Quit my job?

[jeffdotchan]

Hi Guys,

I've been thinking a lot lately and my online business is starting to make ok cash - approx $1700/mth net with advertising only through PPC with a $15/day budget. Not enough to live off but I really feel I can grow it to that point and more.
I've talked to people and potentially have an angel investor that I'm preparing a new business plan for to truly grow the business offline - start working with local resellers to sell my product - along with doing SEO among other things. This will give me enough money to allow me to quit my job, and fund my living expenses for about 6 month in order to dedicate myself full time to the business - and grow it enough until I can be self-sustaining. If it doesn't work out I can always go back to working full-time.

So there's the background. HEre's my question:
Right now I only have about an hour or two per day at most to dedicate to the business plan - and haven't had any time to do SEO. I feel very unfulfilled at my current job since I just feel like the 8 hours I spend, I could be working on my own business making MUCH more money potentially. I was planning to wait till I get the business plan done and angel investment money but I don't see a need. I feel like I'm wasting time.
It just feels like I could be doing SO MUCH MORE - but I'm wasting my time by staying at my current job. I don't have much money saved up - enough to last about a month's of expenses along with a personal line of credit that will last me about 2 more months.
I'm seriously considering just getting up and leaving. This will free up all my time to dedicate to the business plan, online marketing and the like. I'm considering 2 options:

1. Quit completely - frees up all my time but puts pressure on me to make money - fast since all my income will be coming from my business and I'll be draining my reserves.
2. Request to work part-time/as a consultant for my current job - This is unlikely that it'll be approved since this is a full-time position...but it's worth a try and frees up atleast SOME time and reduces pressure for making money.

Do you guys think I'm out of my mind? Has anyone else taken the plunge and quit their job to pursue their own business - with no guaranteed source of income? I'm very interested to hear your opinions on what you guys have done, how it was and what you suggest I do....

In the end I feel like it's just about being happy...I'll gladly work long hours for myself - but when I'm stuck at 10pm at a customer site troubleshooting their network - I'm just thinking.."Damn - I could be doing so much more than this".

Thanks guys....

[VectorJ]

I know the temptation well, but I think the best thing to do is wait on that angel investor or try to find some more hours to work on your site until it can easily support you. If you're in the US, quiting your full-time job would also mean losing your health insurance and probably bankruptcy if anything were to happen to you that required hospitalization. I'd either stick with the job you have or find another job at least part-time until your financial resources are lined up. Be patient.

[jeffdotchan]

Thanks Vector. Yeah - I know what the "logical" thing to do is. I dunno - I just feel in my gut it's something I want to do. Yeah it's pretty risky... I didn't really think about the health insurance etc - as I'm pretty young and haven't even used what I currently have for a while.

Just wanted to get some feedback on potential pitfalls I may run into.

[Unreal030]

I know the temptation is great. If you do decide to do so, I would make sure you are prepared as possible beforehand, like taking care of your investor thing.

The key is to prepare but not over prepare. Yes you hear about some people being wild successes after jumping in with no preparation. However you know why? Because they are success stories. You don't hear about all of the failures that went at it unprepared because...well..they are failures.

In the end however, the only person that can decide this for you is you. Spend a while on it, I would say at least a month. Let it really sink in. Some people decide they want a change in life and they move to another country or state. Then they regret it a month after they have moved because they rushed the idea and let their emotional temptations override their logical thinking and they did not let the idea sink in to see if it is truly what they want. In fact I know 2 people that have done that.

Best of luck to you.

[chryman]

you need to realistically figure out how long it is going to take you to get the business up and running. Then you need to calculate all your expenses and stuff - health care, insurance, rent, cell, etc. and multiply that monthly number by how long its going to take you. That will tell you MINIMUM how much you need to save before you should even think about quitting.

You have a job now, prepare yourself, then go out and muck around for a while. Worst case scenario, the business is not growing as fast as you want, and at least you wont put yourself in a bad spot, because you wont have gotten in debt.

Thats just my 2 cents

[singaboy]

I have had the same dilemma a while back. I am running an IT Services biz for close to 1.5 yrs and it has made close to 30,000 USD in all. All this is my NET PROFIT (except the tax which is just 6% in my country) since I run the company at my home and no overhead involved.

The day, I land a big contract/client, I WILL quit my fulltime job, till then I got to work hard. Like wise, you TRY TO FIND MORE HOURS. I donot know how to stress that point, but I think you either have to get the Investors in or work for little more.

I gave up 1.5 hrs of my everyday sleep (earlier used to sleep for 8.5hrs), leave office sharp at 6 and reach home as early as possible to start work, save LOT of time during the weekend (I am single but Fridays/saturdays nites are spent wisely).

Who knows, I may pair up with someone here in YE and things could take off quickly.

[zoobie]

I know the temptation well, but I think the best thing to do is wait on that angel investor or try to find some more hours to work on your site until it can easily support you. If you're in the US, quiting your full-time job would also mean losing your health insurance and probably bankruptcy if anything were to happen to you that required hospitalization. I'd either stick with the job you have or find another job at least part-time until your financial resources are lined up. Be patient.

Wait for the right time before you decide to shift careers or quit your job. Weigh things and think of the consequences. You can do it. Best of luck!

[jeffdotchan]

Very sound advice guys. Really appreciate this. I guess the general concensus is 1) Don't quit until I'm making enough to support myself or have investment money
2) Think about it for a month before deciding
3) Work part time for the meantime

WEIGH THE CONSEQUENCES

I've already calculated how much I need. In terms of how long it will take to get the business up and running I can only make an educated guess - but I'm shooting for 3-4 months.

The other thing is I feel my industry is time-sensitive in that I've already seen a couple of new competitors popping up - i.e. new websites that are selling my same product so I feel waiting too long to jump in full-time is not wise.

I still haven't really heard any personal experiences yet and would love to hear some.

I guess the bottom line is to calculate my risk - and determine if I can take it?

[silenthcourtney]

At the end of the day, you really have to do what's right for you, but here's my two cents...

I think life is too short to be miserable. If your job is unfulfilling you should leave. My philosophy is that few decisions are final. So, you quit your job and the Website flops, it's not like you'll wrinkle up and die.

Take a chance, entrepreneurship is about calculated risks. At least you'll never regret having tried and worst case scenario, you go back to corporate America full time with 3 months worth of lighter pockets.

Just my opinion...guess it's kinda going against the grain a lil.

[tau281290]

Yup, I agree with Silenthcourtney. Entrepreneurship is about calculated risks. The higher the risk, the higher the rise or plunge. If you want to stay in this job and take less risks, chances are, you won't be getting a big yield. At the same time, you won't have to face the big plunge if everything fails.

It is really based on your mentality. How much you want in life? What is success to you? What is fulfilling, and what is not. etc...

[jeffdotchan]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their advice and let everyone know that I put in my 2 weeks notice for my job. They actually asked me to stay and work part time for a month to smoothen the transition - which means I'll have 3 weekdays off a week - and have some money coming in for a little bit. It was quite scary to do but I felt in my gut that it was the right thing to do. I'm very excited right now to hit the ground running and devote all my time to growing this thing...

Wish me luck!

[sniping4dummies]

Hey man,

Good luck and great to hear! Just as a warning, don't let the anxiety get to you. When you're put under the pressure to perform, it's very easy to feel like you aren't doing enough. Remember, nobody goes from $1700/month to $25000/month overnight for a reason - they'd have to go to counseling afterwards for post-tramatic stress. So just remember to leave time for yourself, and think about what any hints of desperation could say to your potential customers/investors. It's important to be realistic, and to control your eagerness!

[stand856]

Going back to the original post, you spend $15 a day on ads, why not increase it to $25, unless you already have tried it and the final result was the same?

[The Stealthy One]

I don't have much to comment on, but I will say this: why bring in investors? You lose so much freedom then - if you can grow on your own, that is a much better thing to do.

Of course, this depends on your true goal: freedom or wealth?