Pod Insights The $100 MBA Show The Honest Truth About Quitting Your Job To Start A Business (And My Exact Blueprint) About this episode There’s a special kind of frustration that hits when you realize your future at work is still in someone else’s hands, no matter how hard you’ve worked or how much you’ve proven yourself. If you’ve been thinking about walking away from your job to build something of your own, this episode gets right to the part most people avoid: the fear, the doubt, and the moment you finally decide you can’t keep waiting for permission to build the life you actually want. In this Q&A Wednesday episode, Omar answers a question from Henry, about what it really looks like to leave your job and go all in on your business. You’ll hear Omar break down the reality of making that move, what changes once the safety net is gone, and the bigger things you need to face before you make a decision that changes everything. If you’ve been circling the idea of making the leap but need a real-world gut check before you do, click play at the top of the page and get the honest version of what it takes to walk away from the paycheck and bet on yourself. MBA2795 The Honest Truth About Quitting Your Job To Start A Business (And My Exact Blueprint) Recommended episode to explore: How To Build A Software Business With AI This Weekend. Zero Coding Skills Required. To submit your questions, visit 100mba.net/q. Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://lm.fm/GgRPPHi SUBSCRIBE YouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 It's JCPenney's biggest sale of the season and 97% of the store is on sale. Yes, really. From November 5th through 11th, you'll find deals in every department. Yes, JCPenney. Season refers to the most items on sale 8/326/11/1926.
0:15 Speaker 01 Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first, but didn't live up to the hype? For example, I really wanted to love the show Mad Men. I really tried to watch it and love it, but it just didn't do anything for me. As a marketer and business person, the show was a little bit of a disappointment. Marketers know that feeling. They optimize for the numbers that look great like impressions, but then we don't see revenue. LinkedIn has a word for that: bull spend. Instead, you can get the highest ROAS of major ad networks with LinkedIn Ads. Cut the bull spend, advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/MBAShow. Terms apply. I want to tell you about a meeting that changed my life. It was 2012.
1:00 Speaker 01 I was in my teaching career. I was the acting chair of the department I was working for at the college I was at for 18 months. I was doing the job, I was running the team, I was getting the results, but I didn't officially have the promotion. I was acting chair. So I asked my boss, the dean of the college, for a meeting. I wanted to sit down across from her and ask her two questions. Why I did not get the promotion yet? And am I doing a good job? She looked at me and said, "Omar, you're doing a fantastic job. The department has never been better." And then she said, "But I got to level with you. The director of the university wants to make an outside hire for this position." In that moment, I was crushed.
1:42 Speaker 01 Something happened inside of me when I left that room that I didn't expect. My frustration finally outgrew my fear. In that moment, I realized something that changed everything. I had zero control over my career, zero. No matter how well I performed, no matter how hard I worked, no matter how much good I was doing, someone else always is going to make a decision, make a final call that dictated my future. And I was just done with that. I handed in my resignation. Nation one week later and today I'm giving you the honest and ugly truth about quitting your job to start a business. I'm going to give you the exact eight step blueprint I used to build a seven-figure business when I left. If I had to start completely over tomorrow with nothing, this is the
2:27 Speaker 01 exact timeline I would follow and the exact steps I would do if I was doing it all over again.
2:39 Speaker 01 Welcome back to the $100 MBA show. I'm your host Omar Zenhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to help you start, grow, and scale your business.
2:52 Speaker 01 If this show has helped in any way, it would be amazing if you could drop us a quick review on whatever app you're using to listen to this podcast right now. It helps me and my team bring new episodes every week. And more importantly, more entrepreneurs will be able to discover our podcast. So you can help someone else start their journey. Thanks so much. Let me start with the thing that most content about quitting your job completely just skips over. Quitting is not the hard part. The hard part starts the morning after, because when you leave your job, you don't only lose a salary, you lose structure. You lose someone telling you where to be, what to do, and when to do it. When I was a teacher, I knew exactly which classroom
3:35 Speaker 01 to go in, what subject to teach, who am I teaching you to, from what curriculum it was prescribed. You lose any external accountability that most of us have relied on for their entire lives, right? Somebody looking after you, somebody making sure that you're doing your job. And the crazy thing is when you start in the beginning of your entrepreneurial career, and you have no alarm clock for someone else's schedule, you have no commute, you have no meetings to jump on, or you have no calls, you have ultimate freedom. And that lasts about two weeks and then reality hits, okay? You have no idea what to do with yourself. You're sitting at your desk. Every hour of the day is available to you and you really have no structure, no plan.
4:20 Speaker 01 You gotta start from scratch. Nobody warned me about this. I thought the hard part of entrepreneurship was the business. The hard part is actually learning to be your own boss when you never had to do that before. You have to have the discipline, the schedule, the ability to sit down and do the work when nobody's checking on you, when nobody's gonna ask you, "What did you do today?" This is the real challenge in your first 90 days. Not the market, not the product, you. Now, here's something I gotta address right off the top. Most people believe there's a perfect time to quit their job. They think that when I have enough money saved, that's a good time. When the business idea I have is ready, when the conditions are right. Do any of these sound familiar?
5:01 Speaker 01 Maybe you know somebody personally that has said these out loud. I'm telling you right now, there is no perfect time. There is only a time that is right for your specific situation. And here's what I mean by that. You can quit your job anytime if you're willing to adjust your life to match the risk. Think about it. If you're willing to move back with your parents, you can quit your job tomorrow. But if you need to maintain your current lifestyle, you need more preparation, you need a plan. The question is not, "When is the right time?" The question is, "What are you willing to do and what can you not live without?" That's really the question. The answer to that question tells you your actual timeline.
5:44 Speaker 01 When I quit, I gave six months' notice as I was required, because in teaching, you can't just leave in the middle of the year. And I used those six months not to wait, but to prepare, to plan the business I would start, to cut my expenses ruthlessly. I sold my car, right? I moved to New York and rented a dungeon apartment that was cheap, the cheapest thing I could find. Nicole and I, we set up our life so that our savings could carry us for the next 12 months with zero income. That's my version of right timing. I had to sacrifice a lot. In order for that to happen, the conditions were not perfect. But I wanted it bad enough that I'm willing to downgrade my life in my 30s.
6:26 Speaker 01 Right, right? I'm downgrading my life and starting from scratch because I wanted to chase the dream. As you can see, my conditions were not perfect, but I had enough runway to survive long enough to figure it out. Now, let's talk about the blueprint. Before you quit your job, let me give you those steps, those exact steps, starting before you hand your notice. Step one, you need to know your number. What do I mean by that? Calculate your absolute minimal monthly expenses. What's the minimum amount of money that you need to spend every month so that you can survive? That you can live a life that you can be okay with, okay? It doesn't have to be your ideal life, because remember, this is temporary. This is just a part of your life.
7:10 Speaker 01 This is just a chapter of your life that is going to be a little bit rougher than the ones that are to come. The chapters to come, right? So you want to calculate everything when it comes to like your rent, your food, your transport, your utilities. You know, nothing glamorous. Forget about holidays for a moment. Forget about like, you know, a budget for new clothes. And what I would do is that once you calculate your minimum expenses, add 20% on top of that number for emergencies. Because emergencies always happen. That's your monthly burn. That's how much money you need each month to live. Now divide your savings by that number. How many months do you have of runway? This is what's called runway. How many months do you have to survive on your savings?
7:54 Speaker 01 In my opinion, you need an absolute minimum of six months. 12 is better, but six is the minimum. Do not quit until you have that runway. And remember, that runway is malleable depending on what your minimum budget is, right? What you cut, right? It may be cutting something that you didn't consider, like moving to another city that's cheaper. Some people think that's extreme, but hey, you're changing your life here. That's pretty extreme. Now, the reason why I recommend this runway is because a runway will curb desperation. Because knowing you have that runway removed. Moves that desperation desperation kills the new businesses like the plague. Okay desperation makes you take on the wrong clients. It makes you price yourself too low. You make decisions from fear instead of strategy.
8:39 Speaker 01 It's a horrible place to be. It's hard to be creative when you're desperate, right? The runway buys you the ability to think clearly. That's step one. Step two, validate before you leave. Okay, do not quit until you figure out what business you are going to start. Start figuring out while you're still getting a salary from your job and covering your expenses of your life. If the business will fly. I'm not talking about a business plan. I'm not talking about a logo. I'm not talking about a website. I'm talking about actual customers, actual evidence that someone will pay you for what you are offering. Even if you have one customer that ends with somebody buying. You can extrapolate some information, meaning let's say, for example, that customer pays you $2,000.
9:23 Speaker 01 And you spend 10 hours a week on your business while you're doing it part time. Well, you know that if you had 40 hours, you can make $8,000 a week with this type of math. You can actually make that assumption to some extent.
9:39 Speaker 00 JCPenney's biggest sale of the season means 97% of the store is on sale. Yes, really. From November 5th through 11th, you'll find deals in every department. Outerwear, boots, dressy looks for the family, jewelry, suits and beauty favorites. Plus, holiday must haves like cozy fleece and small kitchen appliances. 97% of the store is actually on sale. Yes, JCPenney. Season refers to the most items on sale 8/3/26 through 11/19/26.
10:09 Speaker 01 Today's episode is sponsored by Upwork. I don't need a script to tell you how much Upwork has helped my business. I've been using Upwork for over a decade and it's the easiest way to find top talent to grow your business. From software development to AI implementation to marketing, design and business operations. You can browse profiles, review past work and get help scoping the role so you can hire with confidence and get started quickly. With Business Plus, you can access the top 1% Of talent on Upwork. With over 170,000 freelancers holding five star ratings, you can hire with the confidence that comes from hiring someone with a verified track record. I've hired engineers, customer service agents, marketers, copywriters,
10:52 Speaker 01 all on Upwork that helped grow my business from the moment they got hired. The best thing is it's free to sign up and posting a job is easy. Visit upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That is upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's U P W R K dot com, upwork.com.
11:16 Speaker 01 Step three, tell people in your life. This is one of the most important steps and you cannot skip it. If you live with a partner, a spouse, family members, parents, you need to let them know what is coming. It's only fair, not after you decide, before. Before the decision actually affects their life. Because it's going to affect their life. It's going to affect their sense of security, their routines, their financial planning. If they're going to go on holiday next year, all that, okay? Get them on your side before you make any moves. Why? Because explaining what you are doing early and convincing them and making them understand why you're doing it is going to allow them to square their concerns.
11:59 Speaker 01 Understand that, hey, I'm a little bit worried, but I understand why this is happening. You need to have an open conversation. You need to be willing to sell them the idea, okay? Because if you can't convince your loved ones, the people that care about you the most and want to see you win, then you're going to have a hard time selling to strangers. Give them the honest picture. You gotta get them on side because trying to build a business with the people that are closest to you, working against you is really, really hard. And business is hard as it is, you don't need to make it harder on yourself. So make sure you do this. Have a family meeting and have a discussion. If this episode is giving you some clarity and some clear steps, I want you to subscribe to the show because I have an upcoming episode that's going to help so many of you that are struggling with marketing.
12:43 Speaker 01 If your marketing isn't working, I'm going to show you how to fix it. 99% of businesses get this wrong and I'm going to make sure you don't get it wrong. You need to understand which kind of marketing actually works and helps your bottom line and actually makes you money and which one is really a waste of time and energy. Hit subscribe so you don't miss that episode when it drops. Okay, what about after you quit your job? This is step four, where you want to leave your job cleanly. When you resign, tell your employer you are happy to work with them for a smooth transition. That's what I did. I said, "Hey, I have six months transition. This is my decision. I want to make sure that I leave my legacy here intact, and I do what's right for the organization." I helped train my replacement. I documented all my work,
13:28 Speaker 01 because I want to leave the place better than I found it. This might sound unnecessary when you're excited about leaving and starting your new business, but it's not unnecessary, because the world is very small, okay? It's smaller than you think. Your former employer becomes a reference. It becomes a client, possibly, one day. It could be a source of introductions, especially if you're using some of the networks that you have from your current job. The people you worked with go on to other organizations. You have to leave your job in good standing. Listen, I'm telling you firsthand, I left my teaching job in 2012. It's been a good minute, right? There's still people from my old career that are listeners of the podcast,
14:11 Speaker 01 that find us on our webinars, that buy our products. I mean, these are people that I worked with day in and day out in the university, the college I was working at. So plan on the fact that you will be successful, and you want people to want to work with you in the future. Step five: Work like you never worked before. This is the reality. You are going to work as hard as you can possibly imagine, and then some. The first weeks and months after quitting, you're going to have incredible energy. You're going to have incredible excitement for starting something new, something of your own. The urgency of knowing your runway is going to run out soon. I gotta make sure I'm going to be successful soon. I gotta make sure I can pay my bills. The clarity of removing the obligations of your job,
14:55 Speaker 01 and now you have full focus on your business. You need to use that energy. Do not waste that energy. That energy is so rare, and you're never going to get it again, because you're never going to start all over again in business, because this is your first time you're starting. Use that energy. Don't waste it. Use it to get customers to... Make calls, to send emails, to have a conversations. Every hour, everything that you do, needs to be focused on getting revenue. Every hour that goes towards everything else is borrowed time. You do not focus on things that don't make you money in the beginning. There'll be plenty of time for all that other stuff later, okay? Make sure that that work is pointed directly at building your business. And I'm telling you right now, when I look back at those days, I look back with exhaustion, number one.
15:39 Speaker 01 I was so tired because I was literally working 14 hours a day, every day, seven days a week, for about three years. I know that sounds a lot and extreme, but that's what it took for me to get where I went. Maybe it's gonna take less time for you, hopefully it will, because you have so many more advantages these days with technology. But I'm just telling you that that was what I was willing to do to get to where I wanna go. Step six, surround yourself with people that are building things. This is so important. If you are around the right people, you'll be successful. It's just inevitable, right? Because it just becomes normal. Success is the standard. When Nicole and I moved to New York, we joined a coworking space. And the effect of being surrounded by other people building businesses every single day was something that I did not anticipate.
16:24 Speaker 01 It was visceral. It normalized ambition. Success felt inevitable, like I mentioned. Every day, people were doing something. Listen, nobody was giving me advice at the coworking space. It was just being around people that are actually creating. I could look around the room and I could see people doing exactly what I was trying to do. Close sales, build a great product, you know, do marketing. It was just immersion at an extreme level, which was exactly what you need in the beginning. And listen, when it feels normal to be building something, you build differently. You do not apologize for your ambition. You do not shrink your goals to fit what other people around you think is realistic.
17:07 Speaker 01 You operate at a level of the room you're in, right? That room, everybody's going after, everybody's chasing their dream, everybody's making it happen. So therefore, you feel like you gotta do the same, right? That's what's happening here. I gotta, you know, I gotta walk the talk. So. Join coworking spaces, entrepreneurial communities, go to meetups, go to events, get yourself physically into spaces where the vibrations are at a different level, different frequency than your normal life. The environment you're in is not a backdrop, it's the engine of your success. Step number seven, drop everything that is not building your business. I'm talking about your life here. I've talked about this many times on other podcasts as a guest. It's quite controversial, but this is what I believe worked for me. Nicole and I looked at our social calendar.
17:52 Speaker 01 What are we spending time on, right? What are the things that really are taking up our attention? And instead of cutting, saying all these things are a waste of time, we did the opposite. We said, what are the things that are important? What are the only things that we should be focusing on? And we chose only three things to make it simple. Number one, the business, okay? Number two, family, making sure that we take care of each other and our close family. And number three, exercise, because if you don't have your health, you have nothing. You can't do anything. Everything else, all the other activities, whether it's parties, fun, movies, whatever it might be, go on pause until the business has traction. I think that's fair enough. I think for me, it's like, hey, you want to change your life? It's going to take a lot of sacrifice.
18:36 Speaker 01 It's going to take a lot of motion. And listen, I understand that plan, only focusing on those three things, is not sustainable long-term. And that's why I only say at the start, the first 12 months. It's just a chapter in your life. And then, once your business starts going and you can start hiring and you start scaling, you can then adopt some of those things you let go of again. And you could be actually more selective about those things and not just choose it because that's what your habits are. Step eight, one customer at a time. Do not try to build a mammoth company, okay? Build your first customer relationship, then your second, then your third, then your fourth, one by one. The mistake that most entrepreneurs make is they try to think at scale at the start. They think, oh, how do I get 20 customers in one day? No, just get one right now.
19:21 Speaker 01 You don't have any. Don't get caught in this idea, okay? That everything has to scale. You know, a lot of these entrepreneurs, they want the funnel and the team and the systems before they actually have 10 customers, okay? Get some customers first because the- Customers will tell you what they need. It'll tell you kind of business you need to build. They will tell you what are the skill gaps you have and which hires you need to make. So just start with one customer, then another, then another, then another. Start learning from them. The power of compounding takes over. One customer loves what you do, tell someone else. That someone tells someone else as well. Your skills start to improve each time you engage with a customer. The repetition builds with each result, right? You get a result, it encourages you to try it again and do it again and do it again.
20:04 Speaker 01 Your confidence grows with each yes you get from a customer. The compounding effect again is tremendous. So just remember, you need to take it one customer at a time, at the start at least. Now, this episode, this lesson would not be complete if I didn't give you the real reason most people will never quit their jobs. I know so many people that told me, "I'm gonna quit my job this year. I'm in transition, da, da, da." And 10 years go by, they're still doing the same thing, they haven't quit. And I don't judge them, but I do wanna say that you need to be aware of why this happens so that if you actually do wanna quit, you sidestep this issue. Most people say they wanna quit their job and start a business, but they never do. Why does this happen?
20:48 Speaker 01 Are people just liars? No, it's not because the timing is wrong. It's not because the idea's not good enough. It's not because the economy's uncertain. It's because of one reason. It's because the fear of the unknown is greater than the pain of the known. The pain they're currently in, in their job, the thing that they're not satisfied about, it's just not that big in comparison to the fear of taking that leap. And here is how I know about that calculation after 20 years of building businesses. The known gets worse over time. The longer you stay somewhere that has a ceiling you can't control, the more frustration compounds. The more you watch other people building the things and wonder, "Why? Why not me?"
21:33 Speaker 01 The more the gap between your life and what you wanna live is starting to grow. Like, the vision you have for your life and what you're living starts to look really different. Gap has a cost and it's paid in the currency of regret. That's the truth. My biggest regret in my career as an entrepreneur is that I didn't start earlier. Like I mentioned earlier, I sat across my boss. I heard that someone else is going to get the future I've been working so hard for. They're going to be given this future. I didn't even get a chance to earn it. In that moment, I stopped being afraid. In that moment, like I said, my frustration outgrew my fear. And until you find that moment, you will keep waiting. You will keep waiting for the best time and the best moment.
22:18 Speaker 01 But in my opinion, until you have that experience, it's hard for you to choose an unknown future. For me, I was like, anything is better than this. I'm going to jump into the unknown and figure it out. If you're at that moment and your frustration has outgrown your fear, then take that leap. Let's start planning. Okay, make the decision and follow the steps that I outlined today. By the way, today's episode topic came from a question from a listener of the show, Henry. If you have a question you want to ask, go to 100mba.net/queue, submit your question. We might just make it a whole episode about your question. If this episode has given you the blueprint you've been looking for, I'm glad. That's why I created it. This is why my whole team has worked on it for the last couple of weeks.
23:03 Speaker 01 If you want to take the first step and start learning how to build a software business, you might want to check out a recent episode we just published called, "How to Build a Software Business with AI: This Weekend, Zero Coding Skills Required." Go check it out. Thanks for making it to the end of the episode. I am in your corner. Anytime you need help, we're here via the podcast, okay? And of course, if you're a part of our newsletter, just go to our website, 100mba.net, sign up for any of our free templates or guides, and be a part of our newsletter. You can reply to any email and I will reply personally. It takes me a while, but I like to reply to everybody.
23:39 Speaker 01 If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help you start, grow, and scale your business, the best thing you could do is subscribe to this podcast. Hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now, whether it's Apple or Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically and it's the best way to support the show. It's absolutely free and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. And now that you've subscribed, I'll check you in the next episode.
24:15 Speaker 00 JCPenney's biggest sale of the season means 97% of the store is on sale. Yes, really. From November 5th through 11th, you'll find deals in every department. Outerwear, boots, dressy looks for the family, jewelry, suits, and beauty favorites. Plus, holiday must-haves like cozy fleece and small kitchen appliances. 97% of the store is actually on sale. Yes, JCPenney. Season refers to the most items on sale 8/326 through 11/19/26.
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