It is a brave decision to leave the foreseeable stability of working for someone else and start your own company. The jump from employee to entrepreneur is exciting, but it can also be intimidating. There are a variety of unknown factors you will face.

The best way to survive the transition is to prepare for this significant life change by doing plenty of research, mitigating risk and taking action today that will benefit you in the long-term.

Entrepreneurial Expectations

You never know exactly what to expect when you decide to become an entrepreneur, but you can read about the experiences of others to help you understand potential scenarios you will face.

You’ll find that everyone who takes the plunge experiences trials that trickle from business to personal life. Before you go from employee to entrepreneur, learn as much as you can about the leap across that great business divide.

Start Learning Other Roles

When you work for a company, you submit your payroll time sheet to accounting and get paid. But when you work for yourself, that entire support network is gone and you are the one doing the payroll and making compensation decisions.

As a small business owner or startup founder, you may not need to worry about major payroll functions for hundreds of employees. However, you will need to consider new responsibilities such as accounting, IT support, marketing and a variety of other tasks you are used to having other people do. Start becoming more familiar with how these activities are done so that you can be self-sufficient when you make the leap to become an entrepreneur.

Work For Results, Not the Clock

When you work for a company, you can go home at quitting time and worry about finishing that project tomorrow. You may even be able to pawn the project off on someone else before you leave to make sure it gets done. When you are an entrepreneur, you better be ready to put in the hours to get that project done if you want your business to survive. This is just one of the countless ways you’ll need to invest in the future of your business.

As you transition from employee to entrepreneur, get used to working late instead of leaving when the whistle blows. Successful entrepreneurs all attest to the fact that your success is determined by your dedication and you must put in the work. Put yourself on the right track by developing a good work ethic and smart productivity habits.

Learn To Work On Your Own

As an entrepreneur, you set your own schedule and answer to yourself. The autonomy may sound blissful now, but the added responsibility may overwhelm you. This means you have to become disciplined about the hours you work, and the daily tasks you complete. You are also going to be working alone a lot at first, and that type of isolation can be difficult to get used to.

One of the best ways to overcome loneliness as an entrepreneur during the transition is to start working from your own home office or coworking space as you start to establish your business. You should become more responsible to yourself for completing your work tasks during your time at the office, and start to familiarize yourself with the idea of working long hours alone.

The transition from employee to entrepreneur is filled with unexpected changes to the way you work, and the way you live. As you wind down your time working for someone else, you can use that time to enhance the skills you will need to make your transition to becoming a business owner more successful.

This article has been edited and condensed.

Super nerd turned digital marketer, P.J. Howland is passionate about cutting-edge digital marketing tactics. Within his menagerie of skills; SEO, content marketing and digital analytics stand out. PJ currently lives in Salt Lake City with his beautiful wife, working at a digital marketing agency. Connect with @askPJHowland on Twitter.

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