My Story of How I Quit My Full-Time Job at The Age of 29 and Started a Business. (Without Any Investment)

I quit my job at the age of 29 to start a Business.?

I did not have a big startup idea, investors, or alternative income sources, at that time.?

I had zero knowledge of how business works as nobody in my family was into business before and my friends thought I would fail and get back to job hunting within a couple of months.?

Everybody thought it was a big mistake.?

Today, after 2 years of quitting my job, I have a team of 5 people and run a successful online business into consulting, coaching & training.??

1. How did I achieve this?
2. Why did I leave a well paid stable job?
3. Can anyone do this??
4. How does someone decide when to leave their job?
5. How did I manage to get clients?
6. How can you get clients as a beginner?

Today, I will share with you everything that worked for me and hopefully inspire you to go after your dreams - full time.?

So, why did I quit a stable high-paying stable Job?

My biggest motivation was Freedom.?

Freedom to work, not work, travel, and spend time with my family at my will.??

I didn’t want a boss. I didn’t want to report to someone or apply for leave and justify my reason.

I was fed up with petty office politics, my arrogant boss, traveling 2 hours per day, and working 9 hrs a day for someone else.?

I had worked for 3 years as a freelancer with premium clients parallelly by working on weekends and after office hours. I had also started consulting & training on a small scale.?

I knew that my knowledge and experience was valued in the industry.

In the last few days of working at Office I started questioning myself:

1. Why should I travel for 2 hours daily when I can WFH?
2. Why should I work on ideas that I know won’t work?
3. Why do I need to be in long meetings unnecessarily?

I analyzed the whole situation & realized

• I had already started a business while working (freelancing)
• I had built new skills (sales, negotiation, maintaining client relationships)
• I had proof that I could get work and survive alone
• I was addicted to the salary at month-end for 7 years. But I was making enough to survive from my side hustle.??

It was clear.

I didn’t need a full-time job. I needed to believe in myself and take the leap of faith.

How did I start a business with zero investment?

A lot of people still think that starting a business requires a lot of funds, a physical store, employees, office space, etc.?

Well, 30 years ago that might have been true.?

But, not today.?

You can start a business without any money, build it and come out of the 9 to 5 trap. That’s the beauty of the internet and social media.?

Your Instagram page, YouTube channel, LinkedIn Presence, can be your start-up. But, it’s not a shortcut to escape from hard work.??

Just like any other business, you need to work hard and stay consistent for 6 to 8 months without expecting anything.?

That’s exactly what I did on LinkedIn to get my first few clients.?

I wrote continuously on LinkedIn and built my network for almost a year and people started reaching out to me with job offers and freelancing opportunities.?

I know it sounds ridiculous at first but it’s true.?

The same is true with all the social media platforms??

Can you do the same thing? And how exactly?

I don’t know.?

It depends on so many factors - the niche you choose, your dedication, how good you are at marketing, building your personal brand, client relationship, managing your time, etc.?

But, let’s say you are a writer or you have an interest in writing. Here’s what you should do :

1. Optimize all your social media profiles and tell the same story.?
2. Create content regularly and publish it across all social media channels.?
3. Aggressively engage with your audience and other content creators
4. Repeat the same thing sincerely for 6 to 8 months.?

Is it easy?

Not at all.?

It’s a side hustle, and you need to grind for a long time without anything in return. You need to learn new skills on the way which is not going to be comfortable.?

For example, to be able to put your plan into action, you need to write daily. If you are not good at writing, you need to develop that skill. To share anything on Instagram you need to learn basic designing and one designing tool like Canva. To be able to share something on YouTube you need to learn video editing.?

That’s a lot of work.?

Added to that you need to have self-discipline and the motivation to show up every day.?

But, there’s nothing to be scared about.?You can start small.?

Target one skill, and one social media and build your presence. You can gradually move to other platforms.?

What worked for me?

I was good at writing.?

I built my network on LinkedIn initially with no agenda, just with the belief that it’s good to have more connections.?

People related to the content that I wrote and got freelance offers quite early. There was no looking back once I realized that my efforts were in the right direction.?

I was able to use my weekends after office hours to make the extra hard work needed to work for my clients and build my portfolio strong enough to start solo.?

How does someone decide when to leave their job?

That’s a tough one.?

Your job gives you stability, makes you feel safe about the future, and gives you an environment to work.

Salary at the end of every month is like an addiction.?

You have colleagues, build relationships at the office, and go out during weekends. You take loans and have EMIs to pay. It’s a cycle and there’s no easy exit.?

When you create an alternate source of income like freelancing, it’s tempting to leave your job and jump into the pool of entrepreneurship.?

But, “How do you decide when to leave your job and go on freelancing full-time?”

There is no easy answer.

From my experience, you should either earn equal money or build enough experience as a freelancer to be able to get new clients. You should have a strong conviction that you can survive alone. There may be ups and downs, but you feel pretty confident from the inside about your skills.?

Going solo invites a lot of risk and pressure. It requires a different kind of mindset. But the rewards are equally appealing.?

If it doesn’t suit your personality, you can always go back to a job with a rich experience.?

How did I get my first client? How can you find clients?

I didn’t chase clients. Never have.?

They found me on LinkedIn and approached me for work. I found it interesting and had time to kill so I accepted the offer.?

Now, it’s not a good idea to wait for clients to come home and knock on the door. You need to make sincere efforts by finding your target audience and pitching them and having a strong follow-up strategy.?

For example, you are good at writing and you love technology. You can reach out to IT Startups by finding Founders/Co-Founders/CEOs on LinkedIn using the filter option, connect with them and send them messages.?

But, first, you should optimize your profile, and write regularly on LinkedIn so that when your client starts doing research about you, you don’t lose any opportunity.?

Most importantly, stay consistent with your marketing efforts.?

What else do you need?

Once you scale up the business, you will have to invest in lots of other things depending on your needs.?

You may need a team to divide the work, tools to nurture, manage and build relationships with clients. Productivity applications to track and better manage your business.

But, as a beginner, you need only one thing - A strong will to build a business.?

You need the risk-taking capability and the mindset of an entrepreneur.?You need a vision and a positive approach to work towards that.?You need a never-give-up attitude.?You need to love what you do.?

You need passion.?

There will be ups and downs, but you need to believe in yourself and protect your dreams.?

Final words:?

If you want to quit your job and start a freelancing business here’s what you need to do in 17 bullet points -?

1. Find your niche
2. Build expertise in your niche
3. Take courses, attend workshops, and become a master of your subject
4. Fine-tune your social media and pitch yourself as a professional freelancer
5. Start creating content regularly relevant to your niche
6. Connect with your target audience, creators, and people in your industry
7. In short, build your personal brand on social media
8. Initially work at a lower price or free just to build your portfolio
9. Showcase your knowledge & skills in your website, resume, and LinkedIn
10. Finalize your process, offer, price, and build a proposal document
11. Create invoice, terms and conditions, contract document
12. Go for a photoshoot and use headshots wherever you need
13. Build discipline in your life to manage the extra work?
14. Connect with someone who is experienced and seek guidance
15. Register your business and speak to a Tax Consultant?
16. Build your communication skills to maintain better relationships
17. Don’t forget to collect feedback from every client

All the best !!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

- Surojit

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