I myself have been through 2 failed start-ups hence consider myself apt. to answer this question. I have no regrets trying out something. If given a chance I might take a leap of faith again. Yes, there is a jet lag when you move from your own start-up to a job. In the beginning, I was taken aback and was kind of thinking myself as a loser. I found myself in a grey zone where I was not myself, felt lost, dejected, and felt disappearing in the woods slowly.
Got some reality checks in the form of ‘EMIs’ and ‘Expenses’ that it didn’t take me long to come back. As soon as I was back to my senses, the 1st thing I did was to start a SIP for my next start-up and wrote down the mistakes of what went wrong in my 1st start-up and mailed myself. Here are the 7 things you should do while shuffling from a job to start up.
So things to remember as soon as you are back to a job:
- Niche – Once you jump from a startup to a job. You again go into a niche, it starts looking like a cakewalk because suddenly you have jumped from a titanic into a small boat to keep yourself from drowning. What I mean is that your responsibilities reduce drastically as you don’t have to care about all facets of business but just one. My niche was marketing. All my focus went back again to marketing & develop my core skills.
- Corporate Politics – You have to again go back to corporate politics where everyone is working just to show that they are working. In my opinion, one only gives 10% of their potential if they are caught in the wrong job which unfortunately many are in. I am not complaining, I am just saying the way things are in corporate life. It’s a different story if you are in sales. I believe sales are the only area where efforts are truly recognized because numbers speak for itself, all other functions cannot be quantified in such fashion. So my funda to deal with politics in office is to keep a healthy relationship with everyone so that no one comes in your way of functioning and speak tough only and only if required. “Mahatma Gandhi banke tum kuch nahi ukhad loge”. Since you come from a start-up, you will be in a habit of doing extra work where others might just be doing the minimum to keep their jobs, you may end up doing a little more which according to me is really a good habit and you should hold onto it. You might hear whispers like “Salla Show-off”, “he just wants a promotion” Don’t let these things get to you or you might become one of them sooner than you realize. Don’t get revengeful or angry or egoistic at your workplace. Stick to basics, be grateful to everyone, and keep moving towards your bigger goal and vision.
- Handling Team – It is but natural for you to do everything from your own hands, but here you have to start delegating tasks or you might get end up being taken for granted. Second of all make sure you make them your friends and not act like a boss. Gone are the days of the 90s where ‘salaam sahib’ use to work. Since you have been working in a start-up you must have got used to doing everything by urself, here you will have to delegate and trust your team to execute it. Give them chances, again, and again, appreciate them over and over again. Take responsibility. Always teach them in private and appreciate them in public. Slowly you will realize, the team will start working for you and not for the company. It’s an art and will take some time to master, but it’s very important to start.
Try to keep it professional. I know it’s difficult to draw boundaries, but if you still want to know how to do that. Don’t share your personal problems with them but always be available to hear theirs and also attempt to resolve it.
- Make friends – Make a few colleagues your anchor, friend who you are absolutely comfortable with. At the end of the day, you have to vent out your personal and professional issues with someone. Someone to share your sorrows, weaknesses, and happiness. Meet him/her during weekends, make your family meet him/her, and make a healthy atmosphere. In the hunch of making a start-up work, one generally gets lonely, this is one the best elements of going back to a job that you get to make a lot of connections.
- Distribute your salary – Since you are back in your job – split your finances properly to make space for some risk. Your ‘expenses’ and ‘EMI’ should not be more than 50% of total income. 30% should be ‘wants’ and a minimum of 15-20% should be ‘savings’.
a. No credit card – if there is a pending amount, strategize to remove it 1st.
b. Tax saving – at least 2 lakhs annually in a tax saving of total income.
c. SIP – 10% every month.
d. Insurance – take adequate insurance for every family member.
e. calculate in how many years will you have an adequate backup for 6 months to 1 year
- Sources of Income – One should always have 3 sources of income, one – your salary, two – investments, three – passive income by doing some freelance work. As you have worked in a start-up environment you will realize you have a lot of breathing space in a job.
a. Passive income is nothing but working for yourself. I keep on working for freelancers sometimes for free also. The end objective is to keep learning and growing. You might not believe but I acquired my last job because of my freelance project.
- Don’t stick onto one role – I always believe one is being paid to learn. I keep shuffling within the company & outside to experiment with different roles. As I was in a start-up I identified a lot of weaknesses within my functioning, doing a job gave me a perfect platform to improve on my weaknesses as the risk reduces drastically. Within the company, you can always choose a role and then learn how to do it. I personally have moved from sales to planning to strategy to marketing. It just helps you become stronger and wiser as a professional.
Whenever you have saved enough for almost a year’s survival. Don’t hesitate to take a leap of the entrepreneurial journey again. Life is all about experiment and living. You can’t live in a cocoon all your life. Also, post having an adequate saving, your complete attitude, and decision making ability changes, you feel empowered.
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nice