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This is great advice. Did you work on your first business part-time while working your last "real job"? I feel like I'm in a similar boat and I'm not sure what

This is great advice. Did you work on your first business part-time while working your last "real job"? I feel like I'm in a similar boat and I'm not sure what to do next. I'm 24 and I work for a great company with really smart people whom over the past two years I've learned from quite a bit, I've always wanted to start a business though, actually in college I did just that to earn money. I created an app development business targeting Windows Phone and was able to build a pretty sizable passive income stream which kept me satisfied throughout college. I'm now debating finding a new job but really what I'd love to do is go back to entrepreneurship, yet on the other side I know how valuable learning from people in the industry actually is. Any advice?

Meekro 8y ago
I started my first business while I was in college, and kept it going on the side while working the real job. After a year at the real job, I decided to leave and focus on the business. What happened to your company from college-- did you shut it down? Sell it? Did it die on its own? I don't think anyone can tell you whether it's the right time for you. Neither decision is permanent, though: If you do leave and it doesn't go well, it shouldn't be hard to go back to your old job or find a new one. "I took a year off, started a business, learned a lot, failed, and now I want a job" should go over well with most employers. If you don't leave, you can spend the next year learning more from your employer while tinkering with your idea on the side -- and then leave next year. As you age, you'll tend to accumulate obligations. Marriage, kids, mortgage, elderly parents/relatives that need care, medical problems of your own -- things like this will make it harder and more risky to quit your job later in life. So if you're going to do it, your 20s are a great time.
- sodafountan 8y ago
  I appreciate the reply, My business kind of evaporated given the ever decreasing market share of Windows Phone. I was able to carve out a pretty nice little niche where I created small apps for Windows Phone in even smaller targeted niche markets where there was usually almost no competition. (I built Workout apps targeting specific exercises, I built small little games that were popular on iPhone and Android but never got ported to Windows Phone, alarm clock apps, I created a piano app that did really well, things like that) given the sparse selection of apps on Windows Phone most of my apps did pretty well with no marketing whatsoever. I tried to pivot to iPhone and Android and saw a bit of success on Android but the business model didn't really translate to those platforms given the oversaturation of the app store, I saw my revenues dwindle down consistently and by the time I landed my first job two years ago my passive income had dropped to about 500 dollars a month, it's now completely gone, nobody uses Windows Phone anymore. I am working on a much bigger app now targeting iPhone and Android, but the app market is tough to penetrate. I guess the only path for me going forward is to either stick with my current job that I know well and put in more work on the app, or look for a new job where I can learn more and earn a bit more but my responsibilities will most likely increase and I'll be forced to learn a new tech stack which can take a toll and could affect my ability to work on the app in off hours, I've been working on the app for about five months now and I really don't want to lose my momentum. Anyway sorry for the rant lol, that's my predicament. I agree I could always go back to the workforce if anything goes awry but I'm not even at that decision yet, it's more a question of how do I allocate my time properly until I become profitable enough to make that decision, and how long do I put off moving my life forward given the uncertainty of the app market.

Meekro 8y ago

I started my first business while I was in college, and kept it going on the side while working the real job. After a year at the real job, I decided to leave and focus on the business. What happened to your company from college-- did you shut it down? Sell it? Did it die on its own? I don't think anyone can tell you whether it's the right time for you. Neither decision is permanent, though: If you do leave and it doesn't go well, it shouldn't be hard to go back to your old job or find a new one. "I took a year off, started a business, learned a lot, failed, and now I want a job" should go over well with most employers. If you don't leave, you can spend the next year learning more from your employer while tinkering with your idea on the side -- and then leave next year. As you age, you'll tend to accumulate obligations. Marriage, kids, mortgage, elderly parents/relatives that need care, medical problems of your own -- things like this will make it harder and more risky to quit your job later in life. So if you're going to do it, your 20s are a great time.

sodafountan 8y ago
I appreciate the reply, My business kind of evaporated given the ever decreasing market share of Windows Phone. I was able to carve out a pretty nice little niche where I created small apps for Windows Phone in even smaller targeted niche markets where there was usually almost no competition. (I built Workout apps targeting specific exercises, I built small little games that were popular on iPhone and Android but never got ported to Windows Phone, alarm clock apps, I created a piano app that did really well, things like that) given the sparse selection of apps on Windows Phone most of my apps did pretty well with no marketing whatsoever. I tried to pivot to iPhone and Android and saw a bit of success on Android but the business model didn't really translate to those platforms given the oversaturation of the app store, I saw my revenues dwindle down consistently and by the time I landed my first job two years ago my passive income had dropped to about 500 dollars a month, it's now completely gone, nobody uses Windows Phone anymore. I am working on a much bigger app now targeting iPhone and Android, but the app market is tough to penetrate. I guess the only path for me going forward is to either stick with my current job that I know well and put in more work on the app, or look for a new job where I can learn more and earn a bit more but my responsibilities will most likely increase and I'll be forced to learn a new tech stack which can take a toll and could affect my ability to work on the app in off hours, I've been working on the app for about five months now and I really don't want to lose my momentum. Anyway sorry for the rant lol, that's my predicament. I agree I could always go back to the workforce if anything goes awry but I'm not even at that decision yet, it's more a question of how do I allocate my time properly until I become profitable enough to make that decision, and how long do I put off moving my life forward given the uncertainty of the app market.