Full time

The type of business you’ve decided on - or your individual circumstances - may imply that you want to take the plunge and jump straight in full time.

Benefits:

• You can dedicate all your time and enthusiasm to your enterprise.
• You can react to new developments as they arise.
• If your business depends on a gap in the market or a new idea, time will be of the essence.

Disadvantages:

• You will have to, whilst your business is developing, temporarily manage without any income.

If you decide to go into business full time you have a few options to help you over the initial days:

• Live off your spouse or partner’s income - however, it can be difficult to live off one salary if you’ve been running the household on two.
• Use your savings - if you’ve been saving up money aside for a rainy day, this could be it. Ask yourself if you have the appropriate amount of money to cover your living expenses and fund your business and for how long? Will you have anything to fall back on if your business fails?
• Get a loan - banks will often help new businesses with a loan. Nonetheless, they can be inflexible. You may have to pay back the loan immediately if your business fails, and there will be expensive penalties if you don’t make agreed repayments.
• Use your home as capital - if you have capital within your house, you could use it as security. However this may be risky considering that your house may drop in value and if you cannot keep up repayments, you risk losing it.
• Borrow money from family or friends - you can save a lot of money if your friends and family don’t charge you any interest. Although if your business doesn’t work out, it could put a big strain on your relationship with them.

Part time

If your business gives you the choice, you could choose to work on it part time, fitting it in with your current job or other responsibilities. Then, when the business is robust enough or circumstances change, you can move over to it entirely.

Benefits:

• You can still receive income while you’re getting your new business off the ground.
• Technology such as answer phones, the Internet and email make it possible for you to communicate out of hours when you’re not around due to working elsewhere. 
• It can make it easier for you to juggle your other commitments - such as home life - by allowing you to choose when you work.

Disadvantages:

• It can be difficult to handle the extra hours you need to put in.
• Putting in very long hours can be stressful and tiring.
• It could take much longer for your new business to take off.
• You’ll have to pay tax on both incomes if you continue with your other job.

Many people who start up their own business decide to work on a part-time basis to allow them to balance their home and working obligations.

Some people believe that the safest option is to continue with their current job whilst starting up their new business. Legally you don’t necessarily have to tell your employer that you are starting up a business, although there may be a clause in your contract preventing you from doing any other work.

You might want to ask your employer for more flexible working arrangements. These could involve reducing or re-arranging your existing working hours.

Tags: business