Quit or not to quit? 1 year worth of savings
Recently I'm struggling to decide whether it's reasonable to quit my current job in order to start working full time on my products.
Everyday I read some success or failure stories. Making me either wanting to quit or not 😅
There is one group saying "it's better to keep your job until you product starts to earn enough to keep you afloat". This approach is definitely less risky and let's you maintain stability while developing a product. But I've noticed that I'm much less creative if I do something after work and the results are lower quality. Maybe if not that full time job I'd be able to build product not only faster but better?
The other group support going full time. Definitely success stories motivates this group the most. But there is a bigger risk here of actually just burning all savings and time. Also, by not being in the employee market it kinda feels like I'm lowering my value if I'd ever have to go back to full-time job again.
I did my calculations recently and more or less I'm able to sustain myself from savings for around a year.
What's your approach?
I don't think there's ever a 'one size fits all' answer for this -- everyone is different and you need to evaluate based on your own circumstances:
• If your product doesn't work out, what is the likelihood of finding another job?
• Can you handle the impending doom of runway running out after a year (which will approach quickly). Don't forget to factor in emergencies too.
• Are you already building your product? How far off launching are you?
• If you're less creative with a full-time role along side your side-project, naturally you have to consider that.
The best option is waiting until you're generating some revenue, but that comes down to your own personal preference. If you have a supportive network and someone you can rely on if it things don't work out and you're unable to find work, that may remove some of the risk.
Depending on your career, can you do contract work to extend your runway to give you more peace of mind?
Whatever you choose, good luck with it!
Very true and very good questions to ask yourself. Thanks!
If you're intending to bootstrap your project, I would suggest starting it as a side project (provided that you're legally allowed to do that).
We're in the middle of a pandemic, your savings should be your savings and not "adventure capital", and you can do all the validation and prototyping you need while you're still securely employed.
With FeedbackPanda, we only quit our dayjobs when the product made $10k MRR. And that was before a global pandemic-caused recession.
If you find that you will need more time on the project later on, you can always go for part-time / consulting arrangements. Entrepreneurial success isn't guaranteed. I recommend taking precautions.
Once you manage balance work/side-project this seems to be the best way to do it. Glad it worked for you!
if full time means 40 hours a week, I would try to reduce it to 30 hours, say try to get 1 day a week for your project. and so on, until you flip sides so your project becomes full time. E.g., I'm working on my project after my full time job, which gives me a daily window of 2 hours only, mostly from 8pm to 10pm. and there's a big difference when you at least get 1 full day a week where you can start at 8 AM with a clear head and have full productive day ahead.
Doing something afterwork is mentally draining though in the long run.
But I think that it might be a good idea to do it it the morning as suggested in other comment.
Yes, to prevent this - I forgot to mention - I try to do some sports, workout when arriving at home from work, usually around 5.30 pm. Preferred exercise is a 10km run in the woods nearby, no music, no podcasts, just breathing and running.
After having dinner with my wife and some 'relax time on the couch' I start my 2-hour-building-slot.
I had a time where I thought I had to save time by coming home and placing myself straight away in front of my pc again, after 8 hours in front of pc in the office. Then, in the long run, you are right, you're mentally draining.
Hold for another year. We just haven’t got out of the pandemic.
Just a personal opinion, but I would be on that side of fence where people say "keep the job and work on your projects in your spare time". But internally I don't entirely agree with this statement. If you don't have clear direction yet, I would say the best option would be to find a part time or freelance job which would pay for your bills and work like 2-3 days per week for it. Other days of the week could be dedicated for your own products.
This way you would minimize your burn rate and in case your project flops you would still have your income.
Yup, that's a good option. Contract work that would require me only for 3 days or so would be perfect, but they are rare to find.
Listen to your gut feeling, and don't lie.
If you feel you NEED to do this then go for it. From what you describe there's very little risk.
You get a year where you do something YOU want. The alternative is another year of the same old road.
Contrary to popular belief, not everyone is comfortable with freedom and endless choices. But at least you get to discover which direction you really want to go towards.
If it fails then you can go back to work with a cool story to tell.
I did something a bit similar - quit my job to learn to code. I had about 1-1,5 year savings.
After 9 months I was stressed, lonely and on the brink of depression.
After 11 months I had a programming job.
Few years later I'm happy I took the risk and grateful to people that gave me a chance. But I'm not sure I'd decide to do it again.
I guess the risk with product is greater than with changing careers, so I'd play it safe and start as minimal MVP as possible.
I quit my job last month without much savings or back up plan. Initially, I intended to work on side project while doing job and leave few months later. But I just left it because I couldn’t take it anymore. Freedom, time and mental health is more important than monthly extra cash.
I am fortunate that I don't have too much responsibility in family so this is the time.
I am just super happy with my decision and going full in doing something I always wanted to. Yes, money is issue but I am confident enough that in few months I will be able to generate income to sustain myself at least.
For now, goal is to make $1 on the internet and I couldn't be happier.
If you don't have huge responsibilities in personal life, leave the job.
You will have time as an asset and leverage then. You can outwork people who are doing things on the side.
Awesome, that's a big step! What product you will be working on?
I have a direction. But before building the product, I am building audience.
As of now I am finding and analysing game techniques used in popular or rare games by playing(studying) them and
then converting it into materials where people can learn how to Gamify products and their lives as well.
That's a good approach, I was thinking about doing that too. Maybe running some ads to check if some ideas will click and then work on it.
That's opposite of building audience first approach. Best thing about building audience first is you get invaluable insights to their problem and then you will get paid to solve their problems.
Also you don't need so many people to get started something.
Even 100 true fans will help a lot start building something valuable.
Starting something on your own will make you grow a lot. That has the potential to increase your value (and your salary) when/if you go back. It has happened to me.
Being someone that is going through the same process, here's my $0.02:
By reading between the lines, my take is you won't last a year, probably 6 months at best.
What most people here seem to fail to understand is that you will incur some extra costs if you really want to promote your product. It's very likely you'll incur costs if you want to get your product off the ground (advertising and/or advice and/or other work that needs being done).
So, if you truly want to quit, I would suggest you don't do it with less than $30K saved up.
My story: going full time on my app next year, and I have saved up 18 months x $1.5K (living expenses) + 12 months x $2.5K (expenses for my app). I may be more conservative, but it does give you a lot of peace of mind.
How about a part time job then?
Like many others mentioned, taking up part time and then working on your product idea seems to be a viable option.
From my experience, it's not easy to start generating revenue as it's not just about building a great product. There are so many other aspects, especially socializing and marketing part. If there is someone with you who has knowledge or who can put that effort, then it makes the road a bit easier, again, only a bit.
And it's quite lonely as well in this journey. One needs a good amount of will to keep moving. If money becomes a problem, it will stress you out more than you can imagine.
Am not being cynical here, just super practical :)
I would do something which minimises chance of losing all your money and maximise your chance of success. So something like part-time work or contracting while working on your ideas.
Honestly, in most cases your savings will shrink faster than you will get revenue .
I think you are asking the wrong questions and not giving enough context.
One thing: What are your expectations? Are you ok with having tried, experimented and learned for one year, but having no success with your ideas. Then sure go for it, if not you should make smaller bets, experiment, create tiny products, talk to some potential customers in an area where you think you might want to work in.
Also you don't give us any context on where you stand experience-wise? Have you tried anything, have you done an info product, have you been involved as a founder / a partner in a business? This matters. Going all in, if you never have acted entrepreneurially is a super risky step. It is quite different from working for someone else or fantasizing how it would be to run a business.
My goal is not to discourage you, but the way you frame the question do not find helpful, you really need to make a careful analysis of what you have, what you expect to do.
Time to ask yourself some good tough question. Take some time off and start asking yourself all the question. You will definalty gets the answer.
Tbh, that one year could quickly fly by and turn into two years
Dont leave job.
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I do this often as well. On days I need to get things done on my side hustle, I wake up around 6am or so and get in 1-2hrs BEFORE I start my day job. It's WAY better than trying to do things at night, especially if you have kids/family.
That's a good tactic, I might try that