Are you employed while indiehacking?
Right now I’m full-time on bootstrapping, but occasionally the benefits of employment (e.g., a steady paycheck) call out to me! Do you ever feel that way?
I'm curious if others here are employed or not. Does your employer and/or coworkers know about your side hustle? If so, how does your employer feel about your side hustle?
I always cringe when I see people post "I just quit my job! Going to start indie hacking tomorrow!!!" Do not quit your job until your side hustle is already making money. Most side hustles never make money.
Well, that is 100% true if you live from paycheck to paycheck or want to save a lot of money for the future.
But it's strange to cringe from it. People can do whatever they want with their life. Also, maybe they don't need money, there are many people with big savings or financial independent.
People often forget that money is just an instrument, it's not the main goal of life.
so true!
I couldn't agree more with this statement.
YES!
Totally. During my first year indie hacking, I had a regular salaried job. My employer knew about everything, and if you communicate well it gives you more leverage with raises, etc (if you end up keeping the job).
I just announced the same on Twitter :P
My side hustle (now a big company) is making me equivalent to my monthly paycheck. I want to scale it up.
Going solo feels good now :D
Totally agree; however, I think it's fine to experience this notion first hand.
This is good advice if money is the main goal (and if getting a job again in the future is equal to failure).
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There isn't a rule that applies to all, I read some comments saying "Don't quit your job until you are already making money from your side project!" and while that makes sense for some, it doesn't for others.
In my case, I worked as a freelance software developer, saved enough money to be able to live years without a job and started my projects without any income. I need to have my full time focus in what I do because freelancing takes away a lot of the energy and brain power I need to really commit to my own projects.
If you can start your side project while having a full time job great! You are amazing! But if you see that you don't have enough energy or time to work on them because you also prioritize having a life, I recommend you to save enough money to have 2/3 years of expenses cover and start right there and commit 100%.
If at any time you see that you need some money you can make a small pause, do some freelancing and then back to 100% focus.
There isn't a one rule for all and we need to understand that when giving advice.
Yes! Exactly what I said to previous comment. Planning to do the same, I am not 100% financial independent but I can travel and live in many countries for years without need to work.
The assume that everyone is living paycheck to paycheck in the modern world is weird. And if you don't have to work all the time why running yourself out doing so?
I quit my job back in March 2021, after working on side projects for years. It was hard for me to avoid burning out while managing a team of developers and also trying to start my own business.
I spent about 8 months working full-time on my own projects. I spent my time writing (www.smalltechbusiness.com) and also continued on my web-based board games platform (Mobo Games).
I was able to get over 1K newsletter subscribers and I had a fairly successful booth at Gen Con (large board game convention) where I generated about $900 in sales. I also started doing career coaching on Fiverr and have netted about $1K since August.
I learned a lot, but ultimately I found it all to be a lot more stressful than I thought. I’ve spent the last few months looking for part-time work to cover living expenses. I am starting a part-time job at a small company in January for $4K a month, and I am really happy with that decision. I’ll still be working on my business, while also relieving the stress of seeing my savings drain.
Hey Justin, thanks for sharing your story. 100% feel you on the stressfulness of trying to build a biz without a steady paycheck.
Questions for you: when you decided to find a job and continue to hustle on the side, was it hard to find a company that would let you keep working on your side projects? Is that something you discussed during the interview process, or are you keeping your side work to yourself? Maybe not an issue with part-time work?
Hey Matt,
What made it hard was figuring out what I actually wanted. At my previous company, I really struggled with motivation at the end and I really wanted to make sure I avoided putting myself in a similar situation. At my prev company I worked 30hr/wk for 7 months, before I left in March. I learned a lot from that experience. Notable, most companies don’t really have an established protocol for part-time workers, my last company made an exception for me.
I think the best place to start would be to ask your manager at your current company. As employers are more likely to make exceptions for employees they already trust. Although do that with the understanding that it likely will impact your career advancement at that company.
The way I tackled my recent search was to either look for companies explicitly advertising part-time job roles or looking with-in my network. For me, I knew I wanted my next company I joined to be a small team (4-10 people total). So I ended up doing 2 simultaneous part-time contracting projects. After a couple months of each, I talked with one of the clients and we both mutually wanted to bump up our work together to more of an official part-time role. I think building trust initially by working on a smaller contract allowed both of us to move forward with a lot more confidence.
Hope that helps, happy to answer more questions.
I can see myself in your story and I would be curious to see how it feels to work for others after a long time being your own boss... I am building a online coworking space for bootstrappers and we all work together on our own projects. Would love to see you there...
No but I will need to be soon lool. I've built my projects at this point across this entire year so the hard part is done.
The revenue being generated from my projects is not nearly enough for me to live on so I will get a job and hope to make it one day :) On the bright side, I have enough wiggle room for another year but no need to wait.
I am in a similar situation... I am working on a online coworking space for bootstrappers and it's becoming quite a supportive community. Is like working with a team. Would love for you to check it out :)
I've been there before! I'm wondering: do you plan to continue building and/or marketing your projects once you get a regular job?
Yes 100%. I will never stop working on side-projects. My forever goal is to have a successful company and not being at the MMR I want so far is not a deterrent. If one project fails, I will start another. Eventually you will crack the code.
So while working I will put aside a portion of the funds into marketing / advertising.
Full time on Zlappo for 2 years now 😃
Living in SoCal helps keep me motivated, with the high cost of living and all.
I'm 51 with a wife, two kids, mortgage, etc. I'm working full time as a senior developer for a marketing analytics company, and hacking on my side project primarily on the weekends. It's just too hard to get enough time in during the week most of the time, and I refuse to let my day job suffer for my own work.
I don't have any plan to stop working as I love the company I work for and the people I work with. From a money standpoint, I wouldn't quit my current job unless the side gig was making enough that it could lose 50% of its customers and still support us easily. So that would be quite a while from now.
I'm building the side project primarily for my wife and daughters to run. I don't want to worry about day to day user support, etc. So that will certainly help me not have to worry about shifting gears too fast.....I hope. Also, since I'm no spring chicken any more, I'd like to build something that they can help grow and profit off of just in case, God forbid, something should happen to me.
I'm working 9-5 full time job as a software developer. This is my main source of income. I'm building my MVP on evenings. It's my choice. You can select other options.
"I just quit my job! Going to start indie hacking tomorrow!!!" This seems crazy to me.
If you manage stress and have money to pay your bills, will be not bad choice.
I've been building and testing my latest project with users for around 5-6 months now and still working full time in my day job. I can't really afford to not work (have to pay for mortgage, family costs, bills etc) until I'm more confident I can build revenue quickly, so I'm not going full time on it for another few months yet.
I do think if you have an idea that has some traction and early revenue, and can afford to go all-in (e.g. by living off some savings for a bit), then it probably increases your odds of success though!
How are you balancing things so far?
Yes, full time at a non-tech clothing company.
I'm a contractor, working full-time. I mean I need money for bootstrapping :D
For sure, gotta make ends meet somehow!
I quit my job in 2013. I started my first side project in 2009. It took years to build an audience to the point that it was viable. When I quit in 2013 my business was already bringing in more revenue than my junior marketing job.
That's not the right answer for everyone, but it worked out really well for me. It was a slog though. No shining it up. It was harder than any time running the business as my FT focus.
Surprised that part-time is only at ~7%! It seems like the logical option to go part-time work and part-time side hustle. At least in the early days while you're still growing the project.
I'm keeping a steady cash flow with freelancing, and plan to invest more time in my own products this year.
There is both way benefits
Most people choose 2nd option
I'm self-employed haha, just go for it. You don't need to quit anything, you going to face risk no matter what
I totally understand what you mean. I quit my job 7 months ago and I am still very very far from my salary as a developer. Quite often I think about going back to a steady paycheck!
I am actually working on an online coworking space for entrepreneurs and being part of this community helps to feel that office and team vibe. You should check it out :)
It looks like majority of us have full time jobs, as expected.
At the end of the day it's all about individual circumstances, do what you can and what makes you happy.
I work full time while working on my own stuff and they know that I am, but there's no overlap in what I do for my own projects and work (other than what I learn at home I might bring in with me to work). I don't really get why people quit a paying job for a side project that may (unfortunately most likely) fail and churn through savings to try and make ends meet. If my side project ever earns enough money that I can live comfortably that would be the point when I quit and go it alone - but perhaps I'm very risk averse compared to some 🤔
There is no one size fits all. I did the exact opposite of what people suggest and I quit my job without having a "side hussle" or "profitable side business".
I am lucky enough to have enough savings for maintaining my current lifestyle + savings for a rainy day, not have any debt or people depending on me, so I can take the full risk of doing something so 'reckless'. I was feeling confident about this move, so why not give it a shot?
Yup, I work full time as an elementary teacher.
Couple things I've learned:
I (think) that I'd love to have a job that actually allows me to get my hands on the tech I know how to use in order to get even more proficient at these skills.
Working traditional jobs while having tech skills is a great way to solve problems in these verticals. There are problems all around me at work that tech can solve...
I'm not employed, but I do own an SEO agency. That is my main source of income and what funds my software products.
Yup.
I work full time at https://dollardonationclub.com/ as their tech lead. What I like to do is work on early-stage startups, so at least I can learn stuff that will help me in my own business ventures.
Gotta say, though, sometimes I feel that my own interests clash with the job interests, which is hard to balance sometimes.
I am a full-time student finishing up my computer science degree, full-time employee, full-time digital agency owner which is still a startup, and I just launched https://flashaicopy.com/ trying to scale it.
Luckily my job is an office job where I barely do anything and I am able to catch up on schoolwork, assign agency work to my remote freelancers, and occasionally have time to code and work on https://flashaicopy.com/ . Of course, when one of my projects takes off I will definitely quit the job.
I run a 150 person VFX company making visual effects for TV and movies while building our SaaS "on the side". Managed to leverage comp-sci co-op students from a major university and some brilliant part-time/fractional advisors and co-founders to give them guidance.
I'm sure there are many ways to get to the finish line - but being 48, with two kids, a mortgage and a wife with a disability, having the buffer of a full-time job allows us to do what is right for the product - as opposed to rushing to do what is right for the business.
Hell yes. I have a mortgage to pay, and two kids at private school. The days of Ramen and shared housing are long past.
I have a written agreement from the CEO regarding my side work, and work on seperate computers.
I can only think of quitting my job once I'm reliably clearing over $12k MRR off other projects...
Ah, this is really interesting about your written agreement, Adrian! Is that something you negotiated while interviewing there? Seems like some jobs are more open to side work than others.
It's an unusual situation. I'd worked for these guys before, and they're fine with side projects. I mentioned it in the interview, and got it in writing later.
To be honest, the only reason I got it in writing is that both the day job, and my side hustle, are both in kids education.
But yes, it comes down to the employer. That said, I probably wouldn't work for a company that didn't encourage people to work on things on the side...
Yes, I am employed full time. I am working on fusionhq.co. Its an Opensource alternative for Amplitude/Mixpanel/Hotjar/Mailchimp. I daily contribute to the repo on the daily basis. Do checkout https://github.com/fusion-hq/fusion
Yeah I have been employed full time as senior backend dev/devops for 7 months now, meaning that I haven't had much time to be honest for my side project www.dynablogger.com - a blogging platform. I have been busy because at my day job I am leading the migration of our entire platform to Kubernetes, but from January it should be more of a normal 9-5 job so I am planning to go back and work on my side project on daily basis adding features and starting promoting it again.
I wasn't happy to have to go back to a day job because of money but I'm actually pretty happy with the job. So I have a stable income and at the same time I can build my project and see where I can take it next year.
Yes, my boss and colleagues know about my project. Why not?
I am currently in a full-time Ph.D. program, which is pretty much equivalent to a real job. My stipend goes a long way towards paying for the Google Cloud bills which is a positive though :)
The lifeblood of a startup is fuel (funds) and working can provide additional run time. It can be quite exhausting to do both, and work can suffer as your startup grows, but giving your idea the best possible chance of survival is so very important.
I always tried to be fair to my employer and continue to do my best job. However, eventually success compelled me to leave and focus full time on my company. That, I think, is the best way to handle this balancing act.
I do dev consulting/contracts on the side in my particular niche to help make ends meet when needed.
I actually built my product out of a need I discovered while doing the consulting initially, and have gotten good beta customers for the product out of it. The product itself also builds good leads for future potential clients I can consult with, even if they don't wind up converting on the SaaS side.
I'm not sure I'd mention a side project at all to an employer if you have aspirations for it to become anything other than open source tbh. Some might say it's the honorable thing to do, but I've seen that sort of thing really blow up before. Might as well tell your employer you're bored of the work.. and thinking about leaving the moment the branch you want to swing to (your product) is viable and stable :)
I started doing the consulting part time when I was 6 years into a lead engineer position at a fairly well known tech company. I didn't tell anyone until I was ready to put in my notice.
Sounds like you've got a sustainable setup, that's awesome! I definitely had some anxiety talking about my side projects at my previous job.
Tbh though, it feels to me like employers should be okay with it. As long as you are continuing to perform well at work and you're not building something that competes with them, it should be none of their business, right? I know not all companies feel that way, I just think they should. 😂
I've been poking around a bit and it seems like there are at least a handful of companies that specifically mention they are cool with hiring people who want to keep working on their side projects (and specifically mention it in their job postings).
In the past (when employed), I've worried about taking my side projects to market and if I would run into trouble at work.
I thought it might be nice to be able to find jobs where side hustles are okay (or even encouraged!), so I threw together this site: https://www.sidehustlecool.com
Are there other sites like this out there? I know there are remote and flex-friendly sites, might be similar?
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