Make the Leap, Not the Scramble: The Blueprint for Going from W-2 to Business Owner
Most people who leave a W-2 have been carrying the idea of ownership for years. What separates a leap from a scramble isn't courage, it's preparation. This session gives you the blueprint: the mindset rewiring, the financial framework, and the business foundation you need to make a transition that feels grounded and intentional. You'll leave knowing exactly where you stand and what to do next.
Featured Speaker
Duane Rollins
Wealth Management Advisor | Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®) | Coach | Ecosystem Builder
Duane Rollins works at the intersection of business growth and personal wealth, helping W-2 professionals turn a promising side hustle into a full-time business without gambling their financial security to do it. He builds the plan that bridges a steady paycheck and a business of their own, so the leap feels deliberate, not reckless.
Before advising, Duane led teams at Capital One and the GSA, co-founded a STEM education nonprofit, and helped launch a public charter school in DC. That operating experience, paired with personal conviction, shapes how he works with every client.
Host
Keita Wangari (she/her)
Founder & CEO @ Exitous
Keita founded Exitous after experiencing the double-impact of a husband & wife layoff while managing a life-threatening health crisis with her child. She’s building a world where every worker is empowered to make their best exit.
More About This Webinar
A career transition is a financial event before it's anything else. When the paycheck stops, the clock starts, and most people underestimate how quickly a promising opportunity can become a pressure situation without the right preparation. The difference between a leap and a scramble is a plan built before the moment arrives, not after.
Duane Rollins works at the intersection of business growth and personal wealth. He helps people in career transition, whether by layoff or their own decision to walk away, turn the moment into a launch instead of a scramble. In this session, he walks you through the three pillars of the blueprint: the mindset shift that has to happen before you stop being an employee and start being an owner, the financial framework that tells you how long you can run and what it takes to reach break-even, and the planning process that moves your idea from a side thought to a viable business.
If you've been sitting on the question of what you'd build if you built something of your own, this session gives you a structured way to answer it clearly and confidently.
Who It’s For
Recent W-2 exits, whether voluntary or from a layoff, who are ready to make ownership the next chapter
Side hustlers wondering if the numbers actually support going all in
Career changers who want a financial framework, not just motivation, before they make the move
Anyone who has carried the idea of building a business and wants a reality-tested path to doing it right
What We’ll Cover
Why the leap becomes a scramble: the preparation gaps most people miss
The mindset shift: how to stop thinking like an employee before you leave
Calculating your runway: how much time you actually have and how to extend it
The break-even baseline: what your business needs to generate to replace your W-2 income
Pressure-testing your idea: how to evaluate your concept against financial reality
The blueprint in action: a step-by-step path from where you are to where you want to be