Great decision! I have done the same and not looked back.
The first few years are the worst. You’ll have times when you are worried and want to throw in the towel or just plain overwhelmed. Unless you are destitute and need the money from a full time job - push through this! The freedom on the other side is worth the sacrifice.
- Automate everything you can. Billing, business related payments, etc. Give yourself the option to skip a day or two and not think about it.
- Get a good CPA! Anything you need for the “business” is now a write off. The comments that you'll pay more in taxes are total BS. As an unmarried, childless and non home owning CA resident I lost over 42% of my income to taxes working for someone else. I now have an effective rate of ~25% when you take into account all the write offs.
- Once you establish yourself you can be more selective in not taking clients that tie you to a specific physical location. Accommodating timezones from the other side of the planet is far less demanding when you are doing it barefoot on the beach.
I played the startup game for a long time. I had some mild success but over same timeframe I would have made far more doing my own thing earlier. I now make substantially more than my fancy titled tech job. More so, I work far less and wouldn’t give up my free time to make more. I choose when I work, how I work and to some degree the type of work.
Last thing, don’t listen to the people who tell you it can’t be done or not worth it. I have witnessed a lot of people attempt this and fail with the number one reason by a large margin being succumbing to the doubt instilled by others. Worse, its instilled by people with no experience in doing it themselves or in some cases jealousy. Yes, it will be hard in the near term. Yes, you will have many failures along the way. Shake yourself off and start over. Find other like minded people to learn from.