Ask HN: How did you go from employee to startup entrepreneur? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How did you go from employee to startup entrepreneur?

You use to work 9-to-5 for "the man" but now run your own business.

How did you make the transition?

Would you do it again?

You basically have 2 option: start with fulltime, supported by savings or income that doesn't require you to clock in OR do it as part time contribution (evening and weekends) and set yourself a target date to do fulltime transition by saving $$ along the way. I have been doing the 2nd option for 2 startup company now.

Thanks for the response.

What type of targets do you set? Are they financial targets? Have you written a formal plan? When will you quit your full time role and focus on 1/2 startups?

I built mine on nights and weekends and quit when I was able to pay myself more than my day job. I had about 9 months worth of living expenses saved up.

Nights and weekends at first. Then I landed a gig as a network technician, where I had no office. I just got dispatched out whenever a client had a problem. Otherwise I could do pretty much what I wanted and work on my business. If you can do something like that and buy you more time while still getting a salary, it can help. I joked that my boss was my investor.

I started my business after I got a full-time client (a bit of a reversal to how it's usually done). It was the right time, right opportunity.

I also, without a doubt, received God's help, so I can't claim it was all my doing.

Would I do it again? I work many more hours than I did working for the man, but yes, absolutely.

Thanks. Did you go employee to consultant? Why was it right time?

I had been doing web dev and marketing for years while working full time. I had a family and mortgage to support. But the time was right to go full-time consultant when I landed a client who was ambitious and had a lot of work for me.

This client also happened to be a "super-connector" who told everyone about me and how good I was, so that helped.

My advice: learn how to market and start planning now, be patient, ask God for help, and you will surely have your own business.

I quit my job because I didn't like what I was doing. I didn't like having a boss so the easiest thing to do was "be my own boss", right? :)

So far so good, the journey is fun and I'm learning a shitload of stuff on the way. If it failed, no worries I'll go back and slave myself in a big corporation.

Thanks. How are you paying the bills? What is your journey? Learning or actually building stuff and speaking with customers? How would you measure success or failure?

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