Becoming a Chicken Entrepreneur
24 July 2006CNN Money has an article suggesting that it might be a better idea for prospective small business owners to start out while keeping their day jobs:
Over 50 percent of small businesses fail in the first year and 95 percent fail within the first five years, according to the Small Business Association. So it may be wise to hold on to your day job until your side business not only launches, but really takes off.
Although it’s tempting to devote yourself full time to building a business, working as an employee for someone else means that you have a steady paycheck to rely on if things don’t go as planned, said Michael Masterson, author of “Automatic Wealth for Grads . . . and Anyone Else Just Starting Out.”
That’s not a bad strategy in some cases, but I don’t think this is as good an idea as they promote it to be. My problems with the idea:
1) It really depends on the kind of business your in. Running a website, for example, can be done while keeping your day job. The example they give is a guy who is running a restaurant chain. It would be very difficult to manage a restaurant, let alone a chain, without being able to be there during the day. Unless you have a partner who can go by during those time periods, it’s hard to have a good idea of what is actually going on - and that’s crucial to starting a successful business.
2) Your day job will still be absorbing a lot of your time and energy. If you’re exhausted coming home every day, you may not have the focus and drive to succeed in a small business.
3) It also depends on how difficult it would be for you to find another job if you quit. Being a “chicken entrepreneur” means you’re increasing the chance your new business will fail. If you have skills and experience that are sought after, it’s probably better to take the plunge if your small business is something that would do better with your full time attention.
This strategy isn’t a bad idea in all cases - but for a traditional small business, if you don’t have a partner to help bear the load, I don’t think it would work.
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2 Responses to “Becoming a Chicken Entrepreneur”
July 31st, 2006 at 8:46 am
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February 16th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
[...] Free the Drones offers Becoming a Chicken Entrepreneur: No this is not about becoming a poultry farmer. Rather, it is about being afraid to take the full-time plunge into a new business. [...]