Dead broke or work and gain capital & experience?

[FeaRxUnLeAsHeD]

Hello Fastlaners,

Since graduating college, I've dealt with a dilemma:

Do I go all in with entrepreneurship as a 23 year old, being dead broke with student loans and a rent bill..

..or do I get that high-paying, flexible job that will provide me the financial capital to do a fastlane business a little faster with start up capital, while keeping expenses covered?

I've seen both scenarios play out. I've had friends couch surf and be dead broke until they finally got that break (500K in funding to help provide a small living salary and scale their business).

I've also seen people go on to make a lot of money in decent career paths, and then pull the plug once they're ready, have enough capital, etc.

Most of the stories I hear about entrepreneurs going all in early on after college are either:
1. not dead broke and have financial stability from their parents
2. Make it as a successful entrepreneur through a long, brutal road of getting punched in the mouth
3. Fail and die along the way (their hopes, dreams, and aspirations die, or they go to a job after repeat failures)

I've weighed the pros and cons and have already chosen a path (work and save capital and work my face off in the off hours) but I'm wondering what others think. It's a dilemma I constantly battle with because working a job means I have way less time.

 

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[AFMKelvin]

Hello Fastlaners,

Since graduating college, I've dealt with a dilemma:

Do I go all in with entrepreneurship as a 23 year old, being dead broke with student loans and a rent bill..

..or do I get that high-paying, flexible job that will provide me the financial capital to do a fastlane business a little faster with start up capital, while keeping expenses covered?

I've seen both scenarios play out. I've had friends couch surf and be dead broke until they finally got that break (500K in funding to help provide a small living salary and scale their business).

I've also seen people go on to make a lot of money in decent career paths, and then pull the plug once they're ready, have enough capital, etc.

Most of the stories I hear about entrepreneurs going all in early on after college are either:
1. not dead broke and have financial stability from their parents
2. Make it as a successful entrepreneur through a long, brutal road of getting punched in the mouth
3. Fail and die along the way (their hopes, dreams, and aspirations die, or they go to a job after repeat failures)

I've weighed the pros and cons and have already chosen a path (work and save capital and work my face off in the off hours) but I'm wondering what others think. It's a dilemma I constantly battle with because working a job means I have way less time.

I've been thinking a lot about this lately too. Stay broke and get the job done or work and get the job done later.

 

[G-Man]

or do I get that high-paying, flexible job that will provide me the financial capital to do a fastlane business a little faster with start up capital,

So, I don't know anything about you, but where does a 23 yr old find a job that's both high paying and flexible? Usually at 23 you're low pay and somebody's bitch for at least 60 hrs a week

I have a 9-5, but if I were 23 with no wife and kids I don't know that I would. Every business I've undertaken requires more time than I've anticipated at first, and a job dominates the most productive part of your day.

Ultimately, this is a significant life choice that nobody can make for you. All of our situations are different.

Good luck!

 

[FeaRxUnLeAsHeD]

I've been thinking a lot about this lately too. Stay broke and get the job done or work and get the job done later.

Not "Get the job done later" - there IS no later. I'm saying "Get the job done slower in the short-term because you have less time, but I think it'll be faster in the long-term because you'll have capital to cover expenses, and capital to inject into your business"

 

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[FeaRxUnLeAsHeD]

So, I don't know anything about you, but where does a 23 yr old find a job that's both high paying and flexible? Usually at 23 you're low pay and somebody's bitch for at least 60 hrs a week

I have a 9-5, but if I were 23 with no wife and kids I don't know that I would. Every business I've undertaken requires more time than I've anticipated at first, and a job dominates the most productive part of your day.

Ultimately, this is a significant life choice that nobody can make for you. All of our situations are different.

Good luck!

Software sales - become efficient, work from home flexibility, if you're good and can meet quota, you can scale back your hours.

 

[G-Man]

Software sales - become efficient, work from home flexibility, if you're good and can meet quota, you can scale back your hours.

So someone will pay you to learn sales and network? Uh..... screw it, let's do it!

 

[FeaRxUnLeAsHeD]

So someone will pay you to learn sales and network? Uh..... screw it, let's do it!

That's what I've been thinking. I have been doing well and working hard, but once I hit a groove after a month or two (I have a pretty fast learning curve), I can scale back my hours and still perform well - and work from home flexibility has been really nice.

I'm going to be making a thread shortly to document my progress on a daily basis because I have some goals mapped out and a strategy behind all this - It's not slowlane as long as the goal / plan isn't slowlane, right?

Basically, I'm leveraging the jobs/experience for a few years to learn and network, save capital, get an FHA loan to live rent-free, and in a couple of years I'll go all in on entrepreneurship and never look back.

 

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[c_morris]

Do I go all in with entrepreneurship as a 23 year old, being dead broke with student loans and a rent bill..

..or do I get that high-paying, flexible job that will provide me the financial capital to do a fastlane business a little faster with start up capital, while keeping expenses covered?

It depends on how large the expense of student loan debt and rent payments are, but I believe it will be extremely difficult to forgo a job and dedicate 100% to your business.

I'm nearly twice your age, and if I could do it all over again, I would work a P/T job to cover expenses and dedicate all free time to the biz. It could be months (or years) before your biz can generate enough revenue to cover your expenses, but the more time you have to invest in it, the sooner it will come.

 

[FeaRxUnLeAsHeD]

It depends on how large the expense of student loan debt and rent payments are, but I believe it will be extremely difficult to forgo a job and dedicate 100% to your business.

I'm nearly twice your age, and if I could do it all over again, I would work a P/T job to cover expenses and dedicate all free time to the biz. It could be months (or years) before your biz can generate enough revenue to cover your expenses, but the more time you have to invest in it, the sooner it will come.

Thanks for the perspective. My ideal scenario that I've always told myself, has been executed in the past - I would do a full time job and become good at it, scale back my hours on the job as I build a business on the side. As the business on the side grows, I scale back my job hours until I eventually leave the job when the business grows to a point that I need more time into it.

I did this with a lawn care business when I was 17-20. It grew too big and I couldn't keep up with the growing accounts, so I quit my retail sales-associate job after scaling back the hours every single month.

My expenses are minimal - but still enough to realize I need cash flow and can't just sit on my butt and not bring in any revenue to pay the bills. I've actually been able to save up a good chunk of change, but I don't think it's the smartest thing to use that as burn-capital to pay rent and bills while trying to start a business.. but who knows, maybe I'm wrong.

I've always thought that if I save a sizable amount of capital, it will make a fastlane business faster to start - that way I have the $$ to buy myself time to work on the business (and not worry about bills) and also marketing capital.

 

[juan917]

Your from MA right? You could get licensed as a realtor and join my team

 

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