A Guide to Starting a Business While Working Full Time

Categories Business Advice, Business StartupPosted on
Modern young man working remotely from home at night.

Millions of people in the UK have plans to start their own small business — 3.2 million, to be exact.

That’s 10% of the country’s working population; a big chunk of the current employment crop. The problem is, most individuals can’t quit their full-time job and start a business. According to BalanceSMB, it takes anywhere from six months to several years for a business to turn its first profit. With that thought weighing many people down, you may have reservations about starting your own business.

But don’t let your dreams be dreams. It is entirely possible to start your own business while managing the commitments of a full-time job. Many entrepreneurs do this successfully. Often referred to as a “side business”, you can start to develop a business idea over time while still working your full-time job and maintaining that all-important financial safety net.

The big question, then, is how?

How do you start your own business while working full time? In this blog, Mint Formations offer tips on setting up your side business and making sure your new company is as successful as it can be without jeopardising your current job.

Pick Your Moment

Starting a business while in full-time employment is going to be challenging and time-consuming; that’s a simple fact. Your side business is going to absorb a lot of the free time you used to have for activities with friends and hobbies.

The last thing you want to do is replace these things you love with a new business that, while potentially profitable, creates a lifestyle you hate.

This is not sustainable and will mean you take every opportunity to not engage in business ideas and avoid trying to develop your enterprise. You need to find the motivation and initiative to push yourself to do more work after you’ve spent your day working. Any entrepreneur, even with the best intentions, is going to struggle to discipline themselves if they don’t like their side project.

The answer is simple: focus on a business concept that you are passionate about. Build a company that you love and that you are driven to work on not because of a commitment to success but because it’s as important to you as water.

If you don’t have any passions or interests like this at the moment, you may find managing a company difficult. Instead, you should consider waiting for the right direction for your self-employment to become available.

On the subject of picking your moment, you will also want to think about starting a company at a time when you have fewer responsibilities outside of work. Big personal side-projects like moving house or starting a family can absorb a lot of time and make it hard for you to find a balance that doesn’t negatively impact your work as a business owner, your personal life or your day job.

Establish Your Business Launch Plan and Schedule

When you start a business while still working a day job, you’re going to need to think carefully about your business plan. Make sure you map out everything in as much detail as possible, accounting for the fact that you’re afforded less freedom than people who aren’t also tied to an employment contract.

You want to be thinking about your priorities and how to utilise your available time effectively. Since you have limited scheduling space to achieve your goals, the time you have must be used efficiently to take advantage of all opportunities available.

The trick to supercharging performance is planning. Understand your schedule and devote time to planning out what you will be doing when you have free hours to develop your business. Planning ahead can actually save many hours in execution. If you know exactly what you need to be doing when your schedule allows you to focus on your new business, you’ll be more productive and get more done.

Unknown factors create risks to your momentum and can result in failure.

If you find yourself with free time but don’t have a plan, or know what to do, you’ll waste what time you do have trying to make decisions on what to do. There is a reason the biggest successes in entrepreneurship work to very strict schedules. It is these schedules that allow them to boost productivity and get stuff done. Endeavour to use every spare second you have to build the perfect foundation for your new business and you’ll find it much easier to progress your startup’s vision.

Don’t Make Your New Business Too Complicated

Big launches take lots of company resources. Massive and ambitious projects require companies to invest lots of time, effort and budget into making their experiments a success. If you’ve got the time and money to do this, you’ll see the benefits. However, if you’re starting a side business while working a day job, you probably aren’t in a position to go big.

And that’s alright.

You don’t need to make a splash to build a successful company. Many major brands have started small, developing their business and acquiring customers and investors over time. The founders of Amazon started in a garage selling books.

When starting a business while working full time, you want to focus on your minimum viable product. What business can you launch that offers something of value at a commercial level while being as small and easy to manage as possible?

Examples would be launching a single product, rather than a full range, or specialising in a very particular service.

Outsource When Possible

The best way to kickstart your company into quick development without investing your own time is to invest other people’s time. From using digital experts for social media and Google search marketing to having accountants use their expert experience to plan your finances or having designers build product prototypes, if somebody else is doing it, you are free to run your business and develop the company model. Paying for professionals and contributors to complete tasks also means they’ll be done to a high standard, reducing the chances that you’ll have to redo work.

If possible, working with a co-founder can also provide similar advantages. Co-workers help split the workload, and the involvement of other people can reduce downtime while you are at work.

This reduced workload can be a powerful tool, but of course, you have to pay for outsourcing. Getting financial backing for this kind of support isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible either. Investors and business loans are the best way to secure the capital you need. Just because you’re developing a side business does not mean it doesn’t have serious potential, and if you can demonstrate the promise of future profits to people, you can build relationships that allow you to pay for outsourcing. An example of one way to source investment for your new business is crowdsourcing. The business community is often eager to help young startups that have an underdog status, so your branding of building a company while also working could actually be a benefit to leverage.

Don’t Let Starting Your Own Business Damage Your Current Career

We completely understand the temptation. Your venture is going well and you may even have an investor on board. You’ve got access to the equipment and skills to make your new business a success. You’re confident you’ll be one of those success stories they write about in Forbes. And you might be right, but don’t let yourself get carried away walking too far down that path until you are ready.

Your career is a safety net for a reason. You’ve still got that job because you need it. Until you get to the point where you can sustain yourself on your new business without your job, don’t let it get in the way of your career.

Creating a conflict of interest between your side business and your job can be dangerous. It can see you pay less attention to your work, damage your performance and even result in you losing your job. You must maintain a good work ethic and satisfy your employer while you get your business off the ground.

Someday soon, your side income may turn into one of those businesses that hires employees; you’ll be selling your own products and paying your own salary. For now, though, you need that full-time job, so if you start to notice issues with performance because of your new brand, be the person to take a step back and ensure you don’t accidentally cut a hole in your safety net. NEVER try to do work for your side business on company time. Using paid company time to advance a separate business is guaranteed to end badly if you are caught.

It may also be a good idea to notify your current employer of your startup. Many employers are very supportive of employees starting their own enterprises. You can potentially build networks together and you may find they are lenient in the way you work, allowing you to grow faster.

Start your business while working full time today. Mint Formations can help you form a UK company – compare the company formation packages we offer. We’ll provide much of that valuable support structure you need, taking care of all the administrative tasks involved in setting up a business so you can focus on the ownership of your new company. Mint Formations can also offer many other services to support you with starting a business while working full time. From websites and logo design to providing virtual offices, securing business bank accounts and helping with taxes, we can help you take full control of your business with minimal interruption.

Want to register your UK limited company today?


Raj co-founded Mint Formations with business partner Andy Tree in 2017. Mint formations is established to nurture small UK businesses and enable exciting new opportunities for quick growth. As a successful entrepreneur, Raj knows how to start and run a business. He currently resides as a board member of seven successful companies across the world. He is best known for founding Integra Global Solutions, specialists in robotics, automation, and business process optimisation.