seek purpose and life meaning to be prepared to bear the cost of a turbulent journey. There are no shortcuts to excellence, prosperity and self-growth. The English philosopher’s insightful observations seem to be especially accurate in the case of unfulfilled professionals who seek to exchange a corporate lifestyle for the perils and thrills of launching their very own businesses. The windy staircase in the case of corporate escape refers to a common motif running through almost every corporate escapee story; corporate escapism is, before everything, a fundamentally personal experience that demands an identity transformation: the employee becomes an entrepreneur.
Do you feel that you are on that track, “sitting on the fence”, fidgeting with the idea of whether to take that leap of faith? If the answer is affirmative you first need to realize that enjoying a quality of life, building your dream job, realizing your talents and potentials while serving your community and empowering those around you, might not be an unrealistic aspiration, after all. Creating meaning and value (through the right work choices among others) is one of the most fulfilling and significant legacies an individual can build in his/her life (Maddi, 2013). “Very well, but how do I start?” may be the next reasonable question. Educating oneself on the potential challenges as well as practical (re)solutions, beforehand is one of the best ways to venture in the world of entrepreneurship. The present article focuses on bringing you ten (10) points you might need to ponder over, before takeoff.
Ten common corporate escapee challenges & remedies
We will start our discussion with a very common set of four fears many entrepreneurs/corporate escapees face:
- Fear of losing financial security & falling short to support family expenses.
- Fear of falling short in the eyes of colleagues and being criticized.
- Fear of not knowing the rules of the game.
- Fear of failure and self-doubt.
Entrepreneurs are by nature standing over the edge of chaos. They face and are expected to engage in very crucial decision-making activities that are fundamentally connected with the experience of fear (Arnaut & Ergun, 2015; Damasio 1994; Kilmann et al. 2010). Abandoning the safety of steady monthly paychecks and well-established peer groups can be extremely stressful. Such changes can shift the very structure of one’s identity (Hessels et al., 2011).
Remedy: See through the corporate myth and establish a supportive social network. As illustrated in the majority of corporate escape stories the secured lifestyle, a corporate context may offer is not guaranteed. Many employees find themselves stuck or becoming redundant sooner or later no matter how successful they have proven to be. The key is to ask yourself the right questions at this point: Do I belong here? Does this position and organizational culture align with my personal values? According to Jahoda’s work model (1982) monetary rewards and status are not the focal drivers that fuel an individual’s motivation towards work engagement, but rather the opportunity to extract meaning and life purpose.
Along the same lines a large corpus of organizational psychology and business literature identifies that the fit between personal values and a company’s mission is a significant predictor of productivity, job satisfaction, overall life satisfaction and organizational commitment (Anderson et al., 2008; Cable & Parsons, 2001). In this light, choosing a context that fulfills one’s personal values, work ethic and channels the internal human need for purpose is in any case a meaningful choice. However, the journey from a big corporate to becoming an entrepreneur can be a very lonely one. A great advice to overcome this challenge would be to proactively network, seek likeminded inspirational people, expose oneself to relevant communities, look for mentors and invest in building a supportive family climate.
- High Competition & fund seeking struggles.
Launching your idea in a novel market, perhaps very different from the one you used to work in as a corporate employee, with new rules and high competition, might seem extremely daunting and discouraging. The stakes are higher when you need to compete for funds and convince your potential investors on the viability of your vision.
Food for thought: How to successfully pitch yourself?Focus on answering key questions: Who are you? What purpose you serve? Who you serve? Why you do what you do? What difference do you bring on the table? What platforms you use and how can your clients connect with you? In addition, a good advice would be -if you still feel uncomfortable in your new identity- to practice using the word “entrepreneur” directly whenever you introduce yourself in networking events.
Remedy: Create a validated business plan. According to Barney (1991) an organization can achieve a competitive advantage in the industry and differentiate itself, by fully utilizing its internal potential e.g. resources, human capital etc. This observation is applicable at a micro-level to entrepreneurs as well. To ensure a scalable business, a founder must transform his/her intellectual internal potential (ideas) into a solid business model. “Falling in love” with one’s idea, overweighting one’s vision might be the hugest blind spot-trap for the entrepreneur: an idea is not a business model. The first is cheap, can be found almost anywhere, whereas the latter takes a lot of effort and meticulous planning of appropriate strategies.
But what it means to formulate a scalable business plan? On the previous paragraphs we described how important is to start by identifying your personal values and vision. At this stage the focus should be on strategic staging/positioning. As a new founder you must first do your market research: evaluate the market environment, discover the potential gaps in demand to be filled, identify the problems your company can solve (Johnson & Scholes, 2005; Porter, 2004). There are many models and techniques of creating, running and testing a business model (e.g. PESTEL model by Porter, 2004). In essence, however you must be able to answer three questions: What problem are you solving? Who are you solving it for? What makes you different from all the others already tackling the problem?
Educating yourself and getting the right help is key at this stage. Start by reading books on project management, attending workshops, webinars and hiring a business coach to navigate you through the process. Surrounding yourself with likeminded people and business founders who have been in your shoes will facilitate your decisions at this stage. The premise is to identify if, where and how you can create value with your business idea within a given market.
The outcomes of the process? Creating a measurable value proposition before a growth hypothesis is what will convince your potential investors to engage financially with your project, resolving the funding challenge. Moreover, creating value will principally differentiate you by ascribing you the position of the expert in a field. Being an expert means you can use your network in multiple ways; either as direct clientele or as “an army of marketers” referring your brand to others. A good way for your vision to snowball into tangible success!
Food for thought: Once you formulate your business model pilot test it into the real market. Go out and ask customers using meticulous research methodologies that can offer you measurable and meaningful information on your model’s strengths and weaknesses (Kirkpatrick,1994). The key is to seek for genuine constructive -even harsh at times- feedback. Make sure to test your idea on a wide pool of potential customers rather than concentrating solely on getting confirmation through continuously pitching your idea to a very narrow group of people.
- Customer reception challenges.
Is my business idea attracting clients? Where do I find clients, anyway? Struggling with fears that your idea might not appeal to clients is a very common pain for entrepreneurs. However, the important question to ask is whether your business is attracting the right clients.
Remedy: Learn well your ideal client. Identifying your ideal clientele is a pivotal part of setting up your business plan (Harter et al., 2002). You want to know who you would like to serve, what are their needs, their specific demands. Prepare yourself by gathering firstly your demographics and psychographics through an online research. Then move on to the most insightful part of your methodology: gather the small data directly from your clients. Immerse into their daily life, experience where they live, observe their off-line personas, their language, their favored communication platforms, their fears, interests and education (Galbreath & Rogers, 1999).
Sometimes you don’t have to look too far in order to find the right clients: you can start by using your given network (even colleagues from your previous corporate position can serve as an excellent referral base). By and large, the idea is to keep an overall proactive mentality (Scott & Bruce, 1987) by approaching the appropriate communities and employing a coach or a virtual assistance to support you in your research. Getting a good buyer input will facilitate the implementation of successful marketing strategies during the later stages of your product development (Anderson et al., 1994).
Food for thought: Attract ideal clients through a LinkedIn generation system. Make your profile compelling by including a good photo, good headlines, good summaries and reports that speak to your ideal type of market. Manage along these lines your recommendations that work as proofs of your social credibility. Lastly use the platform as a Rolodex to track down lists of second degree connections that can bring you closer to your ideal customers.
- Prepare yourself for failure.
Founding and managing your own business is not going to be an overnight success. The idea behind this trend is that today’s market is by and large a very fluid and dynamic landscape (Handel, 2012). New competition, new market demands, socio-political circumstances, novel types of clients and new technology available drastically shape the way businesses function. As a result, the entrepreneur and his/her business vision must evolve alongside all those elements.
Remedy: Strategic focus on growth & sales. Shift your focus from developing your content alone to building a solid sales and marketing strategy. Two great pieces of advice in this direction involve “not burning sales time” by making sure you only preoccupy your time and resources on customers that pre-qualify and “stop pitching and throwing up!”. The latter prescription points out that is really useful to focus on your customer and their experience rather than your product. Unpack your customers’ problems, their pain, take time to ask questions. Such an approach acts as a sign of professionalism, expertise and trustworthiness from the client’s perspective, helping you, the founder, optimize your product through the valuable feedback received and simultaneously apply an effective marketing strategy. Two birds with one stone!
Food for thought: How long should I wait before I pivot? There is no magic number. Instead refine two crucial elements of your business and sales plan: secure good content quality by applying the principles of SEO and promote quantity in terms of consistency. Try to keep in mind that you have to listen to your customers feedback, adjust your content and keep building up a critical volume of work.
- Building your team.
electing really great staff, staff that fits the philosophy and values of one’s brand can be time consuming especially when one needs to balance the cash flow against pressing fixed expenses. However, selection is among the most important activities a founder should engage in; just as important as identifying the ideal clients. It augments the firm’s sustainability and performance value by ensuring that the huge costs of employee mismatch, turnovers, needs for replacement, legal implications etc. following bad hires are avoided (Anderson et al., 2008)
Remedy: Take your time & do not make the convenient decision. Do not urge to hire quickly after funding, rather take your time to recruit, filter and select the ideal candidate by incorporating the person-job fit logic.
- Work-family balance challenges.
Research (Kirkwood & Tootell, 2008; Parasuraman & Simmers, 2001) suggests that self‐employed professionals experience higher levels of work–family conflict than corporate employees. Balancing a startup business with all the crucial family obligations can be a challenge, especially since both compete for the individual’s resources (attention, effort and time).
Remedy: Prioritize and sustain your stamina. Building a virtual team to support you can make a great difference on your working from home experience. Manage your tendency to feel uncomfortable when not in creative control of every aspect of your project by learning to transfer responsibility to your team. A few additional strategies involve eliminating distractions (Leiter & Bakker, 2010; Spreitzer et al., 2010) working with your personal attention/focus times, eating and exercising regularly. Such practices can help you maintain your stamina, get more done and have time to devote resources to other meaningful off-job activities and relationships.
- Running short of cash and learning to live with less.
Maintaining a healthy cash flow is key for the survival of every business. However, for small businesses in particular -that struggle to position themselves and win the trust of their clientele- balancing cash flow might prove be a serious pain. Entrepreneurs often need to come up with creative and sustainable ways to support their venture at the expense of their family’s budget (e.g. bootstrapping, narrow down expenses to the very basic necessities etc.)
Remedy: Have that family conversation and bring everyone on board. As mentioned earlier, one of greatest fears a founder faces, especially when leaving the security of the corporate “big daddy” is the potential failure to provide for the family. An effective and sustainable strategy to overcome that fear is holding early on clear conversations with your spouse and children. Prepare together a family plan, agree on the degree of financial risks the family can endure and even pinpoint a window of time your household could survive in case of zero cash flow. Cultivate a culture of leaving with less for some time and focus on implementing lifestyle changes quickly (e.g. limit expenses on cloths, transportation, move to another city etc.) Aligning your partner with your vision and ensuring their support, can immensely impact your daily motivation towards realizing your potential.
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