“I am a therapist. I have undergraduate and graduate degrees. I have an established client base, a beautiful office and a fantastic income. I help people solve their issues all day. Lately, I find that I am interested in natural health foods and want to take the leap into entrepreneurship. I just find it difficult to leave my practice behind. I want to move on. How do I leave my established practice for a new career.”
This question is very common. I think it it the question I get most often and one that I had to answer myself. On a side note, I love the show In Treatment. I have a new found respect for therapists.
I’ll try to break my response up into topics.
Established Career
Congratulations on completing the rigors of undergraduate and graduate school. As a law school graduate, I know the social and economic sacrifices you have had to make. You have probably asked yourself (and others telling you) that changing careers is essentially throwing everything you have studied and built away. So many are seeking the stability that you have so “throw it away” seems mentally unstable …not a good thing in your business.
Here’s what I think.
Being an entrepreneur takes a particular mindset. One that you had when you started your practice. One that you will need to regain in changing careers. The only difference is that you studied a particular career path that logically leads you into working at a clinic, hospital, or your own practice.
As a trained processional and business owner, you already know what it takes to set up, operate and run a business. If you think about it, you likely did not have this knowledge before establishing your practice.
You are not throwing anything away but building upon your education and leveraging a financial status that you have built…not everyone has this to start with.
Established Income Stream vs. The Unknown
We all like (and need to) eat, pay bills, plan for our futures . Look at your current practice as cash flow and an income stream to invest in what you want to do next. You don’t have to give up everything all at once. Spend one hour a week educating yourself. Maybe you can research natural health food business through a trade association, or attend a large trade event. Annually I go to the Natural Products Expo West (Natural Products Expo East is in Baltimore). It is a show full of everything you would need to know about “natural products.” My core business is in natural and organic bath and body products, but I spend at least an hour in the Natural Foods section where hundreds if not thousands of companies are eager for any passer by to sample their products. There are workshops, book signings and presentations by some of the biggest names in the natural products market. This is a trade only show. If you are unable to make it to the show, you can purchase audio recordings of some of the presentations.
This is a good event for me because I can connect with associates in my field and see newest and latest in natrual ingredients and sustainable packaging.
Taking the Leap
Well, the thing is starting a business really is a leap, as I am sure you already know. Remember when you started, you probably invested a lot of time in building the client base you have. With a new business it will be no different.
Here is the minimizer. You don’t have to shut your doors next week and leave everything behind. While you are working and have an established cash flow. The lead can be small.
Take small steps.
Go to trade events.
Talk to people, network and educate yourself.
Give yourself a timeline for accomplishing tasks. I went to a trade show and told myself that within a year I wanted to be an exhibitor. I did just that. In one year, I developed a product line and was an exhibitor at that very show…where I got my first wholesale account.
The mind shift in changing careers is from what I have done and who I was to what I can do and who I can be. Bring all of our knowledge with you, plan strategically, take some risks and do what you love…or don’t.
Life is short. Live each day with purpose.
Ecclesiastes 5:18 Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage.
