Happy 5th year anniversary!! That was the tone of 70+ messages of support from my fellow entrepreneurs in my LinkedIn community when I awoke. (The LinkedIn app prompts work anniversaries, even when the person in question forgot this was a special day, kinda like Facebook for birthdays...)

On seeing those messages my first thought - where did the last 5 years go!! Then the slightly nervous self evaluation of 'have I achieved what I wanted' and the down right scary 'where am I going now??'

So what better way to celebrate the last 5 years than to write a blog to recap the adventure so far and what the future holds. If you are over 40 and have thought about starting your own business, these tips are for you!

Getting Started

For the last five years I have been working on building Social Star. We focus on helping people better Understand, Build and Leverage their online brands to get into the careers they have true passion for through out unique e-ttraction process. When I first started Social Star I was working full time at IBM, lecturing at Swinburne University and doing quite nicely, thanks very much. It was a part time business, loads of fun and made some beer money thrown in on top of my wage. Life was pretty good.

But then 18 months later the shite hit the fan - I managed to get myself fired from my last corporate job, get divorced and give my house away. So why not start Social Star full time and drop my income by 70% - YAY! I figured if you are going to suffer, might as well do it properly :) Five years on when I Iook back on those times, I realise all those challenges were 'on the way, not in the way' of chasing my dreams. Tough but worth it.

What did I learn from the last five year? Plenty. For my friends considering the same journey to your own passion business consider these three tips before you jump:

Fordy's 3 tips for over 40 entrepreneurship

Tip 1 - Don't quit your day job...yet.

I know what it's like. You have a billion dollar idea that will change the world and are so passionate about it that you want to do it all day! Not go to that boring day job with a boss like Bill Lumbergh from Office Space. Before you quite your day job remember this, mortgages are not paid with passion. It will likely take 3 years to make sustainable profits enough to pay you a reasonable wage. Most ideas fade. If the passion lasts a few years, you are onto the right idea.

I started heaps of businesses that I lost interest in or discarded after closer examination. Closest Beer, Tribe, MeeTooYoo, Coffee Club and more. Some of these are great ideas, but just not close enough to my passion for me to put all my heart into them.

Tip 2 - Sell something.

I strongly urge you to start your business part time. I'm not talking about planning or discussing your business. I mean actually doing it. Selling real products. It's not a real business until you have paying clients.

Save all that money until you have generated at least six months of your monthly expenses and have it in the bank. Then you could consider the transition out of your day job. If you can't make a product and sell it for a profit on a small scale, it's unlikely to work on a big scale. We generated $80,000 before I I managed to get fired. Unfortunately, we spent most of it on toys and parties, the rest of it we wasted.

Tip 3 - Start your endurance training.

It's tough to find the time to run your part time business with family, full time work and just life. But you will get use to the longer hours over time. It's endurance training preparing you for your own business where you will need to work 12 hour days. As Gary V says 'you work 8 hours a day. How cute, I remember my first part time job'. Find the time.

Finally, for all my friends who feel stuck in their jobs and can't get out due to financial commitments and time. Listen to me - THERE IS MORE TIME - be patient. Get over the hump, stay passionate, learn the skills you need and do it later!

Thanks for all the congratulations on the first 5 years of Social Star and I'm as passionate about helping people in their careers as all those years ago. In fact we are excited to be launching our new Social Star University platform in a matter of months! First part of the dream realised.

Keep passionate and stay tuned...

P.S. If you want to read the whole journey, you can read all about it in my book 'Creating a Powerful Brand'. Get a free copy here.