Most people start their own business because they want to work for themselves and they don’t enjoy working on somebody else’s terms. Building your own business is incredibly rewarding, but it is also a lot of hard work. As you get older, you may decide that you want to scale back a bit and make more time for things outside of work, like family or hobbies.
If you decide that you want to leave the business, you have a few options; you can sell up or you can hire somebody else to run the business on your behalf. You also need to think about what you are going to do with your time. In some cases, you may want to retire and enjoy the fruits of your labor, but a lot of people find that they lose their sense of purpose and they still want to do something, even though they don’t want to take on the work of running a business full-time.
The good news is, your experience as a business owner translates well to a lot of different jobs, so there are plenty of new exciting career opportunities out there. These are some of the best job options for ex-business owners.
Business Analyst
A business analyst is tasked with assessing the business from the top down, and working out where the issues are and how they can be fixed. When a business is in trouble, they may call on a business analyst to help them improve their situation, but companies that are planning to expand may also use a business analyst to work out where they stand before they start growing. As an ex-business owner, you have good experience of the day to day running of a business and how to make it a success, which means that you are perfectly suited to a job as a business analyst.
Although you have the right experience, you may still need to get qualified. Entry level business analyst positions require a bachelor’s degree at the very least, but it’s a competitive field so it may be a good idea to study for a part time master’s degree as well. Follow this link to learn more about becoming a business analyst. It’s the perfect job if you still want to be active in the business world and deal with the day to day running of a business, but you don’t want the responsibility and workload of running your own company.
Business Blogs
New business owners are always looking for advice and tips on how to make their new venture a success, and they often turn to business blogs. If you have years of experience at the helm of a successful business, you probably have a lot of useful knowledge to share, so why not start writing a blog of your own? If you spend some time building a good following, you can turn your blog into a full-time career and earn a good living from it. However, the blogging world is very competitive so you need to make sure that you’re doing something different if you are going to succeed. It’s a good idea to focus on a smaller niche, so you should write more in-depth posts about the particular industry that you worked with. It’s also important that you let your personality shine through because, even though useful information is important, it’s the blogger themselves that keeps people coming back. When you begin to build a big following, you can start looking into other revenue streams, like sponsored posts and advertising.
The beauty of running your own business blog is that it’s completely flexible. You can work on your own terms when it suits you, so you can still do all of the other things that you wanted to do when you gave up the business, like spending time with family or travelling the world.
Investing
If your business was a success and you are in a good financial position after leaving, you could consider becoming a full-time investor. As an experienced business owner, you have a good eye for what makes a business work. This means that you can make sensible investment decisions when putting your money behind a small business. There are lots of great peer to peer lending platforms online where you can find new businesses that are looking for direct investment. It’s a great way to maintain your income and keep a foot in the business world without having to actually run your own company.
Investing in small businesses is probably the area that you are most comfortable with, but there are plenty of other options out there. Investing in real estate is common amongst ex-business owners as it offers good returns and property is a good asset to put your money behind. It’s relatively hands on investment but the workload is small compared with running your own company.
Management Positions
Managing a team of people is one of the hardest things about running a business. It’s a skill that takes many years to build up, and there are a lot of bad managers out there. But an ex business owner that has spent years learning how to motivate a team and make sure that they are productive will be in high demand. This is a great middle ground for people that still enjoy the day to day running of a business but don’t want the pressure of being the owner.
It’s a good opportunity to move into a different industry that you have always been interested in. Your management skills are transferable and there are a lot of businesses out there that need an experienced manager with good knowledge of how to run a successful business. Even if you have no prior experience in the industry that you want to work in, you should be able to land a position as long as you highlight your leadership experience on your resume and focus on the transferable skills that you learned as a business owner.
If you have recently decided to leave your business and you are not sure what to do next, why not consider some of these career moves?