Did you quit a lucrative job without another one?

[jdotspin2018]

Hi everyone -

In a nutshell: I'm 34, MBA, corporate job for 8+ years, driven, motivated, independent, been wanting to start up a career coaching biz for a while now. Getting my website rebranded and will launch in a couple of months. Have about 300K in the bank. I'm slow-laner AF.

I want to quit my job and give myself TIME and SPACE to be creative and put my heart and soul into my new business. I have a solid offer, I am good at what I do, I know enough about online marketing and I have a sales background. But I don't have any revenue yet. I want to quit for my soul. I don't want to just pick up another corporate job to "pay the bills". I want to give this a real shot.

Has anyone else done this? Do you regret it? What things did you learn or wish you did differently? I hear from so many people who say 'don't quit yet'...but those people also tend to be less business savvy than I am, and be living off credit / have low cash reserves.

I'd love to hear your opinions.
Thanks!
JS

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[csalvato]

Hi everyone -

In a nutshell: I'm 34, MBA, corporate job for 8+ years, driven, motivated, independent, been wanting to start up a career coaching biz for a while now. Getting my website rebranded and will launch in a couple of months. Have about 300K in the bank. I'm slow-laner AF.

I want to quit my job and give myself TIME and SPACE to be creative and put my heart and soul into my new business. I have a solid offer, I am good at what I do, I know enough about online marketing and I have a sales background. But I don't have any revenue yet. I want to quit for my soul. I don't want to just pick up another corporate job to "pay the bills". I want to give this a real shot.

Has anyone else done this? Do you regret it? What things did you learn or wish you did differently? I hear from so many people who say 'don't quit yet'...but those people also tend to be less business savvy than I am, and be living off credit / have low cash reserves.

I'd love to hear your opinions.
Thanks!
JS

I've done this twice, under two radically different set of circumstances.

The first time I was 26, single, and moved across the world to be with my girlfriend.

I hated my job, and I was working on side projects but couldn't give myself to them 100% while having a job. So I ended my lease, sold 98% of what I owned, quit, and moved from the US to the UK.

My girlfriend's job was paying the bills, and I had a lot of space to pursue my business. In 24 months, I produced a ton of value, and still have passive income generating from that time. I was able to support myself, save money, and live a location independent lifestyle.

The second time I didn't "quit my job", but sold a business (i.e. steady cash flow) in exchange for a lump sum. I used that sum of cash to start up another business, which is a lot like quitting my job, but also not exactly the same.

The situation this time was very different.

I had moved into a place to support my now-wife, who was pregnant with my first child. I had a huge responsibility to take care of them, with a specific timeline required for success. I was counting the days until I had to get to a certain revenue number to support my growing family, and growing expenses.

I didn't make it in time. And had an extremely stressful 4 months job hunting with my accounts closer to zero than I would have liked.

My lesson: it depends entirely on your situation. If you can keep expenses low and have the mental space to work, it's beautiful. If you have a lifestyle you need to keep up, it's much more difficult, and could be traumatic. (For me, it took 2 years to recover).

Now that I am starting up another business, while having a job, I am juggling the two and finding that to be the best for my particular situation.

 

[ocricci]

Now that I am starting up another business, while having a job, I am juggling the two and finding that to be the best for my particular situation.

I like this format, make sure that your job gives enough space to bootstrap, also having a job removes the immediate stress to make money

 

[Litza]

Hi everyone -

In a nutshell: I'm 34, MBA, corporate job for 8+ years, driven, motivated, independent, been wanting to start up a career coaching biz for a while now. Getting my website rebranded and will launch in a couple of months. Have about 300K in the bank. I'm slow-laner AF.

I want to quit my job and give myself TIME and SPACE to be creative and put my heart and soul into my new business. I have a solid offer, I am good at what I do, I know enough about online marketing and I have a sales background. But I don't have any revenue yet. I want to quit for my soul. I don't want to just pick up another corporate job to "pay the bills". I want to give this a real shot.

Has anyone else done this? Do you regret it? What things did you learn or wish you did differently? I hear from so many people who say 'don't quit yet'...but those people also tend to be less business savvy than I am, and be living off credit / have low cash reserves.

I'd love to hear your opinions.
Thanks!
JS

Hello JS,

I did that before, no big savings for a safety net, and it went well. No regrets. I just followed my heart. That was 9 years ago.

Now I am in a very similar situation: I have a corporate job and I´m starting a new business on the side. From time to time I tell myself I should quit, because the sooner I do it, the sooner I´ll dedicate more time to what I really want. And it´s tough, because I know I have to do a lot of things, but it´s really difficult to have ´two jobs´. I totally understand you and relate when you say ´I want to quit for my soul´.

But another part of me wants to try to wait a bit longer, because even though I believe my idea and I trust that I can make it work, the real proof that things will be like that is when I have the first signs that it´s viable and it sells. For some reason, I´m thinking that validating my business before I quit is the best thing I can do.

Can you hang in there for some months or one year and start selling your services before you quit? Or else: can you ask for a sabbatical in the company that you work? Another idea: can you diminish your hours of work? Can you hire someone to do part of the job while you just manage the business for some months? Well, I´m just brainstorming some ideas...

Whatever you do, best of luck!!! And always follow your heart. Feel free to pvt message me if you want to talk more or share anything else.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Litza]

I've done this twice, under two radically different set of circumstances.

The first time I was 26, single, and moved across the world to be with my girlfriend.

I hated my job, and I was working on side projects but couldn't give myself to them 100% while having a job. So I ended my lease, sold 98% of what I owned, quit, and moved from the US to the UK.

My girlfriend's job was paying the bills, and I had a lot of space to pursue my business. In 24 months, I produced a ton of value, and still have passive income generating from that time. I was able to support myself, save money, and live a location independent lifestyle.

The second time I didn't "quit my job", but sold a business (i.e. steady cash flow) in exchange for a lump sum. I used that sum of cash to start up another business, which is a lot like quitting my job, but also not exactly the same.

The situation this time was very different.

I had moved into a place to support my now-wife, who was pregnant with my first child. I had a huge responsibility to take care of them, with a specific timeline required for success. I was counting the days until I had to get to a certain revenue number to support my growing family, and growing expenses.

I didn't make it in time. And had an extremely stressful 4 months job hunting with my accounts closer to zero than I would have liked.

My lesson: it depends entirely on your situation. If you can keep expenses low and have the mental space to work, it's beautiful. If you have a lifestyle you need to keep up, it's much more difficult, and could be traumatic. (For me, it took 2 years to recover).

Now that I am starting up another business, while having a job, I am juggling the two and finding that to be the best for my particular situation.

Great post, thanks for sharing!

I also think the following: isn´t it ´great´ that things can go wrong in the beginning, as we don´t need the new business to pay the bills? Not having to be stressed when we see money is only being spent is such an advantage. Sales aren´t still paying all expenses? Not a big problem! I think those things can sometimes help the business flow better at a certain extent.

 

[csalvato]

Great post, thanks for sharing!

I also think the following: isn´t it ´great´ that things can go wrong in the beginning, as we don´t need the new business to pay the bills? Not having to be stressed when we see money is only being spent is such an advantage. Sales aren´t still paying all expenses? Not a big problem! I think those things can sometimes help the business flow better at a certain extent.

It's a radically different approach when you aren't depending on it. When you depend on it, it's painful to see all outgoings. When it's an "investment" of some of your spare cash, you're able to be much more objective, imo.

 

[jpanarra]

I'm in a very similar boat as you. Chemistry BS degree hoping to move up with my slowlane, finished my MBA last year, however I don't have a lucrative job despite of my searching for one over an year now. about -300,000 in debt in the bank including my mortgage. I'm 29 atm so maybe there's some time for me to flip the scales in the other direction.

300k is alot of capital to work with. You can start an small service business with employees within a month and optimize modern search engines and turn a profit very quickly.

As for me, feel like I'm stuck in the SCRIPT at the moment. I'm not going to say I regret my descisions because thats the journey I'm making now and hoping to learn and improve as time goes on. I've been working on building a web development business and the time investment I put into it for a year now is just starting to pay off. I'm getting sales over 3k each and If I had captial like yours, I'll be investing my time into people that know Facebook ads/Google Adwords and market whatever you plan on supplying to the world.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.