Ask HN: how you successfully quit your full-time job? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: how you successfully quit your full-time job?

12 pointschiikod9 comments

So you just managed to quit your full-time job to focus entirely on that project, business or idea. You have had no regrets so far. The question is how did you manage?

1. My story (why I need to learn from you)

I am employed and I get a monthly salary less than $500 and my contract has no other benefits such as gratuity, health, education or anything. Meanwhile I am able to make on average $600 monthly on small web designing projects (thanks to WordPress)despite spending a lot of time at work.

2. My challenge

For the past few months I have been having sleepless nights thinking its time to quit my job and focus on building a small business around my part-time web designing projects. I have tried to do both (full-time job and part-time business) and its not working for me.

3. Your Advice

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Those dreams you're having are the "lost opportunity" dreams that any of us have from time to time. On a larger scale it is the same feeling that forces entrepreneurs to lose focus and expand into another product before their first MVP is done.

So, focus! Grow this side business until you _cannot afford_ to work at your $500 gig any more.

Shift your freelancing efforts towards things can generate recurring income.

Browse through http://envatomarketplaces.com/ and find the unsatisfied demand. For example, while most of the CSS stuff isn't particularly well patronised, there's a few snippets in there that have sold more than 200 times, and the top one has 900 sales at $4 a pop. There are jQuery sliders on there with 10000 sales at ~$12 each. And so on... Look for the features that aren't on there and build them.

Pro tip - if you negotiate your "small web designing projects" contracts well enough, with a license of the code rather than ownership going to the person you're designing for, you could be getting someone to pay you to develop a feature that you can then sell on sites like envato. You lose nothing, you might gain recurring income. That's a big win.

Do I understand correctly that your part-time side business makes you more money than your fulltime job? That sounds like an excellent opportunity to quit that job and expand that side business.

How? I don't know. Continue doing what you did with that side business, but now fulltime. Whatever it is, it seems to be working.

I took a totally different route: I already had a small financial buffer when my employer went into technical bankruptcy. A few people had to be fired, and I volunteered. Got some extra pay, got into unemployment, and started on a track where I could start my own business while keeping unemployment benefits for 6 months (this is Netherland, so probably doesn't apply to you).

I first wasted some time doing my own thing, exploring some new tools and techniques and stuff, meanwhile looking for small freelance jobs. Got a few, made a bit of money, but eventually it ran out and I decided to go for bigger freelance jobs. Less variation, but steady pay.

The key question in my mind would be how predictable is the flow of WordPress projects? Is the flow steady? Also how much sales effort does it take to land the projects?

If the flow is reasonably steady and you know where and how you would market yourself and can discipline yourself on a sales process, it would seem you are ready to make the switch.

Another question you could ask yourself that might help clarify the situation is this: If I quit my full-time job and pursue the web design projects but find the flow of work is too uneven, how hard will it be to find a new full-time job at comparable rates? If you are convinced that it would be relatively easy to go back to full-time work if needed then make the jump to freelance work.

Also consider cost of living. Are you able to live on $500 to $600 a month, or do you need the full $1100 that you are currently making?

As someone who is seriously considering leaving a job with a salary in the upper 10% of software developers in my city (over 15x what you are paid), plus benefits and who doesn't, as of yet, generate any side income. I'd say that your "risk" of leaving the job seems very low to me. If I were in your position, it'd be a no-brainer.

I understand this is all relative to your point of view, but just wanted to give you someone else's perspective.

With no generated side income how do you throw off the yolk of that monthly income?

In my case, frugal living (have multiple years of savings as runway) and income from my wife.

I don't have any relevant experience, but I would recommend accumulating a sum of money which will let you live while looking for free-lance for about 6 month.

I saved about a year's worth of living expenses before I quit my job, but I was probably being overly cautious. Just know that there are lean times (and slow-paying clients), so it's advisable to have enough saved to cover those shortfalls.

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