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Ask HN: How do you know you're ready to quit your day job?
This has been puzzling me for a while now and I was hoping HN would be so kind as to provide advice and feedback.
I'd love to quit my day job to pursue working full time on a project I've been working on with a couple of people for more than half a year now, but I don't quite know at what stage that's generally not too crazy of an idea. Obviously if I were to do it right now, I'd be without any income whatsoever, which is a fairly bad idea, even though I don't have any dependents. I imagine I could quit if the seed round was sufficiently beefy, but it's my understanding that most people end up waiting until they have real customers and serious income and then they actually jump ships.
I honestly don't know how long I can continue doing the whole 80 hour weeks for, if half of that is spent on a drudgy dead-end job (I'd honestly be ok with spending that much on my own company), and as I found out it's pretty hard to keep the two separated if so much of your energy is drained by the "secret project". I feel management will eventually catch on to what's going on heh.
Do you have similar experiences to share? Any tips? Any rules of thumb?
- gapanalysis 15y agoBefore you bail put a "business plan" together. How much (how little) do you need to earn to meet your living expenses? What can you do to earn that amount while you work on your project? What skills can you market? To whom? When I left my full time job, I was able to freelance write for tech pubs and blogs, and my partner hacked code in a developer-for-hire position. Look for the kinds of jobs where you can manage your time, schedule and how much you earn.
- BadassFractal 15y agoAre there perhaps well established venues for being hired as a temp/contractor on existing projects? Some reputable site perhaps that gets you in touch with people in need of specific expertise?
- gapanalysis 15y agoI honestly didn't use venues of this kind. I was fortunate to have some folks contact me. There are publishers who look for authors for book chapters. I found these to be too much work for too little compensation. I don't know if ifreelance.com or similar sites (search "freelance tech writer") are reliable but you have some time to research perhaps?
- plasma 15y agoCan you take several months leave from work (even if its unpaid)? It's something I'm doing soon.
- BadassFractal 15y agoAre you saying you'll not officially quit your job, but instead announce a several months leave hoping you can score an outside opportunity in the meantime, and still have a plan B in case you tank?
- prawn 15y agoI think they meant just Plan B (return to the original job if the startup thing fails). You'd probably want some cash reserves to keep you afloat during that period of leave.
- plasma 15y agoI'm actually taking time off to try and sort some parts of my life out, not to work on a side project.
- gexla 15y agoThe rule of thumb for starting any business is that ideally you would have enough personal funds socked away to be able to live for 6 months.
- BadassFractal 15y agoWhat are you trying to reach though during those 6 months? Are you waiting for some sort of investment or are you waiting for actual revenue?
- prawn 15y agoObviously you're ready to make the move save for the financial situation. I'm not sure if this is good advice because I've just thought of it and figured I'd suggest it, but what about getting a basic job that pays your essential bills/food away from technology. I imagine that many people freelance or shift to part-time and the line between that work and their start-up is blurred meaning that neither really gets full focus. What if you found a job away from a computer? I know most of those wouldn't pay exceptionally well, but perhaps that separation would help? You'd come home from a bar or gallery and step into your startup space to get working. Are there any fairly-available non-tech jobs in your location that pay reasonably well?
- BadassFractal 15y agoThat's a very interesting perspective! I've actually not had non-tech jobs so far and so I haven't even remotely considered doing something that doesn't involve software... In fact I don't think I've ever asked myself the question of whether I'd be able to make above minimum wage doing anything but software!
- prawn 15y agoI haven't worked outside web in 15 years so no idea what the landscape is like and I don't know what your living costs are like either, but thought it might put a different perspective out there. Of course, if hospitality is paying $10/hr and you can get a near-endless supply of freelance work at $100/hr, it's hard to ignore but like I said, you might be constantly battling that temptation to take the immediate money rather than go cold turkey and work on the startup.