Ask HN: Living at home while increasing revenue | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Living at home while increasing revenue

3 pointszazarizz12 comments

Hey y’all, I have been building a small company in the esports space and I have some revenue coming in monthly, but not enough to sustain myself. Recently my parents offered me the option of living with them rent free as I explore profitability. This seems like an awesome opportunity but I fear for stagnation and lack of drive once I move back in and get comfortable and am thinking of not doing it and struggling to get by with three roommates as I continue to put the revenue back in the business.

Is my thought process sound in skipping out on the opportunity and instead continuing to shovel away trying to reach profitability without the living subsidy from parents.

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So you have two choices: continue living on your own and paying rent which is probably costing you around $800 - $1200 or move back home and pay nothing?

If you move back home, you can, will, and won't:

1. Appreciate the presence of your parents, the time is quite limited, more than you realize [will]

2. Save any money that would have gone towards rent [can]

3. Make a plan to become profitable by X date with an extended date in case you haven't become profitable. [will]

4. After becoming profitable, coming up with an amount for when you will be moving out or decide if you just want to stay and pay them a bit of rent for helping you out until you make double or triple enough to convince you to get your dream place [will]

5. Play video games all day [won't]

6. Dedicate at least 6 - 8 hours a day to working on your projects [can]

So with a good opportunity in mind, roommates can be awesome, but they are just mostly semi-friends helping you pay rent. Usually nothing more and nothing less. You'll appreciate it when you have a place of your own. I moved out when I was 23 and never moved back home again.

I'm curious how you came up with that rent values ($800 - $1200). I'm in Western Europe, a medium sized city, and I can't get a studio without 1000 EUR. Similarly, I imagine that in most places in California, that amount won't get you much of a home.

$800-$1200 is probably roughly either what they paid for rent when they were in their 20s or what they pay for rent today. My guess would be the former because people tend to default to thinking that their reality is someone else’s reality.

Where I live, rent rates are around that. He also said that he's sharing an apartment with a few other people... so he's probably not paying full rent.

Both paths are fine. Where you're staying is irrelevant. Build the business.

But I'd guess you can build it faster from your parents' house, and they might be some wonderful allies along your path. They're almost certain to have more to offer, and to be more loyal than your friends and roommates.

Good luck.

I was close to this exact situation. I regret it.

I'm assuming your in your 20's. Find a well paying job in an area you want to live in, and moonlight your business. When your business pays more than your day job, decisions and risk calculations are easier to make.

It also forces you to delegate from the get-go since your only have 4 hours "side project" time to work after work. If you're building something big, you will have to work with a team. If I was more time constrained, I would have probably made more tactical decisions.

If your esports thing works, great! If not, you hedged your risk and you didn't suffer from opportunity cost.

Throw everything I said out the window if you achieved product market fit and are growing at a viral rate.

Ultimately do what trpv said. "Go with your gut"

Sounds like you might need more information on both of your options.

It might help to write and respond to:

What are all of the ways I can stay motivated and productive while living with my parents?

What are the worst case scenarios with both options, and how can I overcome them?

What are all of the ways to ramp up revenue/income faster so that I can have more options?

I'm going to go against the current here and say you should politely decline your parents generous offer. I know when I moved out one of my biggest motivators was not moving back in with mom and I did what I had to do not to move back home. Considering your position unless you can't get work done because of your roomie tough it out. You know you always can move back home now do everything in your power so you don't.

It depends on the kind of person you are. Others might be able to share their experiences, but they don’t know you and how it’ll affect you.

Go with your gut.

I would just get a part time job to make ends meet. Perhaps move somewhere with a low cost of living if you can.

Sounds like a good opportunity, but you may want to put a self-imposed time-limit on your stay.

do it. paying rent is horrible and unless you need to house a family then do it! Alternativly, vanlife.

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