Pod Insights The $100 MBA Show MBA2558 Q&A Wednesday: I Just Graduated. Should I Get a Job or Start My Own Business? About this episode Just graduated and unsure whether to dive into the job market or start your own business? Wrestling with the decision between gaining work experience or plunging straight into entrepreneurship? Today’s lesson is here to help you figure it all out. In this episode, Omar breaks down both options, weighing the pros and cons to help […] The post MBA2558 Q&A Wednesday: I Just Graduated. Should I Get a Job or Start My Own Business? appeared first on The $100 MBA.
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1:17 Speaker 00 Hey, welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm Omar Zenhome, and today's episode is Q&A Wednesday, where we answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners, one of our subscribers, one of our community members. If you've got a question you want to ask, go ahead and message me. You can submit your question over at 100mba.net/que. Today's question is from Fabian, and Fabian asks, "I just graduated from university. Should I get a job or start my own business?" This is a fantastic question, Fabian, and it's a big one because it's a big decision. We're going to break down both options, and I'm going to help you make a choice that sets you up for success. So if you're listening and you need to make a choice of whether to take a job or stay
2:00 Speaker 00 in your job, or to go ahead and go out on your own and start your business, you're going to love this episode. Here's the thing: there's no one-size-fits-all answer. You know, it's just so hard for me to just give you this answer without knowing all the details. So I'm going to give you the different pros and cons of diving right into entrepreneurship now, or taking that leap a little bit later after being in a job for a bit. I'm going to give you everything you need to know so you can make a decision. And it should be clear by the end of today's episode, right? So you can actually move on and start taking action. I want to start by saying that if you're young, you just graduated from university, you're in a very fortunate position. It's one of the most advantageous
2:44 Speaker 00 positions you'll ever have in your life. This is not going to get repeated because you basically have very little responsibilities, if any, right? And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I know as a young person, you might be thinking, well, I don't really understand what that means or how that feels to have all these responsibilities. Just imagine what your parents' life is like, your aunt, an elder, somebody you look up to, somebody that's in their 40s, 50s. What do they have to do every day to fulfill all the responsibilities, right? What keeps them up at night, right? They got a mortgage, they got car payments, they got to put food on the table, they're responsible for their significant other, or maybe their children, or maybe an elderly parent, right? They have
3:26 Speaker 00 to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak, I mean, keep up the lifestyle, go on vacations, you know, have brunch on the weekend, whatever it might be. There's just so much on their plate. There's so many obligations they have. They have so many bills to pay. They're worried that, you know, they're losing time because they're getting older, right? So there's very little room for risk. And this is one of the things that you have to understand that when you're young, time is on your side and risk is very low for you because worst case scenario, you end up where you are right now. Okay. Now, I don't know everybody's situation. You might have some responsibilities already as a college graduate, you might be married, you might have a child. But even so, it only gets harder from there, right?
4:10 Speaker 00 Your responsibilities continue to increase from that point on. So this is actually a pivotal time. So even if you're maybe in your 30s or 40s or 50s or whatever, and you're thinking about leaving your job or starting a business or whatever it might be, you know, you have to keep in mind your responsibilities in life and how that weighs up in terms of the risks you're about to take right now by starting a business. So let's start with option number one, the option I prefer you to take, which is to take the leap and start a business. If you're a fresh graduate, you have very little responsibilities, you have a lot of flexibility, and you're likely to have less of a chance of risking it all. One of the things you have to understand is as you grow older, as you start accumulating things in
4:54 Speaker 00 life, you have other assets, you have other responsibilities, there's a lot more that you can lose, right? When you're young, you don't have much to lose, right? Especially if you're still living with your parents and you have a roof over your head and a meal if you needed a meal at home, right? Essentially, you don't really need to have a job, right? Essentially, you could survive if you're living with your parents. And for a lot of people, that's an option. For many other people, it's not an option. Maybe that's not how things work in their household, they're outside of their house, there's maybe some issues with their family. Every situation is different. But even so, you know, having enough money to just survive, to have a roof over your head and to eat your meals is pretty
5:36 Speaker 00 doable. And we'll talk about that in a moment. But the point I'm making here is that you have the advantage of being able to take some risk right now. Even if you fail at starting a business once, twice, three times, it's not that bad because the loss of that failure is not huge. Again, you'll never have fewer responsibilities than you have right now. So use this window as an opportunity. So many entrepreneurs that I've read in biographies that I know personally that have been highly successful in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, they credit the fact that they gave themselves the time and space to become a better entrepreneur when they were younger without responsibilities. So some people had that advantage and it
6:17 Speaker 00 really helped them become millionaires, billionaires in the future. So there's something about that, about allowing yourself to learn and to fail. Young when responsibilities are low and you're able to kind of take more risks and try new things. Right. Thing about risk is that, you know, if you ever play card games like poker or blackjack or whatever like that, the thing about risk is if you're playing with house money, you are more aggressive with your bets. You're more aggressive with the risks you're taking because you really don't have much to lose because you're using the casino's money. Right. And worst case scenario, your venture doesn't do well. You raise some capital. If fails,
6:57 Speaker 00 yes, you're gonna have to bounce back from that, but you didn't really lose the shirt off your back. Right. You still have some place to sleep. You still have a way to eat. So you have some time for trial and error. The second reason why I think that jumping into entrepreneurship right away might be a good move is that you're going to be able to have full focus and momentum. If you dive straight into business after you graduate, you have the advantage of giving 100% of your focus, of your energy, of your effort, of your brain power, of everything you've got to your business. No distractions, no competing priorities. You have clarity, which is priceless when you're building a business. Building a business requires momentum,
7:41 Speaker 00 requires you to have one good day after the other, build upon each day. And it's hard to get momentum when you spend so much time on it. We don't give your full attention on it. Being all in on your business can help you gain traction faster and get results faster. So if you're tempted to start a business and go with option number one, then here's an action step for you. Set up a six to 12 month plan with a clear set of milestones, right, to keep you on track. Right. I'm gonna make my first sale here. I'm gonna make X amount of revenue here, X amount of revenue this month, you know, within the next six to 12 months. Plan it out. This focus can help you get to profitability faster in your business, can allow you to get more traction
8:25 Speaker 00 and make it your full time thing. Now, I'm going to tell you that this is not easy. This option is not easy. If you need to earn money to survive, right, to maybe pay your rent, to, you know, have some food, have some fun, all that kind of stuff. Right. If you have responsibilities, if you have a partner in life, if you have children, This is not an option, really, unless you have somebody that can fund your lifestyle. Maybe your partner can kind of carry the weight until you get off your feet with your business. But you have to remember, you don't know how long it's going to take, especially in your first business venture. You have no business experience, you have no confidence in what you could do. So it could be indefinite and that's, that could put a strain on the relationship. So just keep this in mind.
9:08 Speaker 00 I know that this is not easy for a lot of people. So I'm going to give you another option. Don't worry, I'm going to get there. But before that, I want to give you my third reason why going full-time on a business after graduation is a good idea is that it's going to be the best personal and professional growth program you've ever seen in your life. You're going to learn more in a month than you learn in four years in university. You're going to learn about yourself, you're going to learn about what you could do, what you can't do, your strengths, your weaknesses. You're going to learn about the marketplace, you're going to learn about society, you're going to learn about human behavior, you're going to learn about so much, right? Running a business is going to challenge you like nothing else, right? You're going to learn how to be resilient, you're going to learn how to make decisions, right? Quickly. And you're going to learn about how to be a better leader, you're going to learn about skills that will benefit you and your business now and in the future.
9:52 Speaker 00 You're going to learn so much, right? And this is why I love entrepreneurship in general. It forces you to become a better person and this is why I continue to do it. I can tell you firsthand from my own experience that all my business attempts weren't successful, right? They were failures in my path, in my history of building businesses. But all my successes, all the things that actually just took off and did well, started with a failure, right? This podcast was not my first podcast, right? I had another podcast that didn't do so well. It failed miserably and I learned what not to do when I started this podcast. And that's why it was successful because I learned so much from that failure.
10:34 Speaker 00 Same thing with my software business, Webinar Ninja, that I grew for 10 years, had 30,000 paid users and we just got acquired earlier this year by ProProfs. The reason why I had this success is because it started with a failure. I built a product that just was a total dud and taught me that people don't want this type of product. They want a tool to help them build and run smoothly. Their webinars and that's where webinar ninja came from. That's where the idea came from. And that's how I was able to have a clear strategy to build a better business. So even my successes are attributed to my failures. So just keep that in mind that you're going to have some failures along the way and they're probably going to be the best things that happen to you in the moment. It's going to be horrible. You're going to hate it, but in hindsight, you're
11:17 Speaker 00 going to love it. So let's move on to option. Number two, where you do get a job, whether you're freshly graduated from university and you get a job or you have an opportunity for a new position, a new job, and you're thinking, should I take this position or should I start a business? So this is a good option, but it's not just get a job. It's get a job with a plan, with a strategy. We're going to approach this differently than normal because we don't want to find ourselves, you know, stuck in a job. And I'll tell you what that all looks like. So what does this plan look like? What does getting a job mean to me? Well, it means to me that you're going to go into a job where you can learn as much as possible on the job about building a
11:59 Speaker 00 business as successful as the business you're working for. Okay. So it's like you're getting inside and understanding how the sausage is made. You're figuring out how this business actually works. You're not just going in, clocking in and clocking out and getting a paycheck. You're basically going in for R and D, right? And a good plus about this is you're going to learn a ton and you're going to get paid for it. Right? So this is going to change your perspective about what kind of job you're looking for. So if you're looking to start a, you know, a software company, a tech startup, then work for a tech startup. Okay. That is going to be a lot more beneficial for you when you start a business. If you're looking to, you know, start a restaurant, then work for a restaurant. So you're going to understand the ins and outs and the mundane tasks
12:43 Speaker 00 you have to do to pull off this business. So work in the industry that interests you and where you feel like you want to start a business, right? You're going to learn the ins and outs of how that business operates. You're going to look at the opportunities where you can gain skills, learn how to make decisions, understand how your boss is making decisions, the owner of the business is making decisions. And that way you can go home, take notes, figure out, okay, how am I going to do this on my own business? I get asked all the time from entrepreneurs here in Sydney, hey, I'm thinking about getting a job, but I want to learn on the job so I can start my own business. I ask them, so what kind of business you want to run? And they're like, oh, I'd love to have a tech startup. And I was like, okay, cool. So where do you want to work? I was thinking about working in
13:25 Speaker 00 banking. I was like, why? Why don't you work for Canva? Canva's hiring, right? Canva's right here. And it's a huge success story in Australia. Why don't you work for Atlassian? There's so many tech companies here that you can learn from. It doesn't have to be that big. You can actually work for smaller startups that maybe have a smaller team, 30 or 40 employees. And you can learn the ins and outs. And it's actually better because you're going to be able to have more access to the founder and understand what allowed them to start the business in the first place. What are some of the things that gave them momentum, allowed them to make their first hire? You can go out for coffee with leadership easily and learn from them. It's going to be very hard for you to, you know, hang out with Melissa from Canva, because she's super busy.
14:08 Speaker 00 You know, she's got a unicorn business, billion dollar, you know, over billion dollar valuation, billions of dollars of valuation. But the point here is that there's so many opportunities for you to join the company that you want to build. The best thing you could do is to join a company at the stage of where you want to be in three to five years with your business. So they're just a little bit ahead. You could learn how to get there. So when you start your business, you have all the fresh knowledge that you need.
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16:03 Speaker 00 Now, again, don't just go into your job clock in and clock out. Absorb as much information as possible, right? Say this week is HR week. I'm gonna go to the HR person and I'm gonna say, hey, tell me a little bit about how you do your job. What do you do here? I want to learn about your position, your department, right? Get some information, take some notes down, figure out how HR is run in this company, right? Next week, sales. Hey, salespeople, great to meet you. What do you do with the leads? How do you make these phone calls? How do you reach out to people? How do you know that you have a good customer, a bad customer? How long does it take to make a sale? How do you close sales? Learn, right? You have all these amazing departments at your disposal. You can ask questions for free, right?
16:48 Speaker 00 And get all this information so that you can then build your sales department, your HR department, your finance department, all that kind of stuff. So just take out somebody for lunch once a week and learn from them. All right, number two, if you're gonna take on a job with a plan, save, okay? You want to be as frugal as possible in this time period. And remember, you know, you're looking to learn as much as possible in a short period of time. So maybe you're in this job for 12 to 18 months, maybe 24 months maximum. Why do I say maximums? Because having a paycheck is addictive, okay? And if you are not... On a tight budget and you start spending all the money that you make on having a maybe a more lavish lifestyle,
17:31 Speaker 00 you'll never get out of the right race. You'll get comfortable with the luxuries. And in order for you to continue to have those luxuries like a fancy car, like fancy brunches, like a beautiful, you know, apartment or beautiful furniture, or whatever it might be, right, for you. The more likely you're going to stay in the job to maintain that lifestyle. But if you get the job and you stay conservative with the way you spend, it's going to motivate you to quit the job and use the money you're saving on the business you want to build. Entrepreneurs that know how to delay gratification are the ones that win in the long term. So financial stability is huge. Use this time to save as much money as possible so you can create that runway I talked about that you didn't have to start your business right away.
18:16 Speaker 00 And aim to save enough money to support yourself for the next 12 months without working. So again, it's going to be easier for you to save that amount of money when your expenses are low. So for example, let's say you have a very lavish lifestyle. In order for you to be able to live that lifestyle, you need to have 100K saved a year. That's going to be very hard for you to save 100K in a year. If your expenses are 100K a year, right? But if your expenses are, let's say, 30, 40, $50,000 a year, it's going to be a lot easier for you to save 25, 30 a year. In two years, you have enough runway to quit your job, live off your savings for a year as you start to build your business.
18:56 Speaker 00 So as an action step, you want to set up a savings plan, right? Treat it as a non-negotiable. So part of your income, your salary from this job goes to your business fund, goes to your runway fund, right? So you can just set this up in your bank. Most banks have this where you can just create a savings account inside the bank account and have an automatic deduction after payroll. So when you get paid, just say, okay, that day or the next day, please just automatically deposit X amount of money. So a good amount of money, I would say, that will not rock your world, but at the same time be significant enough is 20% of your salary. Try to live off 80%. Go away, right? If you could do more than that 30%, amazing. 40%, now you're going to be able to quit your job even earlier
19:41 Speaker 00 and be able to have a longer runway. The easiest way to do this is to lower your expenses drastically. Get some roommates. If you're living on your own, if you're still living with your parents, amazing. Stay at your parents as long as you can. You get free laundry. You get a free meal if you ever need to. Remember, this is temporary. You're going to have a launchpad soon when you get your business out there and you start seeing some success. Number three, work on your business in your free time. That means after work, go to a cafe, go to a coworking space, go back home, right? And work on your business. Just because you have a job doesn't mean you can't start building something on the side. Use the evenings, use the weekends, work on your business idea and start gaining that traction
20:22 Speaker 00 before you fully commit, before you leave your job, so that you have something going for you to say, "Oh, I got a winner here. I think that it's going to be a good time for me to quit my job because if I give 100% to this business, I could see X amount return." I did this, right? I was a teacher for 10 years. I was a high school/university educator. I was a chair of department before I left my career in education. And I side hustled. I built businesses on the side for those 10 years. I learned how to build businesses. I learned how to make a great product. And eventually I left my career, but I had some business experience. I had some ways to make money. I had the start of my business consulting firm at the time.
21:02 Speaker 00 So it was easier for me to transition because I had something I can lean on to make me successful in business. Lastly, when you're in a job, I'm going to repeat this because I talked about it earlier, but it's so important, I gotta say it again, the paycheck trap. The longer you stay in a job, the harder it can be to leave. A paycheck can be incredibly addictive. It's consistent. It's comfortable. It's secure. But remember, the goal is to build something of your own. Set a timeline. If you're working to save and learn, commit to 12 to 18 months and stick to it, right? Having a clear end date keeps you from getting too comfortable. Understanding that this paycheck thing that's coming to me every two weeks, every month,
21:44 Speaker 00 Is gonna end. So let me wrap up today's Q and A question from Fabian. There's really no wrong choice here. It's what you're ready for. Are you able to take that leap right after graduation? Are you able to take that leap and start that business comfortably? Right? When I say comfortably, I'm not saying it's easy. I'm saying it's gonna be difficult. It's gonna be challenging. But when I say comfortably, I'm saying that you're not gonna be behind on your bills or be neglecting responsibilities that you have. Right? So you want to make sure that you, all your responsibilities are taken care of whatever you have right now. But if you need this ability, if you do have responsibilities that require a paycheck, then go ahead and do that. Lower your expenses. Understand that you just can't have the same lifestyle and continue to work and expect to have some savings. No, you gotta
22:27 Speaker 00 lower your expenses, cut things out from your life. It's temporarily, remember, you know, when I did this, when I left teaching and I had to go full time entrepreneurship, I cut out so much of my expenses. I sold my car. I had no car. I got around with, you know, public transport. I lived in a one bedroom, was kind of a studio apartment, you know, I went from a three bedroom house to, to a one bedroom studio apartment. It was incredibly humbling because I didn't spend anything on myself for like the first few years. I didn't buy any new clothes or even go on any holidays or anything like that. Right? Total cut down. I was in my 30s. Right? This was uncomfortable. But the point is, I knew that if I was gonna have a chance of success in business, I need to lower my expenses while I get my business
23:12 Speaker 00 off the ground. Remember, you're in control of your journey. Decide what fits your needs right now and go all in with that plan. Whether it's to work and learn and have a plan of exit at a certain date, or to just jump right into it and start your business. Where you don't want to be is this weird in-between stage where you're not making a decision. I'm not sure. I don't want to start my business yet. Maybe I should get a job. All this umming and aing is wasting precious time.
23:41 Speaker 00 Commit to a plan and go for it. Thanks for tuning into the $100 MBA Show. Again, if you've got a question you want to ask, you want me to answer it right here on Q and A Wednesday, I'd be happy to. You can even just sign off as anonymous. If you don't want me to give you a shout out, all good. Just go to 100mba.net slash Q and submit your question right there. Happy to do that and answer it right here on Q and A Wednesday. Thanks so much for listening. Thanks so much for watching. If you're on YouTube, make sure you hit subscribe so you get the next episode automatically and I'll see you in the next episode.
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