People call it crazy.. leaving your secure & high paying job and starting your own company in current venomous economy is not an easy decision for anyone.. at same time your bold decision of moving ahead, may bring a lot of advantages for your new business over the competition. When dinosaurs shattered, small mammals took over and if you play your cards right this may be your golden chance.

Does your ‘great job’ provide financial security anymore? Is your 401k making sense anymore? Are your ESPP worth anything?

No doubt there are uncertainties everywhere. With current market trends, one of the safest known jobs are already vulnerable or at verge of becoming one. In this market, many job may be replaced by technological advances or by outsourcing so one should keep evaluating their career planning often, which also includes an option of starting your own business.

Various survey suggests that a large number of people dream about having their business at some point of time in their life. People think that they may pursue such dreams when the time is great. Great time also has their side effects :–), when you’re doing excellent in your current job and you’re needed the most, leaving your ‘great job’ becomes quite challenging as well.

In shiny times when you leave your job and enter in the open market, all a sudden you realize that pretty much everyone is trying to open a new venture.. you do get surprise when you see one of your most conservative friend, Joe the plumber is also looking to start a company. All a sudden you found that the competition is huge and your potential customers/users are quite busy in their ‘great job’ and trying plenty of new things. All a sudden it becomes quite difficult to build a right team & needed resources.

On other hand when the markets are down, your potential customers/users has a lot of free time on hand. Supply is plenty and it is much easier to build a strong team. Your own entrepreneurial friends, who lost enough courage to go solo, are willing to walk along. Two years ago, I used to get couple of invitations to join a new website venture almost on daily basis… which has reduced quite a bit these days. Due to limited noise (buzz!, whatever you may want to name it), there are tremendous possibilities of greater attention from your own friends, potential customers/users, and sometime from the press for your new business.

When is it Time to leave a full time Job for your own venture?

A lot of new ventures might not require leaving your full time job immediately. Example including; for a web 2.0 venture, you may prove your idea first by writing an application on facebook, orkut, linkedin or any other social media websites. Once you build some traction, you may take it to the next level. If Kevin Rose of digg.com could build first revision of digg in ~$200.00 using elance.com freelancers, then why can’t you . You must do market research and analyze your competition, but writing a full fledged business plan, speaking to potential investors etc. should be a thing of a later time (after you build a proof of your concept and test out the market).

Financial market is gross and you may take advantage of this time. In these times, there is much higher possibility that your application of part time work, without pay leave would get approved from your current employer. Many entrepreneurs choose to work for a salary during a large part of their careers. Making something a big success always requires both time and investment and a poor planning on any part may become one of those fatal mistake for your business. Once you’ve a survival plan for 6 months to a year without salary and your idea offers a solid revenue plan, you must be ready to jump in as soon as you validate your concept in the market.

Failure planning

Success is very subjective and varies from person to person. In same way failure is also very subjective and you must understand what risk you and your family may able to bear. You may take opinions from your significant others and be clear that what kind of impact your business failures may do on your personal life.

A business failure, which leaves you behind with ton of real life experience and ability to learn from what went wrong and what can be done better next time may be an ideal failure. VCs are more willing to invest in people who possesses experience of at least one business failure in the past. Doing a full time MBA from a top notch school may run you ~80,000$ per year. Though learning via MBA and your own business differs quite a bit, you may still come ahead in terms of business connections, understanding of business laws, insurance, budget planning, staff development and your own name as an entrepreneur in the market.

That said, regardless of your attitude towards overall risk you must be clear that how would you able to handle if things really goes badly. If you are not sure then may not take the risk and wait for the right time.