12 Steps for Preparing to Quit Your Day Job & Work From Home Full-Time: Part 1

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I know why you’re here…

You want to work from home! But maybe you’re at a loss as to where to start. It can feel like an overwhelming proposition — the idea of quitting your job and working from home full-time.

Where do you even start?

Luckily, we’ve got Sagan Morrow, a Work-At-Home School contributor, on the blog today to break down the exact steps you need to take to make your work-at-home dream a reality.

Take it away, Sagan!

12 Steps for Preparing to Quit Your Day Job & Work From Home Full-Time: Part 1

So you want to quit your day job and start working from home full-time. That’s great! But… where do you even begin?

Don’t worry—I’ve got you covered. This is Part 1 of a 3-part series on how to (successfully!) prepare to be a full-time home-based business owner… and say “goodbye” to your 9-to-5 life. Want to finally quit your day job? Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Identify what you want to do and what type of business you’ll have

It might seem like a simple enough question to answer, but you must identify what it is you want to do with your business before anything else! Here, you’ll want to ask yourself questions like:

• What do I enjoy doing?
• How can I turn my idea into a profitable venture?
• What do I need to do in order to get from where I’m currently at to start working toward this idea as a viable career option?
• What type of services will I offer as part of this business?
• What sets me apart from others in this industry?

Get more tips on answering these questions in the How to Discover Your Profitable Business Idea blog post.

Step 2: Understand WHY you want to do this

Your “why” in business is crucial because it’s the “why” that leads to the “how.”

Understanding your “why” will enable you to more confidently and easily put together your goals, vision, and business plan!

Some of the questions you should ask yourself at this stage include:

• Why do you want to be a business owner?
• Why do you want to work from home full-time?
• Why do you want to offer a particular type of service over another?
• Why do you want to work with a particular client compared to another?

Keep in mind that if your answer to “why do I want to start my own business?” is simply, “I want to be able to work in my pajamas all day long,” then that probably won’t be a compelling enough reason for you to keep moving forward and making progress! That can be a side benefit, absolutely, but you’ll want to make sure that your deep reasons are strong enough to propel you to stay motivated. This is why analyzing and assessing your “why” behind all of this is so important.

Step 3: Outline your goals, vision, business plan, and budget

Your business plan doesn’t have to be anything super fancy. In fact, my business plan when I successfully transitioned into working from home full-time was just a few pages long, and to be honest, it was mostly comprised of bullet points. Even a basic business plan will be useful for you to organize your thoughts and outline what you want to achieve and how you intend on meeting your goals. 

You don’t need it to include intense jargon or to be super corporate or to be thirty pages long. That’s not really what a business plan is all about. Instead, keep it a simple, practical document that you can use for moving forward and getting everything into place for your business, so it moves in the direction you want and so that you have a lot of success in your business.

See a sample of a mission statement, vision, and goals.

Get more tips for doing business planning.

Step 4: Create your personal timeline of action

As a general rule, if you already have experience in your skill, you’ve worked with a few clients, and you have money saved that can pay for about two months’ worth of bills as your “buffer” for your first couple of months as a home-based business owner, then you are probably ready to say goodbye to your 9-to-5 job! In that case, it’s a matter of getting over the fear and anxiety, and a matter of setting up the systems and strategies and everything you need to effectively work from home full-time.

Your personal timeline of action is the daily and weekly tasks you need to complete over the three-month transition period before you start working from home full-time. It’s kind of like your task list of everything you need to be working on each day and every week. When you do everything in a calendar format, it’s nice to be able to see everything at a glance.

We go into great detail about how to put it together, plus a detailed walk-through of a sample three-month plan of action, in Goodbye 9 to 5 (and if you’re not quite ready for the three-month timeline, we also go over a longer six-month timeline).

Ready for Part 2 of this series?

Learn more about how to (finally!) quit your day job—forever—in the Goodbye 9 to 5 masterclass.

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Sagan Morrow has a decade of experience as a freelance writer, editor, and social media manager. She loves being able to pass on what she’s learned over the years with other freelancers, in between doing her client work. Learn more and get additional business tips & resources at SaganMorrow.com.

 

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Note from Caitlin: Goodbye 9 to 5 is included in Work-At-Home School, which is open for enrollment right now, so if you’re itching to get started, check it out!