IBA, as the premier business brokerage firm in the Pacific Northwest, is firmly established as a respected professional service firm in the legal, accounting, banking, mergers & acquisitions, real estate, and financial planning communities. Periodically, we will post guest blogs from professionals with knowledge to share for the good of owners of privately held companies & family-owned businesses. The following blog article has been provided by Manny Seymour.
The Mindset Shifts You Need to Leave the 9 to 5 and Build Something That’s Yours
Every morning you show up on time, log into a system someone else built, and do the work you were hired to do. Maybe you’re great at it, maybe not, but either way, it’s not really yours. Somewhere between the weekly Zooms and the end-of-year reviews, that itch starts to grow. The one that whispers: “You could do this differently. You could build something better.” If you’re seriously eyeing the exit from employee life to business ownership, it’s not just about a change in career—it’s a total recalibration of how you think, move, and respond to uncertainty.
Let Go of Permission Culture
When you’re used to being an employee, every big move usually comes with approval. Want a new project? Ask your manager. Want a day off? Submit the request. That baked-in need for permission lingers long after you’ve left the company badge behind. As a business owner, no one’s going to tap you on the shoulder and say, “Now’s a good time to launch.” You’ve got to move from waiting to initiating, and that shift can feel like walking a tightrope without a safety net. But the truth is, you won’t make it very far still looking over your shoulder for a nod of approval.
Trade Clarity for Chaos—At Least at First
You probably love a clear job description, structured days, and measurable KPIs. That’s your employee brain. Running your own business doesn’t give you that kind of certainty—especially not at the start. You’ll wear every hat, make every decision, and constantly rewrite the plan. Some days the strategy will change by lunch. And weirdly enough, that’s a sign of progress. Instead of craving stability, you need to learn how to navigate turbulence with a calm, curious mind.
Hone Your Voice Before You Raise It
It’s one thing to have a vision—it’s another to express it in a way that makes people care. As a business owner, your ability to communicate clearly and compellingly is one of the most underrated tools in your kit. Executive presence training techniques can elevate not just how you speak, but how you’re perceived in terms of leadership, authority, and influence. Whether you prefer in-person coaching, virtual workshops, or self-paced modules, this kind of focused training is available in a format that fits your lifestyle.
Learn to Bet on Yourself—And Mean It
When you’re part of a company, your paycheck shows up whether or not your last idea worked. That consistent income becomes a safety blanket that’s hard to toss. But owning a business means betting on your own skill set, instincts, and resilience. Not just in a motivational Instagram quote kind of way, but in real, high-stakes scenarios where your decisions directly impact your livelihood. It’s a shift from “I hope this works” to “I’ll figure it out if it doesn’t.” That’s not bravado—it’s a muscle you build by surviving tough calls and still showing up the next day.
Shift From Specialist to Generalist
In a job, you might get praised for being laser-focused. You’re the Excel wizard, the email copy queen, the guy who knows every back-end process like the back of his hand. But business owners don’t have the luxury of staying in one lane. At least not in the early stages. You’ll be CFO and barista, marketing director and janitor, often before noon. That doesn’t mean you abandon your zone of genius—it means you learn enough about every moving part to make smart, holistic decisions.
Detach Your Value from Your Hours
This one sneaks up on you. Employees tend to equate time with value: “I worked eight hours today, I earned my pay.” But that model breaks down fast when you’re the boss. You might work 60 hours in a week and still lose money. Or you might write one email that pulls in five grand while you’re walking your dog. You have to rewire your sense of productivity from “time in seat” to “results delivered.” That recalibration can be uncomfortable, especially if your identity has always been wrapped in hard work.
Normalize Failure Like It’s a Tuesday
You’re probably not used to failing out loud. In most jobs, failure gets hidden, redirected, or punished. But as a business owner, screwing up is part of the deal. You’ll launch things that flop, make hires that don’t pan out, and spend money on tools you never use. You’ll also learn more in six months of messy trial and error than in five years of tidy employment. The key is not treating failure as a verdict, but as information. Something to adjust around, not retreat from.
Build Internal Accountability, Not External Pressure
When there’s no manager breathing down your neck, no deadline tracker pinging you every hour, and no quarterly review looming, your work ethic becomes your own problem. And your own superpower. The best business owners aren’t driven by pressure from others—they’re moved by internal standards. That takes practice. No one will force you to wake up early, follow up with leads, or ship the product. But if you don’t, nothing moves. Your success begins and ends with how well you hold yourself accountable when no one’s watching.
People love to say they’re chasing freedom when they leave the 9-to-5 grind. But what they really want—what they need—is ownership. Ownership of their decisions, their time, their wins, and yes, their losses. Because freedom without responsibility is just flakiness in a nicer outfit. But when you truly take ownership of your work and your direction, that’s when you get the kind of freedom that actually matters. The kind that lets you build a life you don’t need to escape from.
If you have questions relating to the content of this article, Manny Seymour would welcome the opportunity to talk with you. Mr. Seymour can be reached at manny.seymour@allisdwell.com.
IBA, the Pacific Northwest’s premier business brokerage firm since 1975, is available as an information resource to the media, business brokerage, mergers & acquisitions, real estate, accounting, legal, and financial planning communities on subjects relevant to the purchase & sale of privately held companies and family-owned businesses. IBA is recognized as one of the best business brokerage firms in the nation based on its long track record of successfully negotiating “win-win” business sale transactions in environments of full disclosure employing “best practices”.