What did your risk?

[Grandmarnier]

Im curious to all those who have their own business' or is self employed,

What did you risk when you decided to go "on your own"?

I have some business ideas but I have a "job" that pays well, but im not sure if im willing to sacrifice that for the business opportunity. I have a mortgage, 3 kids, and a whole bunch of monthly bills that need to be paid.

Whether you did good or bad, id be interested to know what you risked to be your own boss.

[myfayt]

To be a successful entrepreneur you have to take the risk and jump in.

I've had a decent job and decided to stop working for others and to do something myself, was stone cold broke but worked around it.

Let me tell you about my friend who owns a coffee shop. He had a $50,000 a year income from the hospital and he decided he wanted to go into business for himself. His wife was pregnant and was in the hospital and he went in to see her and tell her the news, and she was proud of him and supported the idea. He opened a coffee shop quit his job, and is now highly successful and making just as much as he did before, he's expanded twice and is getting ready to expand again. He always has a full house.

[Crysco]

I am young and do not have the same responsibilities as most people older than myself, but I would like to share my experience the first time I left my job.

When I started out, I was working as an independent contractor with a financial services company. I thought the reason I wasn't getting appointments was because I didn't have enough time since I worked full time at another job. I had about 6 months pay saved up and I decided it was a good time to try to go full time. I could have time to study for required licensing and do business on the licenses I did have.

As much as I enjoyed educating people on finance and compound interest, I started learning how easy it was to network. I realized I could do anything I wanted. I started asking myself if I was doing what I really wanted to be doing?

One of my goals in life is to open my own race track. Instead of pushing it off for the future, I decided to get started now. I went back to work, I landed a job as a test driver for a company with similar technology to my previous full time job. I work part time and make about the same money, this leaves a lot of time to build the business, and I go to school part time. Even better I drive cars for a living!

They know I am trying to start a business, and are supportive of me continuing my education.

To answer the question... I risked a full time job with benefits, I could have stayed there my whole working life. I learned that I could start a business of my choice, I learned the business I was in wasn't where I wanted to go. Even taking the risk, losing the job, and starting over I wound up in better condition. The key is to stay positive and know what you want in life. When you take action, life tends to unfold in front of you.

[rogercbryan]

Every penny I had... four times...

My Marriage... My Family... My Friends (I've made new ones..)... My personal life for three years...

All in all... not all that much :-)

[Mega B]

Every penny i had and nearly cost me my marriage of 27 years but we are still together and making money at long last and no social life for 2 years and forget about holidays.Trust me it aint easy !!!!

[Iamnotsatisfied]

Social life goes out the window...I could guarantee you that

You're relationships/ marriage will take some hits as well

[Floid]

The sacrifices and risk you make also depend on your idea. If you're pursuing a time-demanding and high-overhead idea, then be prepared to encounter adversity, because it's going to come at you from all corners. There are plenty of entrepreneurs out there however who are using new technology to start low overhead and often modestly profitable ventures.

I definitely agree about the social life aspect others were mentioning, haha. However, you'll have fun networking with people.

What you need to do before pursuing any idea is to first ask yourself a couple of questions (i.e. What are your skills? What do you enjoy doing?). Then you have to research your idea to see if it's worth pursuing.

I don't mean to be a shameless plug or anything, however, I don't want my forum post to be too long I address some of these concerns on my blog. Just go to The Gravy Train

Just scroll down to my entry on March 3rd and March 1st. They talk about how to find inspiration and how to decide on an idea. The subsequent posts after talk about how you can do your homework to validate your idea and see if it's worth the effort.