By Mark Thompson
Losing a job is one of the most stressful triggers a person can experience in their adult life. Anyone who’s been through job loss—or has had someone close to them get fired—knows that such an event causes tremendous upheaval in the world as they know it.
The good news is any ending can be turned into a new beginning. For example, you can start a business, become your own boss, and begin a new entrepreneurial life. In a three-year period, I went from being fired from my 9-to-5 job to launching my own marketing company and generating millions of dollars launching software products for other people.
I really think that being let go was a blessing in disguise. If I had never gotten fired from my agency job, I probably never would have had the determination to be an entrepreneur. I would have just stayed in my comfort zone and coasted through life with a mediocre job, salary, and life.
Here’s how being fired lead me to launch numerous online products and start my own company and how you can begin your own entrepreneurial journey on the right foot. Note that this approach may be unorthodox, but it proved to be very successful for me.
1. To start a business, first find your passion
Easier said than done, right? Keep in mind that it will take some time to find a professional path that excites you. I worked for different companies, including a car rental company, that didn’t quite fulfill me—that is, until I found a Data-as-a-Service company where I managed AdWords campaigns.
Working for the company made me realize online marketing had become my hobby and passion, and I was soon learning about SEO, email marketing, social media, and product creation in my spare time.
2. Build your experience
Spend several years polishing your knowledge within your field and try to find out everything there is to know about the job. I worked for several online marketing agencies in a row, each adding to my know-how. Soon, I had four years of real-world marketing experience under my belt.
I even started a blog and dabbled around in affiliate marketing. At the time, I wasn’t really doing it for the money—it was just for fun. Creating niche websites and putting my self-taught knowledge into practice was not only a part of my job—it was my hobby.
3. Change your perspective after getting fired
Perhaps this is your moment to stop thinking like an employee, and start thinking like an entrepreneur.
Be prepared that one day, your life may take a drastic turn, as it did in my case. One morning when I walked into the office, I was fired on the spot. I was left with a mortgage, bills, and a massive panic attack. Over the coming months, my previous boss even accused me of calling on his clients—which was nothing further from the truth.
Don’t take this as the end of the world. Use this momentum to change your way of thinking. For example, when I was let go, I understood that I never wanted to be put in a similar situation again and wanted to be the only one in charge of my financial freedom. From there on out, it became my personal mission to start a business and become my own boss.
4. Build a clientele
Now that you have the knowledge—but no job to use it for—make way for alternatives and start working solo. To do that, you need to build your client base.