As we all know, project management is an exciting and dynamic field. There are plenty of ways we can challenge ourselves and continue to grow year after year. These are the aspects of project management that most of us love. As we gain experience, we learn a wide variety of skills in leadership, budgeting, scheduling, organization and more. If we can manage a decent-sized project, how much harder can it be to work for ourselves? After working as a Project Manager for awhile, you may begin to crave a challenge beyond what your typical position or company may offer. Perhaps you want to create a business from the ground up. Maybe you crave the ability to make your own schedule, or no longer answer to a boss. For many different reasons, there’s a growing percentage of working professionals who decide not to pursue their current career path anymore, and instead pursue the road less traveled…the path of the entrepreneur. Cue the dramatic music. There’s plenty of reasons why being ‘your own boss’ is great, but there are plenty of reasons one shouldn’t just dive in without preparation, either. I know because I’ve done it! At least to a certain extent. While I was prepared in some ways, there are several things I wish I understood much earlier – that’s what this article is about. For the project managers becoming entrepreneurs out there, let’s go over 5 tips based on my own experience, plus a little detail as to why I became an entrepreneur after thirteen years in construction management.
Project Manager Becoming An Entrepreneur: My Story
To be honest, I didn’t decide to become an entrepreneur for any one particular reason. It was instead several small reasons that ultimately pushed me towards taking that first step. Can you relate to any of these?
My true loves. Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to work for myself. Between having a couple of entrepreneurial mentors in my extended family and loving the process of making and saving money, I always believed that it’s possible to make money doing things I love if I just approached it right. The thoughts of being a consultant, contractor or even a restaurant owner have piqued my interest over the years. I’ve been a passive investor for a while, but would frequently think about how to make a living trading stocks. I found myself fascinated with the charts, data and psychology associated with financial markets. In turn, I finally decided to actively study day-trading and swing-trading strategies for many months, which I now use to live on. Well, that and websites. I love developing websites and writing content. In turn, I created this website along with a few others as a means to make an income. Long hours and lots of work become much easier to tackle when we love what we do!
A crossroads. Hectic careers, big city logistics and personal lives don’t mix well. While I truly loved (almost) every minute of my first several years in construction management, I began to feel worn out over time. Our company was going through a lot of changes, and we’d also no longer be taking on the type of projects I’d been working on. There was a distinctly different feel to our office culture. What was once an exciting new endeavor became just another job. I reached a plateau where my position was secure, but had limited upward opportunity – for the next several years I’d essentially do the same thing every day, including the early mornings, hours of traffic, long days and frankly, lots of corporate “stuff”. If I did pursue a position in upper management, would I even be happy? I’d spend even less time managing projects. While I’d be paid more, the corporate responsibilities only grow larger. I had three choices: stay where I am, start over somewhere new or finally take the entrepreneurial plunge. Although plateaus can and probably will happen in any pursuit, the workload, time commitment and corporate expectations began to sway me towards entrepreneurship two years before I became truly self-employed.
Terrible management. Plenty of people have great coworkers and a positive work environment. When you combine these things with a fair salary and enjoyable work, a traditional job can be awesome. For some of us, we experience the opposite. I had a really bad boss for a number of years, and I began resenting having to answer to one at all. This boss was the king of wasting time, being inefficient and sucking the life out of the room. Do I really need to put up with all of this in order to pay my bills, live a balanced life and save for my future?
Dollars and cents. Project management is an exciting field, yes. It’s also time-consuming and often hectic. I spent many years getting to the office around 6-630AM and essentially working until bedtime, with breaks mixed in for personal stuff. This story is certainly not exclusive to me, especially in competitive fields or big city environments. Our jobs become the bulk of our lives if we let them. This is especially problematic when we’re paid a fixed salary – the more hours we work, the less per hour we make. My partner and I weren’t going to move due to other obligations, and working from home isn’t usually an option in construction. After a certain point, I began to start wondering whether or not my current career path was literally worth my time anymore. Even after getting a raise. Can I make as much or more working for myself?
These are the various aspects of why I’ve become an entrepreneur after working as a project manager. Now, let’s talk about a few things that project managers becoming entrepreneurs should keep in mind!
For Project Managers Becoming Entrepreneurs: 5 Tips From My Own Experience
Now that I’ve ranted long enough about myself, let’s go through some tips for project managers becoming entrepreneurs based on my own experience.
- Overlap between job and self-employment
- Importance of business finances
- Learning about how businesses work is a must
- Your time is pure gold
- Psychological challenges and facing failure
The Overlap Between Job & Self-Employment
If you’re going to pursue the entrepreneurial path, I highly recommend starting the transition a year or two before working for yourself full-time.
First off, you’ll likely need to save up some expenses. This includes both expenses to live on and costs for starting a business. It will likely take several months to make just a little money at first, but this is expected. As you build your business or pursue your goal, you can at least rest easy that you’ve got money to live on for a while as you grow.
Secondly, I recommend spending at least a couple months researching heavily into what you want to pursue. If you plan to start a consulting service, for example, I highly recommend spend a lot of time researching who your customer will be, how much to charge, methods for marketing yourself, which types of services you offer and how your service can benefit those who hire you. Believe me, a little planning up front will save a lot of time on the back end.
Lastly, I recommend leaving room for change. You may think you’d like to start one type of business, but then realize you’d like to do something else instead. For example, I used to have websites selling bags, jewelry and a few other products before realizing it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. When you overlap your entrepreneurial endeavors with your project management job, you’ll have the chance to make these realizations before leaving your job.
Importance of Business Finances
Finances in project management are important, but they become one of your most critical focuses as an entrepreneur. Without cashflow and profitability, entrepreneurs are doomed. Sad but true! While the goal is to work for ourselves doing what we love, it’s also important to know where our next meal is coming from.
When it’s our own money on the line, we can’t help but to feel more conscious of expenses and wasted costs. When it comes to collecting payments from clients or customers, we suddenly realize on an existential level how important getting paid is.
Then there are costs for starting up, marketing, taxes, accounting, daily operations and of course, our own income.
For project managers becoming entrepreneurs, I highly recommend understanding how you plan to get paid, what your costs are and how much you can expect to make in profit before going much further in any particular pursuit.
Learning About How Businesses Work Is A Must
As project managers, we gain a thorough understanding of how projects operate, and a lot of this translates nicely to being an entrepreneur. That’s the good news. Where things get complicated is making the shift to understanding how businesses operate.
Many of these skills involve finances, which we covered in the prior section. But there’s more!
For instance, you may need to start a corporation (often an LLC) to get your business up and running. I recommend learning about the types of corporations that exist and figuring out which suits you best.
You’ll also need to look into obtaining a tax ID / Employee ID (EIN) number, at least in the U.S. This number is an approximate equivalent to a social security number, except it’s for your corporation.
The same can be said for business licensing, certifications (if needed), state/local registrations, insurance, tax requirements or other legalities.
When we work for ourselves, we’re ultimately responsible for all of the above. Luckily, these topics aren’t all that complicated and can be mastered with a little bit of time and research.
Your Time Is Pure Gold
As entrepreneurs, our time is our most precious commodity. This is actually true for everyone, but is amplified when working for yourself.
However we spend our time as entrepreneurs, we’re either moving ourselves and our business closer or further from our goals.
While we work for someone else, taking a break to chat with a coworker or spending a few minutes on cat videos isn’t such a big deal – after all, we know where our next paycheck is coming from, when it’s coming and how much it will be.
As entrepreneurs, that’s not the case. We become extremely conscious of what we’re doing moment to moment, how efficiently we’re working and how close we are to reaching our goal. After all, time is money.
Psychological Challenges & Facing Failure
Every project manager will experience failures and setbacks in their careers. While they’re not easy to deal with, there’s simply less at stake when we’re working for someone else.
Failing in our entrepreneurial endeavors can sting a bit more. It can feel as though we ourselves are failures, as opposed to the business. Believe me, I’ve been there. I’ve had multiple online drop shipping stores ultimately not work out as I hoped. I was forced to look at my stores objectively and admit to myself that it was time to close their “doors”. I’ve had to pivot in my other pursuits several times as well – even for PM Problems!
Not only is facing failure a challenge, but feeling like we’re a failure to others – family, friends, former coworkers – can be tough too. When we tie our self-worth to our business becoming a success, it’s a recipe for a lot of heartache. Not because we’ll never make it, but because most of us will need to spend time in this “fail zone” for a bit to finally figure out what works vs. what does not. When we expect success too soon and depend on a certain fixed outcome, the vast majority of entrepreneurs will be disappointed.
To project managers becoming entrepreneurs, I highly recommend accepting that you will face failure, that you will struggle at times and that you’ll likely need to make many adjustments before becoming “successful”, which is purely a metric for measuring your business‘ worth – not your own self-worth!
In Closing
My ultimate goal for writing this article is to communicate what I wish I heard and did before becoming an entrepreneur. To the project managers becoming entrepreneurs that are reading – I’ve made these mistakes already, no need to learn the hard way yourself! Please learn from my experiences so you can reach success in a simpler manner. Thanks for reading.
