These are the mistakes people often make when trying to start a business or side hustle from a salaryman position

It's a good day today, isn't it?

Hello.
I'm Satoru.

I've been an entrepreneur for over 10 years, but
it wasn't like I was able to start a business easily.

I've summarized that recently, so I'd really like you to read it.

If you're thinking about starting a business, I promise you won't regret it.
I guess you could say I'm living up to my reputation as a veteran of failure (bitter laugh).

Did the people who are successful head straight for the goal?

From being a salaryman, well, a side hustle is fine.
Starting a business is fine.
When you look at people who are doing well, don't you have an image that they were guided straight there?

When I was a salaryman before starting my business, I worked at a foreign car repair shop.
I also worked there as a service front desk representative, talking directly to customers.

I personally asked every president and entrepreneur I met there,
"How can I start a business?"
"How can I be successful?"
I went around asking.

And then,
they kindly taught me many things. What was helpful were their stories of failure.
The more successful people were, the more spectacular their failures had been.
I learned that that's why they are successful now.

But even so,
if you're going to start a business from being a salaryman,
you don't want to fail, right?
Because if you're not careful, you'll lose both money and time.

When you're a salaryman, unless you're investing or taking on debt outside of the company, you don't really have any major financial losses.

But once you start a business, that's an everyday occurrence.
You'll come to realize how much you were protected by the company.

I don't intend to pour cold water on those who are thinking of starting a side hustle or a business. Quite the opposite. I intend to cheer you on.
I intend to cheer you on.

This article aims to tell you about the
lies that are whispered about when starting a business.

I want you to be patient and read a little more.

The dark side of entrepreneurship consulting and business service sales

Among those selling consulting or services that encourage salarymen to start a business, some say, "Start a business doing what you love."

I assert that this is impossible.

If you have continued to learn and practice what you love during your time as a salaryman, that is a different story.

For example, as I mentioned earlier, I was in the automotive industry. I have a peer from my new graduate days who trained in the automotive industry, started a business, and is doing well.

That guy is a man for whom working with cars is like a calling, and all the experience and learning from his salaryman days were connected to his own business.

Other than such extreme examples, if you haven't poured your heart and soul into experiencing and learning something, and if you don't love it, "starting a business based on what you love" will definitely not go well.

So what should I do?
You're probably thinking that.

I have a clear answer for this.

It is best to start with "what you can do"!

You have things you can do that you cultivated during your time as a salaryman, right?

Sales rounds, document creation, events, new business development, human resources, computer work, supporting new employees...

In any case, you must have experience from your many years as a salaryman.

In other words, it is safe to say that you are at a "professional level" to some extent, right? You should use that as a foothold to start.

No, no, I'm thinking about a side hustle or starting a business because I hate that kind of work!
You might want to say that.

I am fully aware of that.
Because that is the path I also walked.

However, I want you to think from the customer's perspective for a moment.
If you were the customer, how would you feel if the 'thing you like' about the product or service you purchased wasn't at a professional level? Would you pay for it?

It's a simple matter. Customers pay money because they want to solve some kind of problem or fulfill a desire.

If they judge that the level is not enough to solve it, or if it doesn't actually solve it, they won't pay.

That is why it is fastest to start a side hustle or business using skills or experience that are already at a professional level.

Aragaki's journey from salaryman to the present

By the way, to introduce my own transition, before I started my business, I had a strong desire to change jobs and collected a lot of information on job changes, so I actually used that know-how to change jobs myself.

So, as a side hustle, I sold my thinking and know-how on successful job changes as information. From there, I sold phone support and the online support available at the time.

Job change support wasn't necessarily a 'thing I liked,' but I started there because it was a 'thing I could do.'

To sell job change support on the internet, you have to disseminate information. So, I taught myself how to create websites, attract customers to blogs, and customize blogs.

Next, I sold that experience and know-how, and offered it as a service. There is endless demand for any kind of agency work, so I recommend agency work to you as well.

When you work on website creation, blog management, and blog customization, you naturally start receiving consultations on how to succeed in attracting customers and business.

From there, I turned consulting into my own business. This is what is known as consulting.

When you do consulting, you start to see which businesses succeed and which ones don't as part of your experience.

That has a lot to do with business concepts, positioning, and marketing.

And the foundation of that is 'copywriting,' which accounts for a large element. Currently, acting as an agent for this copywriting is my main job. And this is also a 'thing I like.'

To summarize my case

・Salaryman
　↓

・Job change support
　↓
・Web content creation agency
　↓
・Web consulting
　↓
・Entrepreneurship consulting/support
　↓
・Copywriting agency
　↓
・Sales copywriter

This is the transition I followed.
I feel like I'm now able to make a living doing what I love.

Well, I'm clumsy, so it took me a while to turn what I love into a job.

But, as you can tell from reading this far, it would be impossible for me to go straight from being a salaryman to a sales copywriter, right?

It just goes to show that there are stages to this.

Hanako Aoyama, a leading expert on Ameblo, has summarized this in more detail than I have on her note, so I highly recommend you read it.

Please, whatever you do, don't be fooled by the lie that says,
“Start a business doing what you love.”
I've seen so many people suffer because of that over the last ten years.

This was a bit of a tough topic this time.
But I didn't want to hide this, so I wrote it honestly.

Thank you for reading until the end.
See you tomorrow♪