Caution Before Quitting Your Job for Entrepreneurship
This week on the Switch, Pivot or Quit podcast, host Ahyiana Angel has a straightforward chat about the realities of quitting your day job. Social media makes many feel like the answer to a fulfilling life complete with fabulous vacations, plump pockets and ultimate freedom is quitting that dreaded day job. Our guest Sable B., Founder of RealBrownGirls.com, has a suggestion, "Don't Be Stupid; Don't Quit Your Day Job."
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What we're talking about:
The observations that prompted Sable B. to write the story
Are people teaching their audience how to be an entrepreneur or a multilevel marketer
The $1,000 course Sable took, which wasn't worth the money
We tackle the topic of the 9 to 5 still being real life for many
Share the goodness with a friend!
"You know you want to be an entrepreneur, but you don't have the slightest inclination of what you want to do. Girl, you don't want to be an entrepreneur, you want a hobby!" - @realbrowngirls
"Can my issues with my current job be resolved with another job, or a pay increase?" - @realbrowngirls
"Do I actually want to work for myself or do I just want greater job flexibility?" - @realbrowngirls
""If you really want to be the pop-star of Wall Street, that's really not happening on your own." - @realbrowngirls
#socialmedia #encouragement #socialmediamarketing #inspirationpodcast #businesspodcast #personalgrowth #selfdevelopment #selfhelppodcast #smallbusiness #digitalcareers #lathpodcast
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey girl. Hey, and thanks for dropping into the Switch, pivot. Quit podcast candid convo for the girl needing a lifestyle plot twist when she's deciding if it's time to switch, pivot, or quit. I'm Ahyiana Angel, and I am your host, as well as Chief encourager and author. In order for you to hang out with us in this awesome space, all that's required for you to do is sit back, open your mind, and enjoy the show.
With it being January top of the year, so many people are looking to mix things up in their lives personally and professionally. But when it comes to professionally, what seems to be number one on a lot of people's lists is quitting. A lot of people are talking about quitting. A lot of people are making that a part.
Their, um, goals for 2017. So I actually came across a article by a friend of mine, friend to the show by the name of Sabel B, and the article is called Don't be Stupid, don't Quit Your Day Job. So of course I had to chat with her about this. Now if you don't know and not are not familiar with Sable, she is the creator and founder of Real Brown Girls, which was started in February of 2014.
Sable is a career strategist and facilitator helping women strategically advance in their respective areas of expertise. She is an in-demand thought leader, creating a new narrative among professional women of color, and her mission is to see women living as opposed to simply surviving. So let's go ahead and hop into our conversation with Sable.
Be and welcome her to the show. Hey, fable. Hey, hey. All right, so don't be stupid. Don't quit your day job. You know, it's not so harsh when you read it out loud. You know what? But it's not, it's real. And that's why I wanted us to chat about it because so many people think that quitting your job is the big answer to shaking up your life.
What really prompted you to write this story? So I work with women who are looking for new jobs. That's my overall client. It's. Brown girl who is either currently employed but wants to move elsewhere or unemployed. That said, in working with them, I asked some short-term goals, long-term goals, a number of questions for the overwhelming majority of the clients I had last year.
They all wanted to become entrepreneurs. And then when I asked them, cool, what do you wanna do? What do you wanna sell? Like, what you wanna do? Less than like 20% had an answer. And in my head I'm like, how you, how this works though? You know, you wanna be an entrepreneur, but you don't have the slightest inclination of what you wanna do.
Girl, you don't wanna be an entrepreneur, you want a hobby. This is different, right? So there was that piece. And then the other piece was like, I just feel like I'm well immersed in the Instagram Black girl stratosphere, a k a, I'm on everybody's profile and digging deep 102 weeks, and I'm looking at your website, I'm looking at your profile, I'm looking at your Twitter, et cetera, et cetera.
And I just felt like everyone came out the gate 2016 a. And online, Brandon. And then all of a sudden there are these popular publications interviewing some girls about how the income double and all this stuff. And I know some of these people, I'm like, wait, your husband take care of you? Wait, your father still pay for your gas?
Wait, how you telling them to quit their job when your entrepreneurial endeavors aren't paying for your lifestyle? And that's. That's key right there. And you said, and you said in the story, let's just recap this for our listeners, is you said it's time to end the fantasies and get realistic time to assess our individual situations and needs.
Owen, before I forget, we need to be honest with ourselves about our work ethic and career goals. Entrepreneurship is not for thin skin, fly by night people. If the grinds not in you, don't quit. Stay. There's nothing wrong with working for someone else. Everyone cannot be the ceo, and even they report to someone.
And there's this idea that just because you read a feature on someone doesn't mean she told you the whole story, right? You don't know the whole truth. Would you say that social media has falsely glamorized entrepreneurship, girl glamorized? They have turned it into a competition of like who's going.
Earned the Oscar for prettiest post and it's just like, but what went into that post? Did you create your own post? Do you have a team? What's really happening behind the scenes? Right. No one sees that. We see these like 32nd, I guess. Did you like a minute clip now, like we see these minute clips, these 32nd, um, IG story clips, and we are all putting together like this essay based on this person that we've never met in.
We need to be mindful of that as people watching, because you know, we've heard it time and time again, but I don't know when we'll really start to internalize it and believe it that social media is just a snippet of people's lives. It's not always the reality. It's not always the full picture. So that's just the real that I think that people sometimes, either they don't share or maybe we don't wanna.
I think people don't share because you just don't. It puts you in a very vulnerable space, and it's like, how much of your business do you want someone to know too? I think people don't wanna hear that, or they wanna hear it after the fact, so it's like, oh, I was depressed. Not like I am depressed. Because I think that it, it allows for hope, but.
Can be wrapped in realism, right? And so a few things that you say to consider when you're asking yourself should you quit is number one, we'll go through, there's nine of them, and we'll go through them just so that everyone can have an idea of where you're coming from with this information. And number one is, do I have the savings and capital to financially cushion and position myself and my business just in case I don't?
Auntie Oprah overnight. That's real. Number two, can my issues with my current job be resolved with another job or a pay increase? I thought that one was so clutch, because a lot of times it's not. The job, it's you, you might outgrow the job, you might be feeling some type of way about, uh, the management, whatever.
But in any case, you have to assess what your exact situation is. So that that's key. Because some people stay at places too long and it's like no one said you had to stay there. Yeah. But you can leave. Yeah. So number three is do I actually want to work for myself or do I just want greater job Flex.
That's a great question to ask yourself, and that goes back to ultimately, what type of career do you want? What do you want your career to look like? What do you want your lifestyle to look like? Because a lot of us, our jobs and our careers take up so much of our time that we want this freedom outside of it, and that's where the entrepreneurship.
Ain't going to give that to you right away. Yeah, but that's where the lure from, social media something. Yeah. Cause you see people living these globe trotting lifestyles in their entrepreneurs. Oh my God, they all, all these stamps on these passports. I'm What? Can you adopt me? Because the way my budget's set up, I gotta plan far in advance to do all I had in one.
Yeah, and then there's things that you're not told about how some of these trips are achieved. You know, uh, it might be financed through a sponsorship, it might be financed by Daddy. For all you know, you don't know. If you don't know this person personally, then it's really not your business to know either.
So, Okay. Number four is, can my business idea replace my current salary with net profits? Ching? I had to say net because everyone wants to talk about growth. Like for instance, I got all these student loans, right? So when you go to putting your affirmation to figure out how much you have to pay, they don't ask you what you make after taxes.
They ask you what you make Before it's like, bro, but you just took like 10. I'm a salary of 15, whatever, you know, tax bracket default. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And for me, like that's same with the business. Like, all right, so your goal might be to make a hundred K, first year out the gate power to you do what you gotta do, boo.
But after your expenses and your business taxes, how much did you actually take home people? And don't wanna do the math. Yeah. And you need to figure out what your lifestyle consists of. And usually when you hear entrepreneurs talk about their startup days or their days bootstrapping, They are living bare minimum scraping by, and it, it is either out of necessity because they don't have the money or if it's out of circumstance because they know that they're trying to save as much, uh, as they can to put.
Toward the business or invest in the business. Mm-hmm. Exactly. Like how many people you here for? Like the first three years, five years, they didn't take a salary. Yeah. So I always wanna go. Well, who fed you then? Yeah. If you didn't take anything out of the company profits. After all paperwork and bills were said and done, who fed you?
How did you eat, sir? Ma'am, tell me. I really wanna know. Peanut butter and jelly oodles and noodles. What was it? What was it? What was your diet? Right? Tell me. Right. So the next one is, am I an innovator or an entrepreneur? Very key as well. Next up, do I have the stamina to run a business long-term, not just short-term, but long-term?
Because right now it looks fancy and good, but long-term, will you still want to work this hard for your business? That's a great question. Next up, am I willing to work long hours and weekends? Next up, what is the number one reason I want to work for? And that is the last question that you tell people to consider before just quitting their day job.
And that is a key question. You have to know your why. Because if it's superficial, you might as well not start. Mm-hmm. And for most people that have made it, everyone tells you the motivation wasn't necessarily money. We all want to see people when we want to, uh, especially our women. We wanna encourage each other.
We wanna say go, you can do it. But we also wanna be realistic about things too. Cause none of us wanna set ourselves. For failure. We wanna set ourselves up in a way that we can thrive and be successful and potentially bring other people on board. And that's a part of the reason why I thought that this discussion was so crucial.
Because as we go into a new year, everybody's thinking what they wanna do different in the new year, how they're going to be their best in 2017. And for some people being their best, they're thinking that means I'm gonna be an entre. I'm gonna get out there, I'm gonna hustle, I'm gonna step out on faith, I'm gonna let it all go, and I'm going to be the best entrepreneur that I can possibly be.
And sometimes it takes people like us to say, Hey. Let's be realistic though. You can do that. That's, that's great. But what's your idea? What's your ambition? What's your why? What's the plan? Yeah. What's your plan? How many books have you read about it? Who's your market? Who's, who's gonna buy this stuff from you?
Who are you talking to? Who's listening? Are people already you wanna do this so you die? Like Yeah. What you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. These are things that we need to know. You got up another, um, good point. At the top of the article that pretty much talked about, uh, marketers being all up in your inbox, which we know that they do.
What I'm curious to know your thoughts on how many of these people do you think are setting people up for a true entrepreneurial career? Or more like a multi-level marketing career. I'll put it to you this way. The first course you buy on Instagram or from someone on Instagram that is at a relatively expensive price, 200 plus course that's gonna teach you how to brand that's on the person, whatever you're supposed to learn.
Cool. But by the time we bought the second or third course, so you didn't have this 18th consult. And you're not where you thought you would be. We can't no longer blame them. They're hustling you and you're allowing it. Mm-hmm. So it's like the first, what? What is it? Back in the day? Or like the first time, blame them.
Second time, about a third time, you're the full. And it's not to say you have to, you're buying three courses and two courses or whatever, but if you thought you were going to learn how to be an entrepreneur from a self-titled expert, d i y. You were already doomed, foolish from the beginning. Mm-hmm.
Because that's not how any of this works. Mm-hmm. It takes a lot more groundwork and study and interest in digging in than just taking a e-course basically. And then my thing is like with the marketing and like the beginning, the beginning of the article, I talked about the marketing aspect of it. That's because I grew up in a marketing household, like that'