Thinking of leaving corporate to go independent? Do this before you quit

I left UBS without having built one thing on the outside first.

You have been thinking about it since the spring and you have told nobody. Every option on the table looks like a resignation, so nothing has changed.

I did it in the order that feels obvious. Leave, then work out what you are selling.

It took months. I could not say what I did in a sentence, and I had no idea what to charge.

None of it was hard to find out. It was all just sitting on the other side of a decision I had already made.

I would do it the other way round now, and I would encourage you to.

Start a list this month, not a resignation

So do not decide this month. Open a note on your phone, and every time somebody at work asks you something that was not your job to answer, write down what they asked.

In a month you will have twenty lines that are not your job description. They are what people actually come to you for, and it is the only thing anybody buys.

No resignation required. My own twelve-week programme runs at lunchtime, once a week, for the same reason: you can build this while you are still employed.

You will not feel ready

Months into my own practice I still did not feel ready. I did not feel ready at the start either. That is why it took me months to start, and even longer to take it seriously. I do not think you ever feel truly ready.

When I left UBS we already had two months of travelling across Asia booked, so we did that first. It was amazing.

I came back and started thinking about what other options were on the table, and how to take charge of my own destiny.

Speaking to other solopreneurs now, the most consistent theme is that they wish they had started earlier.

I only got here because I started.

So if you are circling something, do not wait for the perfect plan. Take the smallest real version of it and do it this week. One conversation.

If you would rather not wait a month for your list, the free diagnostic asks the same question from your history rather than your memory: what would people pay me for?