As most of you know I currently work for Friendster as their Digital Marketing Manager. I joined Friendster 7-8 months ago and it was nothing short of a fun and educational roller-coaster ride! However, I’ve finally decided to give entrepreneurship a chance and leave the corporate world. Last month, I filed my 30-day notice. My official last day with the company is tomorrow (Tuesday, March 23, 2010). Leaving this company was a very difficult decision to make. The people in the Philippines office are great and the working environment is definitely something that I’ll miss. But I really felt that it was time to move on. I put up a consultancy firm a few months ago named Catalyst Interactive Marketing. We’ve had a lot of good clients already and it’s about time that I focus on that and try to build the company into something much bigger than what it is now.
To those who are thinking of leaving their jobs to do their own thing, let me just share some tips that I picked up from a lot of good friends who I consulted with before making this life-changing decision.
1. Save up and make a security fund while you still have a job.
This is very important and I think one of the biggest factors why I finally decided to leave my job. The biggest problem you’ll face in business is the risk that the money won’t come at the end of the month. You’re not really sure if you’ll get what you need to pay off your bills and living expenses. To solve this problem, I strongly recommend that you follow the advice I got from financial gurus Chinkee Tan and Randell Tiongson. Build 6-month emergency fund. Basically have enough money in that fund to cover for your living expenses for the next 6 months. I’m pretty sure that you can either make that business work or you can find a new job if the business fails within that time period (haha).
2. Don’t burn bridges
As much as possible don’t try to piss everyone off in your office when you leave. Turnover all the work properly and adhere to company policy when it comes to leaving. Give a minimum of 2 weeks notice. For senior managers you might want to extend that to 30 days. When I left Level Up, I also gave a 30-day notice because I felt like 2 weeks wouldn’t be enough for me to tie up loose ends. Leaving in good terms will also allow you the opportunity to tap the network that you built in your former company later on when you’re doing different things. Note that the worst thing you can possibly do is to tell people that you’re going somewhere but in truth you’re going to a competitor.
3. Pray pray pray and seek counsel from Godly men and women
Ultimately your life is in God’s hands. Based on experience the best thing I did while preparing for this move is that I prayed a lot and I asked advice from a lot of my mentors and elders. Talking to them and praying cleared up a lot of things. Read the bible. You’ll be surprised. It talks back. 
And that’s it for this post. To all my colleagues from Friendster, thank you for the last 7 months. It was an honor to have worked with you guys especially throughout the relaunch. And to those contemplating of leaving the corporate world for entrepreneurship, I hope my notes will be helpful for you.
… and to those who need an internet/social media marketing consultant, I’m all yours! Hahaha! 
congratulations on your decision!