Business vs career change: five questions to ask yourself

Hi! A huge welcome to you from wherever you're watching in the world.

I'm Bec Sands. I help you pivot to a successful career or business that you love.

Today I am discussing five questions to ask yourself to decide whether starting a business and working for yourself, or having a career change and working for someone else, is best for you.

Ultimately, only you will know the answer and timing for yourself – however hopefully this is a start to guide you in the right direction.

Firstly, I want to give you a little background about my story. I now have my own business as a career pivot coach and senior freelance PR and communications consultant. However, I didn’t always plan to have my own business.

It wasn’t until I realised about five years into my career after working long hours and weekends that I was feeling burnt out and not so fulfilled that I started to look outside the corporate world at what else I could pursue to provide joy and purpose. I wasn’t afraid of hard work – more, of what I was building with it and what I could give back to the world with my efforts.

I then spent another seven years pursuing hobbies and passion projects on the side of my full-time corporate career, including a lifestyle blog and becoming a certified coach, until I felt ready to step into my own business.

So, let’s dive into the five questions that you can ask yourself to decide whether a career change or starting a business is right for you.

1. Does the work that I do provide joy and play to my strengths?

I talked about strengths tests last week to help you clarify what your unique combination of strengths are. Now, if you don’t know what your strengths are, I highly recommend taking one of the short online strengths tests such as The Via Character Strengths Survey, Archetypes Quiz, High5 test (all free) or The CliftonStrengths Assessment which is AUD82 at the time of this video. Make sure you take at least one of these tests and look at where your current role and career is playing to these strengths.

2. Am I self-driven and self-motivated?

Chances are, if you’re highly self-driven, you’ll be creating great success in your career and will quickly start to look at what’s next? Starting a business will provide you with unlimited opportunities for earning and advancement and can be super exciting if you’re prepared and willing to work hard and face the unknown. Business owners are simply problem solvers, and the better you can serve others, and the more people’s problems you can help solve, the more successful you will be.

3. Do I want to be where my manager is at?

Again, this may land in a career pivot rather than a business but it’s a crucial question to ask yourself to decide whether you’re climbing the right ladder.

If you don’t want to be where your manager is at, you’re likely on the wrong ladder and need to look at where you can start to pivot over the coming months or years.

4. Am I excited by working for someone else or would I prefer to run my own business?

A business can be anything you choose it to be – you might have a vision to turn your profession into a freelance practice, or to be a solopreneur, or your vision might be to invent products and become a big multi-million dollar enterprise with lots of employees.

5. Am I very risk-averse or can I thrive on creating new things and feeling towards the outcome rather than knowing it?

Realistically, there’s no way of completely avoiding risk or to stop getting outside of your comfort zone altogether – whether in a career or business. However, if you’d prefer to reduce the unknown and stick more within what you know, having a business may not be ideal for you. However, if you love to create and thrive on bringing new things to life, starting a business can be incredibly rewarding.

So, there you have it – some thought-starter questions to get you pondering your next career step.

For those of you in Sydney, I’m also hosting a goal-setting workshop in person on Saturday, 11 January to set you up for an incredible 2020. To find out more and get tix, visit becsands.com/events.

Thanks for watching, and have a great day!