I've been there and felt the agony of hovering around on the edge of a decision for months - or in my case years. So here is what I didn't do, that I would now advise anyone to fully embrace!
1. Get OUT from behind your computer screen, where you've clocked up hours diligently researching your potential business/new career direction. There's no point depressing yourself with how well everyone else appears to be doing the very thing you've thought of.
2. Get INTO the real world and commit to action. Nothing beats first-hand experience for making sure you're on the right track. Testing out your career change will increase your motivation, bring you into contact with useful people and build your skills and knowledge - thus speeding up the transition process.
Here are 3 ways to test a potential new career from the inside out:
Shadowing
This is the quickest and easiest testing method, though also the most superficial. Simply identify someone who is already doing what you'd love to do, and ask them if you can follow them around for a short period.
If what you want is to run your own business, you need to make it clear to the person you approach that you're not a competitor. Find someone who operates in another geographic location, or in a field that is similar enough to provide good learning but different enough that you pose no threat.
Interning
Interning is where you volunteer your services to a company or individual for an extended period of time, for free (or sometimes a nominal fee). It's most commonly used by recent graduates seeking work experience, but it's something that people of all ages can benefit from. Because an internship runs for a much longer period of time than a shadowing arrangement (one to three months is typical), you can really get your teeth into a project and get some invaluable hands-on experience.
Although an internship is an excellent way to get an in-depth feel for your new direction, it can be a little tricky to set up. This is partly because you need to persuade someone to take you on, but more usually because it's difficult to fit around existing work. However it's a great option where you have a lot of unused holiday to take, if you are able to negotiate some unpaid leave, or if you have recently been made redundant.
A real test!
Testing out your own dream work is the best test of all. For example if you want to set up a service business, you could offer some small-scale consultancy on the side, before launching your business officially. If it's a product-based business, can you sell a limited amount through friends or another informal channel, to research the market?
I love the example of Innocent drinks - UK based makers of some excellent fruit smoothies (I'm a fan of the mango and passion fruit one!). Here's how they tested their idea:
In the summer of 1998 when we had developed our first smoothie recipes but were still nervous about giving up our proper jobs, we bought £500 worth of fruit, turned it into smoothies and sold them from a stall at a little music festival in London.
We put up a big sign saying 'Do you think we should give up our jobs to make these smoothies?' and put out a bin saying 'YES' and a bin saying 'NO' and asked people to put the empty bottle in the right bin. At the end of the weekend the 'YES' bin was full so we went in the next day and resigned.
These 3 options aren't mutually exclusive so don't just limit yourself to one approach. Prove to yourself that you're serious about change by taking small but concrete steps towards making your dream work real.
Are you ready to change career but don't know where to start?
Then the brand new Careershifters Guide is designed for you.It will take you step-by-step through the career change process with practical exercises and expert guidance on how to figure out the career that suits you best through to the practicalities of making the change happen (even when you have a mortgage to pay and family to feed!).
By Simon