Who has never dreamed of owning a business? Producing and selling what you love and being your own boss? It may sound like a fairy tale to many.

However, the reality of leaving a formal job and moving to a entrepreneurship can be somewhat daunting, as it goes far beyond security and stability.

While entrepreneurship frees professionals from the constraints of the job market, allowing them to make their own choices, it also eliminates the possibility of having a fixed salary each month and brings new responsibilities.

The good news for those who dream about being an entrepreneur is that with training and dedication it is possible to succeed in this field.

Are you one of those people? So, read on and find out the best ways to do it.

About the book "Before You Quit Your Job"

The book "Before You Quit Your Job" is part of the "Rich's Dad" Collection. The book sets out to give entrepreneurial lessons that can help the reader become a successful entrepreneur.

About the authors Robert T. Kiyosaki e Sharon Lechter

Robert Kiyosaki is a Japanese descendant born in Hawaii. He is the founder of a company that made available the first nylon velcro wallet for surfers, as well as an international company focused on business and investment education.

He have already been a combat helicopter pilot and worked at Xerox. Retired at age 47, he wrote other books as:

Sharon Lechter holds a degree in accounting and has worked in accounting firms and other industries such as IT, publishing and insurance.

Besides that, she's also an activist in education, co-author of Rich Dad's books, CEO of Cashflow Technologies and director of the Foundation for Financial Literacy.

To whom is this book indicated?

This book is indicated for people who think about becoming entrepreneurial and want to be successful in their own business.

Also, it's a good choice for people who want to learn more about making money.

Main ideas of the book "Before You Quit Your Job"

It isn't easy to be entrepreneurial and abandon the stability of a regular employment, but it's possible to succeed in your own business through learning and training;
Freedom and security are opposite things: employees look for safety while entrepreneurs crave freedom;
To be entrepreneurial you need to lose the fear of making mistakes, instead learn from them;
Never stop studying;
The entrepreneur needs to surround himself with good customers and good employees.

How about getting to know the the tips for being an entrepreneur of success? Keep reading and discover them!

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Overview: Part 1 - The Five Essentials of Business

The book "Before You Quit Your Job" starts teaching you how to develop and do your homework, which means ensuring that you will be able to accomplish five key business aspects. They are:

Product;
Legal aspects;
Systems;
Communication;
Cash flow.

The orientation is, necessarily, to become an expert in one of these areas, keeping in mind that it's impossible to be good in all of them, being aware to hire great professionals experts to the other four areas.

Besides, Robert and Sharon point out that it's the above tasks that should lead the building of a team.

However, although the entrepreneur isn't an expert in the five areas, it's important to be informed about them and have some experience at these five levels.

Later, when the business is already underway, making conference lists with these five aspects will be helpful for:

Identifying where the problems the business face are;
Indicating what is really needed to bring up a product to market when a new idea comes in.

Overview: Part 2 – From employee to entrepreneur

According to the authors, we are trained since school age to be good employees, but we do not learn good entrepreneurship techniques. That's why becoming an entrepreneur is almost a metamorphosis.

The entrepreneur is a risk-take r and the transition isn't so easy, but there are strategies, tactics, and lessons that can be helpful for this:

Know the right time to resign and accumulate experience from this, as legal aspects, communication systems, and cash flow as a corporate employee before leaving formal employment;
Studying: You don't have to be in a traditional business school, you can take courses and even get online material;
Instead of asking "why?", ask "why not?";
Do your homework, the one explained in the first chapter;
Hire an accountant to assist you in budget and cash flow analysis;
Know your own motivation for setting up the business;
Find out what tasks constitute the business you want to open;
Back off fear and not wait too long to get started;
Maintain formal employment while structuring the business;
Identify the necessary skills for the company to succeed;
Talk to entrepreneurs to learn which tasks are essential for your kind of business;
Pay attention to expert recommendations;
Create a willingness to take responsibility;
Know at what level of the company you want to act;
Keep in mind that it's the mission's objective that determines the product.

Overview: Part 3 – Practical Lessons for an Entrepreneur

Once the employee-to-entrepreneur migration process has began and the business is being put into practice, it's important to know the strategies that need to be part of your daily life, such as:

Develop a business plan and structure the legal issues of the enterprise;
Learn to spend smart: invest in what is essential to the business;
Work hard and take courses continuously;
Find the right people, opportunities and get the money needed for the project - it's rare to have all three then rely on what they have and work to achieve what is missing;
Put a good product on the market without expecting it to be perfect;
Learn to assess market expectations and needs to know when it's time to launch the product;
Learn to be able to change philosophy, operate without money and without security, keep your focus on opportunity rather than in resources;
Know and apply different strategies to deal and communicate with diverse people;
Hire qualified professionals for all areas, listen to them, but don't abdicate from making the final decisions, since it's ultimately the entrepreneur who is responsible for the gains and losses of the business;
Find out how to differentiate yourself in the competition;
Know how to sell and hence raise capital - which can be done through friends, banks, and lenders, clients, suppliers, investors and capital markets;
For those who can't sell, working as a salesperson in a business is the suggested alternative - every entrepreneur has to be a good salesperson;
Offer something no one else can provide;
Don't put the business at risk by spending money unnecessarily on itself;
Decide on the most appropriate price for your product and type of customer;
Position the image of your product or brand through mechanisms such as advertising, marketing and pricing depending on the target audience you want to reach;
Know when to stop or quit.

Overview: Part 4 – Dealing with emotions

Emotions are part of every human being's life and this isn't different for the entrepreneur. However, you can learn how to respond to them, as Robert T. Kiyosaki e Sharon Lechter teach:

Fear - move on anyway;
Frustration about making mistakes - making mistakes a productive thing by learning lessons from them;
Anger - turn it into fuel or motivation to succeed;
Joy – use it as a motivation to thank the people who helped you instead of taking it as an excuse to make selfish celebrations.

Overview: Part 5 – The entrepreneur's differentiated positioning in front of the error

An inherent question brought in "Before You Quit Your Job" book, is how the entrepreneur should behave differently when it comes to mistakes. And as an answer, the authors advise: assume them, never blame others, not despair, and seek to profit from them.

But how to draw something positive from a mistake in practice? Robert and Sharon say:

Do not view mistakes as errors, see them as calculated experiences and risks;
Don't get paralyzed by the consequences of mistakes or worry about, focus on learning from them;
Do not waste time by promptly solving problems arising from the error, learn how to prevent it from occurring, and find out how to minimize the bad consequences if it recurs;
Capitalize in it: turn problems into opportunities. The solution to the error may be something about which you can expand your business or set up a new venture;

It's also emphasized by the the importance of planning, always studying, measuring the consequences of actions and don't being irresponsible about mistakes, which can damage the credibility and reputation of a company.

Overview: Part 6 – The entrepreneur and the time

The book teaches that time is money, and entrepreneur need to know how to divide it from the business. It's suggested a short exercise to evaluate how time is being managed:

Percentage of time devoted to the future: __%;
Percentage of time devoted to the present: __%;
Percentage of time spent in the past: __%;
Total time: 100%.

Sharon divides the tasks of future, present, and past as follows:

Future - marketing, public relations, research and development, strategic partnerships, licensing, new business, forecasting and financial needs, legal issues;
Present - order taking, shipping and receiving, customer service, cash needs;
Past - accounting, negative legal issues, federal, state and local regulatory compliance issues, salary reviews.

There is no fixed rule that determines how the time of all entrepreneurs should be divided, this varies from case to case.

Overview: Part 7 – The leader

The book "Before You Quit Your Job" contains a list of the most important tips for who is running a business:

Define the company's mission, purpose, and values;
Build a team with the best people;
Strengthen your company internally and externally;
Improve financial results;
Invest in research, development and tangible assets;
Become a good corporate citizen.

Finally, when the entrepreneur can't run the business, executing such activities, it's time for changing the leadership.

What do other authors say about it?

In "The Hard Thing About Hard Things", Ben Horowitz argues that it is at times when things are not going so well that the leader can make the biggest difference in running his business.

The book "Entrepreneurship for Subversives", by Facundo Guerra, tells what leded the author into an entrepreneur, creating more than 10 successful entertainment businesses, including bars and venues. Facundo harshly criticizes some models imposed on today's business and teaches how you can escape these "pitfalls". In addition, it offers a guide for those who want to start their own business, revealing his mistakes and successes.

Also, Cristiane Correa, in her book "Dream big", complements the idea of personal strategic planning. She highlight the importance of maintaining a continuous improvement process to achieve its goals.

Okay, but how can I apply this to my life?

Reflect if you really want to trade the stability of a steady job for the freedom of entrepreneurship;
Take the first step: start planning the business;
Study the market, successful entrepreneurs and competitors;
Look for partners, resources and everything else that is necessary for the venture to be born;
Have all the answers to possible questions from an investor;
Define when is the best time to market your product or service;
Always learn lessons and opportunities from your mistakes;
Continue studying to improve your business and create more.

Did you like this summary of the book "Before You Quit Your Job"?

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Before You Quit Your Job - Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon Lechter

The time has come to take that old dream from the drawer, become your own boss and put all your creativity and commitment into a successful business!