The pro’s and con’s of working part time whilst starting your business

Article by: Bobieh Ansah of Flyprints

All entrepreneurs including I have the dream being free.  We’re all free thinkers who have the desire to step out of mediocrity and claim our rightful spots as masters of our universes. (Wow I need 2 stop watching Conan) doing what we want, when we want how we want to do it. FREEDOM (Brave heart accent)

However, it’s not easy especially if we don’t have parents throwing cash at us. The risks are high , you have close people undermining your confidence and you have other responsibilities. Funding is out there but it’s difficult to attain if there aren’t any social aspects to your business. So, most of us will  have to work a part time job whilst launching our businesses. I currently work part time at a supermarket and at times I have seriously considered quitting my job because the I’ve hated it.

The pros

One of the benefits of working part time whilst starting you business is that you can learn things from your job. Waitrose (supermarket) has excellent customer service and whenever a customer has a issues with a product or service Waitrose (supermarket) compensates the customer 9 time out of 10. I unknowingly adopted this trait. I had an issue with a previous customer of mine and responded in a Waitrose fashion.

What happened was I had printed some tops a day before a concert and needless to say I had spelt one of the names wrong.  I found this out at 12pm in the evening so, i had until 4pm the next day to replace the top. (i would also lose my profits and incur a cost). In the end i managed to replace the top (free of charge) and I said i would give her a free top if ever she needed it. This allowed me to protect my company’s (FLYPRINTS) reputation and also generate positive word of mouth.

(Click link to read the article about this particular example http://flyprints.co.uk/blog/flyprints-dances-to-diversitys-beat/)

One of the most obvious Pro’s is receiving financial stability. When you start a business it may not bring you financial returns instantly and you still need an income to live as a result, a part time job allows you survive whilst launching your company in the difficult stages.

You meet people. At my work place almost everybody has a degree or skill so I have access to an a huge pool of resources for example Legal advice, Connections to india, Graphic designers, Film producers and dancers etc. Consequently because I know these people I can get information or services for free or at at a discount.

The cons

One of the major cons of working part time is that it can interfere with your business. Whilst in the process of doing an important job I have had to stop and go to work. This always seems to happen when I have little time to complete the job. Consequently, in these situations I’ve had to rush the job, loose clients and in general miss opportunities.

Because the part time job isn’t my passion it can be so boring. I sometimes feel as though I’m losing my intelligence because I’m not learning anything new. One of the principals I live by it to work to learn not to earn and at my part time job I’m not learning anything new, I’m only in it because it pays the bills.

Tips to help you cope though this difficult stage:

Save your holidays and sick days- At my part time job there are a specific number of times you can call into sick work without getting into trouble. So therefore if I really need to be away from work at a short notice I can call up sick. I know it’s unethical but at desperate times it can be a life line.

Build strong relationships with your managers- A while back I needed time of work and I had used up all my sick days. Because I had a good relationship with my manager I was able to leave early on the condition i would work of the hours another day.

Be friendly with your fellow employees- This should be done naturally and sincerely, when you have a friend at work you have someone who can cover for you.

Do you research- Whilst at my part time job I found out that they subsidies small courses. This meant I was able to take a course related to my business at a fraction of the price.

Complimentary job- Find a part time job that compliments your current business, so you can learn skills that directly apply to your business.

To conclude, at times I hate my part time job and in a perfect world you would spend 100% of my time working on my business however, life is unpredictable and  you need to find happiness in the here and now. I’ve realized that I have made some good friends and had some good times.

HOW DO/DID YOU MANAGE  THIS DIFFICULT STAGE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

I decided to share those who have gone from YouTube to become stars and have gotten themselves deals with records labels.

Enjoy it and let me know if i missed anyone; remember this is just a list of music artists.
This is in no particular order.

Justin Bieber

Now: Signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), a joint venture between Braun and Usher with a recording contract with Island Records

Charice Pempengco

Now: Signed to 143/Reprise

Greyson Michael Chance

Now: Signed to Ellen Degenres’s new record label Eleveneleven and Interscope

Boyce Avenue

Now: Signed to 3 Peace Records and to Universal Republic on November of 2009

Esmee Denters

Now: Signed to Justin Timberlake’s record company Tennman/Interscope

Dondria Nicole

Now: Signed by Jermaine dupri to So So Def Recordings.

Soulja Boy

Now: Signed to Interscope and Collipark Music

Mia Rose

Before: Formerly signed to Ryan Leslie’s NextSelection/Universal in January 2007, she is currently with
Cherry Entertainment

Brandon Hines

Now: Signed to Revel/ SO SO DEF Recordings

Hey Guys, This is a Guest post written by Colin Wright, He is founder and CEO of Colin Is My Name and Exile Lifestyle, where He runs a sustainable design and development studio while traveling around the world, a new country every 4 months.

There are all kinds of TV shows (reality and otherwise), blogs, books and speakers all furiously spouting words about this topic, and I’d like to think it’s a positive sign for the future that it is once again cool to be a business person.

That being said, there are downsides to this trend, and it is becoming clearer and clearer that many of the people who are hopping on this bandwagon are looking for the title and glory without investing any time in getting things going.

It’s easy to think you are an entrepreneur just because your have an idea and talk about lifestyle design and location independence and Getting Things Done and blah blah blah with other people with their own ideas.

I’m going to lay some reality on you, buckaroo: that doesn’t make you an entrepreneur. That makes you a human being.

Human beings have ideas. It’s part of what makes us, us. We’re sentient and self-aware. We adapt our environment to suit our needs. Our minds are constantly working to figure out ways to improve our stake in the world, so that we can pass on our DNA to the next generation. Yawn.

What sets REAL entrepreneurs apart is their willingness and ability to DO SOMETHING.

Thoughts are great, and talking about them is fine and dandy, but unless you act on your ideas, you’re just like any other schmuck, except that you think you’re something you’re not.

Thankfully, it’s really easy to move forward with an idea. Crazy-easy, actually.

Write down your goal at the bottom of a piece of paper. Done? Okay, now think of the VERY first step you’ll need to take to achieve that goal.

For example, if you want to own a boutique vintage clothing store, but currently you know nothing about fashion or how to run a store, the very first thing you’ll want to do is learn something about fashion, merchandising and the boutique market (to make sure you REALLY want to go in that direction). Sign up for a fashion class at a local college and snag a book at the library about running your own store.

If you don’t have a library card, make that the first item on your list. If you don’t have the money to take a class, find online resources to get you started. Once you’ve achieved this first goal, write down the very next goal on that sheet of paper.

Continue until you’ve reached that goal at the bottom of the sheet, or figured out a new goal you want to achieve instead.

The idea is to break up your long-term goal into digestible pieces. The largest hurdle that keeps people from moving forward is that their ideas just seem so big…it’s much easier to keep thinking and hoping some huge opportunity will come along (winning the lottery, for example), but that’s not very likely to happen.

Moving toward your goal, slowly but persistently, will allow you to keep heading in the right direction while at the same time allowing you to keep living your life (until you actually REACH that goal, at which point, I can assure you, it WILL take over your life!).

So start now. Right at this very second. Stop thinking about what you want to do and start doing.

Otherwise you’re just another human, and although there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s SOOOO not in right now.

A lot of people are looking to start their own home office; perhaps you can say It’s cost effective and more convenient to work from home as it gives employees more flexibility and balance between their work and home life. The internet has helped transform the way people work.

The fundamentals of setting up a home office would be to have a comfortable workstation, broadband, printer, phone, computer and stationery.

I have recently been trying to set up a home office where I can work properly, more efficient should I say, Euroffice can help you start up your home office for under £150 with the wide range of 35,000 office supplies products to suit every individuals need. They have everything you could want for a home office from paper, pens, printers even office furniture to make the home office look and feel good.

From Euroffice you can get an all-in-one HP Deskjet printer which will print, scan and copy for just £43.00. This will be less expensive as it will save you buying a separate printer, fax and copier. Other ways to keep costs low is to print double sided-which is a good feature to look out for when you are buying your printer.

Having a comfortable workstation is important if you are working long hours from home so take a look at Euroffice’s variety of office furniture. You can choose from leather chairs from £35, workstations from £46 which you can accompany with a filing cabinet fro just £50.

Phones with answering machine start from just £31 which would be ideal as customers and clients can leave messages.

This is a Guest Post

“Hold on just a second! Goal setting and making plans is so important! Everybody knows that!”

You’re right, it is. It is absolutely essential to know where you’re going so that your daily efforts aren’t wasted on inconsequential activities.

But, plans and goals will get you absolutely nowhere by themselves. Nowhere.

Og Mandino said it best,

“Never has there been a map, however carefully executed to detail and scale, which carried its owner over even one inch of ground. Never has there been a parchment of law, however fair, which prevented one crime… Action, alone, is the tinder which ignites the map, the parchment, this scroll, my dreams, my plans, my goals, into a living force. Action is the food and drink which will nourish my success.”

Action is the food and drink which will nourish your success.

Say that out loud.

I get chills every time I read those words.

Powerful right? But, unfortunately, there’s always that voice of doubt that says. . .

“But I have to know what action to take before I take it. So, let me study, dust my desk, and organize my pens for the next year, while I learn what do to. Then I’ll act.”

This is a common excuse that comes from fear and it must be overcome before success even looks in your direction.

So, let’s destroy it, shall we?

First of all, the idea that you have to learn the entire picture of a particular subject before taking action is completely absurd because…

1. You won’t retain any of the information that you tried to learn in the process because your brain assimilates knowledge through its application, not just hearing or reading.

2. All knowledge is progressive, meaning that one principle builds on top of another. Therefore, one action builds on another and without carrying out the primary activities, understanding what to do at the end of the road is close to useless.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a test.

Do you remember what you learned in English class during your senior year of high school? Didn’t think so. That’s because you never had the chance or the structure to apply those concepts.

But, how easy is it for you to cook your favorite meal? How easy is it for you to tie your shoes? You can do it like clockwork.

That’s because you have applied that recipe or process repeatedly until it has been committed to your mental and physical memory.

So, in the process of learning, apply each chunk of knowledge that you learn as you learn it. This will not only help you retain that knowledge, but you will actually begin to make progress and build on the results of your actions almost immediately.

“But what if I make mistakes?”

If you’re asking yourself that question, here’s an encouraging fact.

Experience is the most valuable asset to the success of anybody in any field and the amount of experience a person has directly correlates to their success.

And experience is the direct result of action.

Not necessarily the “right” action, but action.

You see, if you take a wrong action action that doesn’t lead you closer to your goal, you’ll learn from the results (or lack thereof), and then adjust accordingly.

There is not one example in the history of mankind of somebody who was perfectly successful in his or her chosen endeavor right off the bat.

Making mistakes and adjustments is an essential part of progress in life and it precedes success. Not only that, you will continue to make mistakes and adjustments even when you’re at a place that you consider successful.

But, what happens when you take no action? You get no experience, no results, and no success.

Action is liberating

Have you ever had a project on your to-do-list that stayed there for months, even years? Then, one day, you just got it together and finished it. How did that feel?

I know that those instances of decisive action are some of the most freeing experiences I have ever had, even if the project itself was insignificant.

Imagine having those experiences on a daily basis!

There is a magic that comes from committing to action and carrying through.

Meet the parents of success

Didn’t know that success has parents? Well she does and you’re going to have to meet them before you’re introduced to her. No exceptions.

Think of it this way.

The father gives the seed of life that is then nourished and developed by the mother.

In the same way, a clear goal is the seed-giving father of your success, but it will never come to life without the nourishment and cultivation of the mother, action.

Please, don’t make success harder than it has to be.

Stop playing your mental fear games and take action today! Commit to one specific thing that you will move a certain area of your life forward!

Sound off!

What do you think? Share your valuable thoughts with us in the comments.

Best of life,

Abhay Khurana

This is supposed to be the place where I plug myself and my website. But, honestly, I just hope that you’ve gotten some value out of what I’ve written for you. If you have and want to connect with me and read more like this, head over to my blog at www.betteryoungentrepreneur.com

Please Note: This is a Guest post from Srinivas Rao of The Skool of Life and Blogcastfm

I think every one of us has hidden potential. The problem however is that we live in a world where social programming, expectations and conformity have driven the behaviour of people in the society. We get rewarded for conformity and punished for going against the grain. Unfortunately we condition people over and over again with small rewards for fitting in and not challenging the status quo. These small rewards reinforce this behavior. It starts at an early age when you hear things like “Don’t color outside the lines, don’t talk to strangers” and whole list of “rules” that serve no purpose in adult life. Ultimately, they keep you from unleashing your hidden potential. It’s time to shatter all of that for a new way of thinking. The Skool of Life is such a different place than the schools we’ve attended and learned from.

Be willing to fail more: Failure has such a bad connotation in our society. When you get an F on a report card, that is the lowest score you can possibly get. You get punished for failing. As a result from a very early age we’re taught not to fail. As a result we take less risks, we play it safe and we don’t have any small failures. We just have one giant one, LIFE. Would you rather have thousands of small failures and one giant success that trumps all of the failures or would you rather never fail and live up to only a small portion of your potential?

Don’t listen to the naysayers: Naysayers always tend to emerge when you want to challenge the status quo. The reality is that they are afraid. They are afraid of seeing you reach your full potential because it forces them to deal with the fact they are not reaching theirs. If they can get you to stay where you are at, then they don’t have to deal with the fact they are wasting their own potential.

Trust your Instincts: Instincts are interesting. Im sure I’m not the first person telling you to trust your instincts. But the real question is how often do you do it? When you have an intuition or a feeling, what do you do about it? For two weeks I was hesitant to write this post because I had no idea what the hell it was going to be about. Then it finally came to me. When you have an intuition or feeling do you just let it go as another passing thought? If you do then read on.

Take Action: Good instincts are great. But they’re useless if you don’t do anything with them. If your instincts tell you to start a company, then do it. For the first time in history you can lay the groundwork for almost anything with virtually zero capital investment. It’s important be action oriented.

Choose to be extraordinary: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. “Ordinary lives are for ordinary people, extraordinary lives for those who are extraordinary. My life was never meant to be ordinary.” How you define that is really up to you. But, I don’t believe we were meant to live ordinary lives. We were meant to live life to its fullest.

Be Patient: Of all the advice I’ve offered you in this post, this is the one you will fail with over and over again. Unleashing your full potential takes time. Years or bad conditioning have to be erased and while you can begin the path to success over night, you won’t reach your goal overnight. Ironically, the more patient you are the faster you’ll able to unleash your hidden potential.

How do you plan to unleash your hidden potential?

Srinivas Rao is a personal development blogger, avid surfer and author at The Skool of Life. He is also the host and co-founder of BlogcastFM, a podcast for bloggers.

With the Huge Influx of start-ups contacting us at YHP and the wealth of young entrepreneurs featured on the website, we have decided to partner with a bigger platform to showcase the amazing talents emerging.

To this end, YHP is collaborating with a new Business show coming on the SKY network- “Business Dynamics” Produced by Strides Media Production!

“Strides Media Production” to host a new Television show on “Sky” named “The Business dynamics show”,

The show is dedicated towards profiling the top Entrepreneurs and Business Owners around the world. It features three core segments:

“Power Players”:

Designed to feature the “Top Business Executives and Experts in their field to give insight, share their experience; journey and tips on succeeding in business

“SME Business Features”:

This is a special platform for Small and Medium sized companies to engage directly with the audience on new and existing project & service offering.

“Dream Releasers”:

This is a special feature designed to bring to you the most exciting and most innovative young entrepreneurs who have successfully launched their businesses in divers industries

A larger platform means a wider audience, we are committed to maintaining the depth, intimacy and quality of our interviews and features. Contact us to find out more about appearing on the show.

This can be very tricky because getting someone that believes in your company, ability and your vision can be very hard, especially getting someone that is passionate enough to be a part of your company, but i urge you to try and get a co-founder on board.

It can really depend on the nature of the business also, sometimes you might have everything covered and not need a co-founder, but bringing a co-founder can be hugely instrumental, especially someone that has skills needed in your company that you lack.

Emotional Attachment

At the start of the company, i was very hesitate to let anyone near my business, as it was my first baby, i grew some kind of emotional attachment, i had offers from different friends that wanted to be a part of it, i really dint care as i knew the type of person i wanted on board, i needed someone that had as much passion or maybe more than me in the business.

Decision Making

You must have a co-founder that you can easily reach, incase you need to make a quick decision, someone that you have complete trust in making the right decisions if you’re not around, someone that will make the right decision.

Trust

If you do not have complete trust in your co-founder then there is really no point in doing business with them, although most times you will build on your trust issues with your co-founder as time goes on, the more you work together and learn about each other.
In Almost 2 years of working with my co-founder, we continue to grow in trust and having trust in business simply brings rest to your mindset.

Costs/contact

Sharing cost on the company expenses can be huge for the growth and progress of your business.
You get to share each other’s contact in growing your business, contacts and networks that you might not have known or had a chance to meet are suddenly in front of you.

Understanding

You need to understand how you both work, how the person likes to work, the personality of your co-founder, if you do not understand your co-founder, you will end up wasting valuable time on un-necessary things such as arguing, doing the same work twice which will eventually takes its toll on the business, so go out of your way to understand your co-founder, try to get them, if you’re not compactable, then you have a decision on your hand.

Time & Focus

That means you get to spend less time doing something you’re not so good with and focus on your strong points and how to improve on it, you get to do more together in less times.
For me personally, getting a co-founder has been huge to my business, we’ve been through some rough and good times together already, i really just let him do his stuff which he kicks ass in, he manages the event planning side of the company, booking of holidays, enquires, while i focus on getting more properties on the website, building relationships with companies.
Although we both come together to make decisions and run other parts of the business.

An Almost Mistake

Because of my openness with my friends, i remember sitting them all down to tell them about the business, telling them i would love them to come board to help with the business, which would have been a bad idea, so I’m glad they all dint respond in the appropriate way, i hate laziness, lack of drive and passion.
But as soon as my co-founder told me his interest and i saw his commitment, i felt at ease, it made me realise that although this company is my baby, it was not about me anymore, but about the team, the vision and everyone that constantly help to build and take steps towards that vision.

Respect

You should both respect the opinions, views and personality of one another, although i respect my co-founder but that doesn’t mean i keep quiet when things are going wrong, or when we both miss the plot, I occasionally give him a piece of my mind when i need to and so does he.
Basically don’t miss-understand respect for being soft

Final Words

Sometimes business kills friendship, sometimes it makes it stronger, pick the right choice.

If you want more information on this, Neil Patel does a good job on explaining about it further, also @Techcrunch @Venturehacks @ spencerfry

I and a friend were having a chat on how we wished we started something together in our first year at university, I mean we were all creative, ambitious and had a lot of time on our hands.

We realised how much our business would have grown by now, the traction, the support it would have gotten, instead we spent our time partying away although i admit it was fun, going to bed at 7am and getting up at 5pm were the best days/highlights of my 1st year in the university.

Only if we knew how to balance our time things might have been different, we had enough people in my halls to start at least 10 good businesses, everyone had ideas, everyone wanted to be successful, but we lacked focus and drive and i guess we dint really have anyone who gave us that exposure into the world of entrepreneurship, perhaps we didn’t have the right attitude.

Experience and failure (Start Small)

As someone that started a company in the university, i believe it is always better to start small because it gives you the time to worry less about money but more about the products and services you’re offering, ways to improve and make sure it is going in the right direction.

I started my first company and spent a lot of money constructing the website, not that the website was not worth the money, but with what i know now, i am sure i could have invested that money into something else, probably would have built up the website with cash left to invest in other parts of the business instead of focusing on how fancy i wanted the site to look.

Time

You have 3-5 years to spend in the university, that’s enough time to build your start-up into something credible, by the time you’re ready to graduate, and you will only be worrying on how to grow the business, that’s if you worry at all.

You probably spend most of your time getting drunk, facebook, twitter, YouTube, clubbing, so taking some time to build your business is not that bad.

Your Network is your net worth

I met my co-founder at university and was able to do less, which was more productive and gave me time to focus on other things in the business.

You might end up meeting an investor or a co-founder, or someone that might have the right connection that will take your business to the next level.

If you decide not to continue with your business. You will already have a bunch of contacts that either helps you in a new start-up or perhaps you’re looking for a secured job, you just never know.

Don’t forget that any business you’re going into you’ll be going there with some practical experiences of running and managing a company.

Competition/Awards/support

You can get so much support from your university , if you’re business is cool, I’m sure your university will want to brag about your success, you also have the entrepreneurial society, NACUE, FlyingStartonline, Shell livewire, Enterprise UK, Which will give you some exposures to your company, assistances, workshops and training to sharpen your skills as an entrepreneur, they also give you the opportunity to network with other entrepreneur, you never know what investor might be reading your story.

Student Loans

In total, you probably get £4,950 (Maintenance loan) + £2,906 (Maintenance grant) + Bursary (900)

1st Year – £8756
2nd year – £17512
3rd year – £26268

That is enough money to start up a business or finish up a prototype.

I would encourage you to maybe get a part-time job, and if you have a co-founder or even two co-founders, that is a lot of money and enough money to get something off the ground.

Responsibility

You have fewer responsibilities, less concerns to worry about, which gives you time to build your business.
You have nothing to lose.

Experience

Owning and running your own business is an incredible way to gain experience, it will definitely help you mature, especially as you begin to read business books and self development books to help in growing as a person and an entrepreneur.

You get to learn more about yourself, especially life and business lessons that are not taught in the classroom, you might even get more clarity on modules to choose in the next year or in your final year.
You learn how to speak, dress and act in a professional way.

The University Platform

This is your first initial market where you can experiment, get feedback, get some user experience for your products/services; it gives you such a large network to people to showcase your business to, which is invaluable. You might be able to define your target market through this experiment.

You get free advices from your university professors and tips.

You will have access to different types of people with different skills, you want your logo design- go to the design department, you want a website development – go to the computing department, thinking of getting someone that can help with admin stuff – go to the business department, you get what I’m getting at, loads of resources at your finger tips.

Tip: Everyone loves the story of a kid that started a business in the university.

These are the five websites that i believe that help any university student get the right information, network, advice, expertise, funding or backing in taking their idea and turning it into becoming a business.

Cmypitch.com (Nacueventures)

Cmypitch gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to connect with investors directly, All you do is upload your own video pitch,and that gets put out to lots of investors(The likes of james caan, Doug Richard) on the network.
Check it out to find more about it.

Smarta

Smarta gives you a platform for resources, advices for starting and running your startup, They have loads of top entrepreneurs on the site that provide support to entrepreneurs, It also gives you the opportunity to showcase your business.

Enterprise UK

Enterprise Uk are connected to almost every entrepreneur in the uk and also connect them to the right people that can help them improve their business, they also have tons of competitions to help startup with business expenses or exposure.

Shell Livewire

Shell livewire have tons of competitions in which they run to give entrepreneurs/startups the required support and exposure, check out their pitching videos section.

FlyingStartonline

They offer a lot of training and workshop to entrepreneur to help them enhance their skills.