Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2014. The statement that Coca-Cola now owns 90% of Innocent reflects the situation in 2014, so current ownership should be checked, and the figure of over 2 million smoothies a week is neither dated nor sourced.
Not everyone can handle the pressure of being an entrepreneur. But not many people can handle being laid off and not finding work, either. And it is true that the failure statistics for new businesses are overwhelming. Most new businesses fail.
But what about people with a good idea, a valuable skill or a great talent? How can they find the courage to give themselves a chance and pursue an opportunity in business by leaving a “steady job”?
First of all, a “steady job” is a very relative thing these days. We live in a changing world. The company you work for may not be stable in the long run, and neither may your job. But even if both were stable, what about spending every day of your life in a job that does not fulfil you? What price do we pay for giving up on our dreams and selling our time for a paycheck at the end of the month?
See also: Why working for someone else is the least profitable investment you can make
Richard Branson devotes a few words in his latest post to people who believe that leaving a steady job to start their own business is like taking a huge leap into the dark without a parachute.
As he puts it, leaving a steady job is not easy for some people. Some entrepreneurs are born ready and willing to dive into business opportunities and launch their own company, while others are more reserved and need a push. That does not mean they will not become great entrepreneurs: according to Branson, success in business is not reserved for one particular type of personality.
Since Branson set up an organisation within the Virgin Group to help new entrepreneurs, he has come to believe that the main problem is that many people with a talent for business simply do not start one because, in a way, they think it is beyond their reach. They feel alone, lost and full of fears. But achieving your dream is within reach. You are not guaranteed to avoid failure, but you are not barred from success either.
The other reason Branson mentions is that most new entrepreneurs think that becoming an entrepreneur means betting all your savings on a business idea on blind faith. But you can often start a business with little money, step by step, and build a great company. Once you take the first steps, the path gradually becomes easier and clearer.
Not forgetting what we discussed in “The secret price of starting your own business“, where there are certain things you have to reckon with and accept.
In the same way, a business idea should not be something unknown or taken on blind faith. You need to study its viability.
Richard Reed’s approach
Branson gives the example of Richard Reed, founder of a drinks company. In his early days he was desperate to start his own business but could not bring himself to take the leap. He needed a push.
In 1999, someone advised him to run a pilot test of his business idea before quitting his job.
He went to a music festival to sell a batch of trial smoothies they had made, and put up a sign asking people to tell them whether they should quit their steady jobs to make smoothies full time.
They set out two bins, one marked “Yes” and one marked “No”, so customers could drop their empty bottle in the bin with the answer they thought right. By the end of the festival, the “Yes” bin was full to the brim, while the other was practically empty.
As a result, Richard Reed quit his job on the Monday morning and started building his own company.
It was the encouragement and positive push that this entrepreneur needed at that moment. The company Richard Reed founded is Innocent Drinks, which before long was selling more than 2 million smoothies a week. Today, 90% of the company has been bought by Coca-Cola.
Curiously, the company Richard Reed left no longer exists. That means that if he had not taken the plunge and started his own company, he would have ended up out of work, at least at that company.
In his case, starting a business carried less risk than the steady job, because the job was not actually stable, while the stability of the business depended on the entrepreneur himself.
That is why, if you want to start a business but do not dare to leave your job, it is worth thinking about what kind of push you need.
Further reading
- The 32 rules for becoming a successful entrepreneur
- If you are going to fail in business, do it this way
Featured image: Sebastiaan ter Burg, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr.
