To Side Hustle or Not

[ScottRams]

Everyone,

Looking for a bit of advice. I'm at a turning point in my career and potentially my life.

I'm a mid-level level manager in a publicly traded, global company. I don't hate what I do. But the stress is high and I don't have much time with my kids. My dream is to run a business (any type of business) that will allow me to separate my time from money and offer more freedom in my daily choices (I've recently finished Unscripted ).

A couple of perks about my job - the salary is pretty good and they're going to pay for my college. I'm one of the few people in my Organization who do NOT have a college degree and I just discovered that my employer is willing to pay for anything business related. This is basically an additional $30,000 on top of my normal salary.. hard to pass up.

Anyways, here are the options as I see them:

1. Continue working and climbing the corporate ladder. Pursue college classes on the side (BBA). The four years that this takes will sharpen my skills and knowledge, allowing me to be a more effective entrepreneur once completed.

2. Instead of spending time completing college classes, put my time and money into a side hustle with the hopes of growing this into a full time, scalable business (B2C, residential service based).

What course of action would you take? It's hard to turn down free money in the form of education.. but my fear is that as my kids grow, my lifestyle and financial obligations will grow as well. It may be much harder in the future to take a step down financially.

Thanks in advance for your input!

 

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[ChrisGav]

Everyone,

Looking for a bit of advice. I'm at a turning point in my career and potentially my life.

I'm a mid-level level manager in a publicly traded, global company. I don't hate what I do. But the stress is high and I don't have much time with my kids. My dream is to run a business (any type of business) that will allow me to separate my time from money and offer more freedom in my daily choices (I've recently finished Unscripted ).

A couple of perks about my job - the salary is pretty good and they're going to pay for my college. I'm one of the few people in my Organization who do NOT have a college degree and I just discovered that my employer is willing to pay for anything business related. This is basically an additional $30,000 on top of my normal salary.. hard to pass up.

Anyways, here are the options as I see them:

1. Continue working and climbing the corporate ladder. Pursue college classes on the side (BBA). The four years that this takes will sharpen my skills and knowledge, allowing me to be a more effective entrepreneur once completed.

2. Instead of spending time completing college classes, put my time and money into a side hustle with the hopes of growing this into a full time, scalable business (B2C, residential service based).

What course of action would you take? It's hard to turn down free money in the form of education.. but my fear is that as my kids grow, my lifestyle and financial obligations will grow as well. It may be much harder in the future to take a step down financially.

Thanks in advance for your input!

Personally, I don't believe a college degree does much in terms of entrepreneurship. Traditionally, it is a piece of paper you get to help you get a job.

Not to say you shouldn't pursue it. As I don't think that's anyone's place on this forum to make that call for you. However, I would not restrict myself to waiting for a college degree, as I personally don't think it offers very much in terms of entrepreneurship.

 

[drpeppehr]

What do you really want to do? Think about that first. What degree are you currently pursuing? Since the degree is free, and if you enjoy working there, then get the degree. Use your spare time to start your business.

 

[benuck621]

Everyone,

Looking for a bit of advice. I'm at a turning point in my career and potentially my life.

I'm a mid-level level manager in a publicly traded, global company. I don't hate what I do. But the stress is high and I don't have much time with my kids. My dream is to run a business (any type of business) that will allow me to separate my time from money and offer more freedom in my daily choices (I've recently finished Unscripted ).

A couple of perks about my job - the salary is pretty good and they're going to pay for my college. I'm one of the few people in my Organization who do NOT have a college degree and I just discovered that my employer is willing to pay for anything business related. This is basically an additional $30,000 on top of my normal salary.. hard to pass up.

Anyways, here are the options as I see them:

1. Continue working and climbing the corporate ladder. Pursue college classes on the side (BBA). The fIour years that this takes will sharpen my skills and knowledge, allowing me to be a more effective entrepreneur once completed.

2. Instead of spending time completing college classes, put my time and money into a side hustle with the hopes of growing this into a full time, scalable business (B2C, residential service based).

What course of action would you take? It's hard to turn down free money in the form of education.. but my fear is that as my kids grow, my lifestyle and financial obligations will grow as well. It may be much harder in the future to take a step down financially.

Thanks in advance for your input!

Its all about the idea, if you already have a scalable idea that meets CENTS and is ready to act on. No don't waste your time in school that you will probably drop out of.... Start now.

If you are waiting for that brilliant idea to come to you just because you liked MJ's book and the idea of saying FU to your boss then you could probably learn something from a few courses relevant to business.

I struggled with that for along time, I felt like I was missing out on getting a better JOB without the "paper" , but as I dived into as many books as I could get my hands on. I got the better job and started outperforming my peers with the degree.

Personal development is about the person not how it looks to the outside. Listen to the crowd because the crowd wants you to be like them. Lead the crowd and crowd becomes like you......

 

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[minivanman]

Here is how I make most of my decisions...... I use a calculator. Why? Because a calculator does not talk and always gives the correct answer if you type in the correct numbers. So let's take your 'free' money. Going to school for 48 months and you get $30,000 'FREE'! So what you are saying is, your side hustle couldn't make a minimum $625 a month or $144 a week? If it couldn't, I'd say go to college because $625 probably isn't going to make a big difference in your life anyway and if you can't make very much money at your side hustle, there is no way it could become your full time hustle...... for someone else reading this in the future, $625 a month might make a difference in YOUR life, just not the OP's life. Personally, I'd be looking at it this way.... look at how much money I'm losing by going to school for 48 months. But that is just me, some might not look at it that way.

So what are you thinking for a side hustle that would turn in to your full time business?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

You might want to look into buying a business with an immediate cash flow.

There's a GOLD thread here about it somewhere...

EDIT - Found it: GOLD! - From 0 To $240,000 Per Year PROFIT In 18 Months

 

[Rabby]

I've almost never used my degrees as credentials. If they did anything for me at all, it was because I learned something in a class. Keep that in mind if you're looking at education. You can probably buy the textbook and read it, and get as much or more out of it than most college students. Is your goal to be paid for having credentials, or to do something that you choose to do?

Everything in entrepreneurship is about experience and application. Discover a concept, and apply it to business. It either works or doesn't. If it works, keep improving on it. If it doesn't abandon it or figure out what went wrong. Live a few years of this, keeping your costs low when you don't know what you're doing yet, and you'll jump ahead of people who think the credential is the important thing.

Outside the official ill-conceived "corporate compensation plan" credentials trend toward useless, and ability is everything.

 

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[Deleted78083]

Hey!

I am a guy who wants to study a third master. I have studied 3 unrelated degrees (communication, political science, business economics) for five years straight now, in three different countries, in two different languages in four different universities (I am a knowledge junkie and too scarred to execute on my ideas which makes a perfect profile for someone to remain a student forever).

University will not teach you entrepreneurship. Now I understand this pressure you have to think that a degree will get you a safety net or even legitimacy, but tbh, I don't believe it will bring you much. It's nice to party, to meet people or my favorite, to mentally masturbate about life questions (and then you study art history, philosophy, or the pinnacle of them all: gender studies) but not to do entrepreneurship. There is a gold thread about this guy who became a software engineer by himself, that's the ultimate proof that uni is far from useful to learn, or to create businesses or even to get a slowlane job. I can advise you to read Richard Branson's biography "losing my virginity". That tells it all. Entrepreneurship is learnt through...actions, not on school benches.

But when you have time and enough money for your whole life after you built your fastlane business, I can only encourage you to go to university and to choose one of these useless disciplines. It doesn't bring any material value, but it does enrich your spirit and soul.

 

[Deleted78083]

Personally, I'd be looking at it this way.... look at how much money I'm losing by going to school for 48 months

Ah. I never thought of it that way actually. That's interesting.