For context, I’m 26 & I’ve worked in commercial finance for 7 years and have very quickly climbed the ranks, creating a pretty comfortable life for myself. I earn circa £100k per year.
I’ve always been had an entrepreneurial mindset & I’ve always wanted to set up on my own.
Management has changed at the current lender I work at & I’m getting a little fed up.
I know I could set up a finance brokerage and make a killing after 6-18 months.
I’ve written a business plan & the extremely conservative figures make me believe I can quite comfortably turnover £150k – £200k in the first 12-18 months.
How do you know when you’re ‘ready’ to take the leap, leave your corporate role and set up solo?
Edit: I have just purchased a £300k house with my Fiancé & have a relatively low amount of outgoings per month.
All in (mortgage, bills, food etc) is £2,200 per month.
I have enough savings to last me over 12 months.
I’m tied into non-compete/do not solicit for 6 months, but I have ways around this. I have older clients from my previous employer I can contact.
There’s too much of a conflict of interest to be able to do this on the side. I’ve already done all the admin type things whilst being employed (registered a company, created a website/brand).
Quitting my job £100k job to start my own firm
byu/morgaml19981 inEntrepreneur
Posted by morgaml19981
29 Comments
If you’re pretty clear on how you’ll do it and pretty sure it’ll work and you have a good chunk of money saved up to cover your expenses until it does work, then what’s stopping you from starting now?
Is it fear of losing a good job? How confident are you that you can find another one if needed?
If you’re not ready to ditch the job, is there any way you can start your business on the side until it grows enough to let you feel comfortable enough to leave the day job?
First off congratulations! You’re smashing it for 26..
I’m guessing it’ll be a massive conflict of interest if you were to do this alongside your job..? But having said that, can you get all the logistics in place before leaving? (Only if you cannot continue your job alongside this).
You’ve also got to consider running a business is much harder than you think! I run a web dev agency and holy crap you don’t realise all the other stuff you’ve got to do consistently, let alone making the websites!
I’m 26 too with the mindset of doing more with my life, so if you want to talk more about it dm me 👍
Keep killing it though, you’re going to very successful.
It depends on your lifestyle.
Kids, expensive lifestyle and a big mortgage? Think hard.
Young, debt free, and renting, where worse case scenario could crash at your parents’ place if things get a bit rough? Give it a shot.
I typically suggest trying new business ideas in your spare time to start with, around your existing job, even if for a few weeks/months to test the waters. Could see if your job is willing to let you go part time or take unpaid leave for a few months. This isn’t always possible for everyone, but keeping some ties to existing income can help reduce risk.
I’m assuming you have a financial model for this built out right? What’s your gross profit on these revenue assumptions? As well what’s your expected operating expenses?
What’s your current personal burn rate per month? What’s your runway with your current savings?
Look forward to following up to see how your spinout is doing in a year.
I did the same at a slightly older age; life is too short to get bored! From what i’ve seen (including me) new entrepreneurs overestimate revenues by 2x and it takes about 2x longer to get there. So you may want to plan with these parameters. I didn’t, then I had to eat noodles for a while before resurfacing.
I’d love to know in a few months if this advice was useful btw. Good luck!
It seems that you’re ready but you don’t know it yet.
For context I started my first business at 23.
The feeling of knowing it will come when you start doing it, it’s a paradox of life.
Think about the worst case scenario for everything.
What happens if what you wrote in your business plans doesn’t turn to be like that? Did you prepare for best/worst case scenario?
Go over it again and again and again and try and find flaws.
1 question. Why do you hesitate? Fear? Doubt? Other?
What exactly you do in commercial finance can you explain please
And what rank you reached at your peak career
When you have your own set of clients and have hold of all the operations run in a company.
High risk high reward
You’re only 26, right now is the time to take risks, sounds like you’ve got a pretty solid CV already so if everything goes to shit oh no, back to the 100K, if not a higher position for having leadership experience.
If this is your first time, double the time and cut the revenue in 2.
I still wish you all the best, but from what you say everyone would jump to do it. If it sounds to good, then it isn’t.
It takes balls of steel which from what you’ve written sounds like you definitely have. Just go for it!
How would you get clients, if you are poaching from your current company would there be some legal issues?
You’ll never know, just go for it
“I’ve written a business plan” – don’t start a business now.
Who do you know? How did you get a capital?
These are things more important that some piece of excel.
If you have 6 months to a year’s worth of savings, just go for it. You can probably get back in a similar roll in case it doesn’t work out, and you’ll know by 6 months if it’s not working out I’d imagine. Life and entrepreneurship is about taking risks, take the chance.
Assuming you have funds saved to cover your living expenses and set up costs, trust your gut and go for it!
You know the market well and you’re good at what you do. If it doesn’t go as planned you’ll have no issues finding another job.
Good luck mate, hope you smash it!
You need to factor in who well the company you work for is ‘known’ in your field.
Many people underestimate the fact that when working for someone else they can prospect and close deals based on the company name and brand which when going it alone you wont have people as willing to accept calls/proposals.
In answer to your question depends on your outgoings, I would factor 12 months expenses before leaving a well paid job. When I first went solo in ’93 I was thinking of leaving but then I was made redundant so that made the decision for me.
Good luck.
Make sure there was nothing proprietary taken from your current employer in the development/creation/processes of your entrepreneurial endeavor. Legal expenses make entrepreneurship a lot less fun.
Congratulations on taking the leap. Keep us updated on your journey either on substack or X or whatever medium of your choosing.
Don’t underestimate the difference that it makes for the client the company hat that you’re wearing.
Even if you do all the job, they aren’t paying you. They are paying your current company. And they are doing it for a reason.
Do you have a better reason why they should pay you? If the reason is because I have worked in X company then, you’re just trying to sell through another brand. Nobody buys through another brand. If they appreciate that brand enough, they’ll just buy that one.
Do it next year, get everything planned this year, save as much of your salary as you can. Move into a cheaper apartment, etc. One year of savings isn’t exactly there yet.
Dont think just do it. There is never going to be a perfect time. Dont listen to people that tell you to think hard.
The pursuit of perfectionism is not good enough.
Make being good enough your ideal – and you certainly are that.
I did the same thing from a very similar starting point and with a similar mindset. It sounds like you know you’re ready and again, similar to me, you’ve done all the necessary thinking/planning to know you’ll be significantly better off as your own business. Likely all that’s holding you back now is the feeling that it all seems too good to be true (always worth being attentive to that thought, but sounds like you know what you’re doing). You will also need to make a lot less than £100k revenue to earn the same salary you do now (given income tax Vs Ltd company corp tax/dividend withdrawal).
Do it – if it fails at least you tried and learnt along the way.
You’re 26 and earning 100k per year? That’s amazing, personally I would say keep working for a while, but since you’ve been doing this for about 7 years, i’ll say you’re good to go.
And since you’ve got funds saved up for the next year, enough to cover your expenses and initial set up cost, then there really isn’t anything holding you back, except the non-compete which you have your way around.
You can’t tell how things are going to be till you actually get started, so have at it, and off course if things don’t work out, you can always get another job.
Good luck mate.
Who do I know? I have great relationships with a number of very successful SME’s.
The only capital I require is a phone & laptop.
I definitely won’t need any investors.