What are some indicators that you are ready to quit your 9-5 job?

[raad182]

I've been facing some FTEs and Its starting to get more frequent as I get older but I only have a 6-month emergency fund and no 2nd source of income.
I'm a little concerned about quitting before I should, so what are some green lights?
I know that there is no guarantee but I guess that some more experienced folks could help me with this.
I've always tried to kept my expenses as low as possible and avoided to start a family but I don't want to quit and a few months later get back to the rats race.
Again I know that there is no guarantee but Im trying to manage the risk.

 

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[RazorCut]

Do you have a Fastlane project under way or in the pipeline? If not then you might want to hold your horses.

I created my own FTE a few months back (I effectively sacked myself as I owned the business). But that was because I had been holding back on building the business I really wanted because I was enjoying doing what I was doing too much. Being comfortable can be such a b$%^ard.

I've been running on savings since and they don't last that long when you are spending to build something new as well as pay the bills and provide for a family.

My advice would be if you don't already have a Fastlane project in the works (that you know will turn a profit within your financial timescale) then make sure you have a fall back hustle to bring some income in if need be.

If you don't then maybe now is not the time.

However there is nothing better than a looming deadline of a zero bank balance to focus the mind. Hunger can prove a useful incentive.

 

[ZCP]

This is a spot where I thougtt 4HWW nailed it ...... be more important and productive at work than your have EVER been. Be the key ingredient and most important person there. While automating what you do and growing your fastlane business. When the fastlane business is about to explode (and paying all the bills) and the 9 to 5 is killing you / keeping you from doing it, very nicely pull the plug while not burning bridges.

 

[Timmy C]

This is something I have been thinking about alot myself I guess I'll just go by gut feeling.

I still feel like such a noob though.

 

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[JAJT]

what are some green lights?

The only guaranteed green light is owning a business that produces enough profit that BOTH fully supports it's own continued growth AND provides a salary for the owner (you).

I quit my job when I had a successful business. It killed the business because I had to live on the profits and had nothing left to re-invest. I'd buy 1000 units, sell 1000 units, and only have enough money left to buy another 1000 units because all the profit went to my bills.

If I wanted more units so that I could stop selling out so fast - I paid for it with debt.
If I wanted a new sku to expand the line - I paid for it with debt.
If I wanted to pay for advertising - I paid for it with debt.
If I needed a website, product photos, or other "business expense" type items - I paid for it with debt.

You can't run a business like this. Sounds obvious (because it is) but it's VERY EASY to forget this when you have thousands of dollars hitting your bank account every couple of weeks, positive reviews are pouring in, people love you, and you feel on top of the world.

I can genuinely say that if I kept my job and paid the bills with it, and reinvested anything leftover into the business along with the business profits I'd be in a far, far better place right now.

Some people quit their job and strike gold with their businesses before the cash runs out but this is not a normal result.

 

[fvcorp]

I was on pace for $170,000 in 2017 - 9-5 Career

I made negative $40,000 in 2018 while building value for customers for free - Fastlane

If this seems logical to you, then you’re ready to quit.

 

[Timmy C]

I was on pace for $170,000 in 2017 - 9-5 Career

I made negative $40,000 in 2018 while building value for customers for free - Fastlane

If this seems logical to you, then you’re ready to quit.

Well not everyone will spend $40,000 providing value for free to get in a positive position so there is that.

 

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[Bekit]

I've been facing some FTEs and Its starting to get more frequent as I get older but I only have a 6-month emergency fund and no 2nd source of income.
I'm a little concerned about quitting before I should, so what are some green lights?
I know that there is no guarantee but I guess that some more experienced folks could help me with this.
I've always tried to kept my expenses as low as possible and avoided to start a family but I don't want to quit and a few months later get back to the rats race.
Again I know that there is no guarantee but Im trying to manage the risk.

In 2016, I went through a failed version of this experiment.

I had a runway of about 6 months in savings.

I had some legitimate business skills and knowledge that I believed I could monetize.

I set a hard deadline where if I wasn't making money in 3 months, I would have to look for a job.

I thought that the looming spectre of disaster would be leverage to get me motivated. "I'm going to be homeless and starving if this doesn't work, so I'd better get moving." But it didn't work.

At the end of it all, I didn't make money and I had to look for another job to get me ramped back up.

What caused it to fail? (Consider these as "red lights" if you're in the same boat, or consider them as potential "green lights" if you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you already embody the exact opposite of the things on this list. Already is the key here; don't kid yourself that you'll fulfill your best intentions at being the ideal version of yourself. Prove it now by being that way consistently already, and THEN go ahead and quit your job.)

• I was unfocused. I had a bunch of things that I could do, that were on the cusp of being viable money-earners, but I kept thinking of other things that I could do. "Maybe I should create an app that does X. Maybe I should learn app development so that I can create it myself. Maybe I should publish my book. Maybe I should create an online course to teach X." In the end, I spent my time and energy dabbling in little things rather than committing to ONE item with laser focus until it paid off.
• I didn't ruthlessly guard my "work time" against intruders. There I was, in an IDEAL work environment - alone in the house for 3 months with nothing to interrupt me... but interruptions gobbled up my time anyway. I went to Utah to explore national parks with my brother. I took a road trip to see my sister and stay for a week. I accepted too many invitations to coffee with different people. I spent too much time being a consumer and not a producer, taking multiple online courses from the Shaw Academy and other places. Learning mode is SO much more fun and interesting than execution mode. So I was essentially action faking, and when I look back, the number of hours spent on my most important work ended up being very few.
• I wasn't good at project management. Instead of starting with a solid plan of precisely what I wanted to accomplish, broken down into realistic, achievable milestones, I spent my time "flying by the seat of my pants," guessing at what I should do next, and taking a stab in the dark every time.
• I didn't have any accountability. At the beginning, I was a productivity beast, getting up early every day, hitting the gym consistently, and feeling like I was on top of the world. But I didn't have any leverage beyond that. I was the only one I had to answer to. And that's dangerous. I didn't handle it well. I ended up erring on the side of indulging myself rather than holding myself to a high standard of execution. "Oh, you need more sleep? OK." "Oh, you need to take a break? OK." "Oh, you want to learn this fascinating thing and go down this rabbit trail that is totally irrelevant to your overall direction? OK." It was "sure, go ahead" anytime I wanted to indulge myself, and it was "nah" every time it was going to cost me something. Bad recipe.

Green lights I would look for:

You have a solid income plan for when you quit your job. You have a product or service that you know people will buy from you. It's already making some money. The only thing that's holding it up is the amount of time you can invest in it. If you invested 8 hours a day in your side gig instead of your main gig, your income would explode. You have a proof of concept that this is true, not just a guess.

You are productive and focused. You're diligent and determined. You don't indulge yourself like I did when given the choice. You stay the course that you've defined for yourself, making any sacrifices necessary to get there.

You have a viable business plan, not a pipe dream, not wishful thinking, not a "hopeful scenario." You are confident that if you execute your plan, it will pay off. You've looked at the contingencies, overcome the objections, and realistically planned for the unexpected. Other people have vetted your plan and think that it's solid and viable, not just you.

You have at least some project management skills. You're good at breaking a big task down into milestones, and then hitting those milestones. You're great at hitting deadlines.

You've identified any personal weaknesses that tend to plague you, and you've gotten a reasonable amount of wins in those areas, so you're confident they won't derail you.

You are accountable. You've implemented an external source of leverage that can get you back on track if you start to stray off course. You have enough respect for your accountability partner that you'll actually DO what they say instead of shrugging it off. You've created something that makes sure that you're not just accountable to yourself. They have leverage over you so that when your own leverage over yourself is insufficient, you still go the right direction anyway.

 

[srodrigo]

In 2016, I went through a failed version of this experiment.

I had a runway of about 6 months in savings.

I had some legitimate business skills and knowledge that I believed I could monetize.

I set a hard deadline where if I wasn't making money in 3 months, I would have to look for a job.

I thought that the looming spectre of disaster would be leverage to get me motivated. "I'm going to be homeless and starving if this doesn't work, so I'd better get moving." But it didn't work.

At the end of it all, I didn't make money and I had to look for another job to get me ramped back up.

What caused it to fail? (Consider these as "red lights" if you're in the same boat, or consider them as potential "green lights" if you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you already embody the exact opposite of the things on this list. Already is the key here; don't kid yourself that you'll fulfill your best intentions at being the ideal version of yourself. Prove it now by being that way consistently already, and THEN go ahead and quit your job.)

• I was unfocused. I had a bunch of things that I could do, that were on the cusp of being viable money-earners, but I kept thinking of other things that I could do. "Maybe I should create an app that does X. Maybe I should learn app development so that I can create it myself. Maybe I should publish my book. Maybe I should create an online course to teach X." In the end, I spent my time and energy dabbling in little things rather than committing to ONE item with laser focus until it paid off.
• I didn't ruthlessly guard my "work time" against intruders. There I was, in an IDEAL work environment - alone in the house for 3 months with nothing to interrupt me... but interruptions gobbled up my time anyway. I went to Utah to explore national parks with my brother. I took a road trip to see my sister and stay for a week. I accepted too many invitations to coffee with different people. I spent too much time being a consumer and not a producer, taking multiple online courses from the Shaw Academy and other places. Learning mode is SO much more fun and interesting than execution mode. So I was essentially action faking, and when I look back, the number of hours spent on my most important work ended up being very few.
• I wasn't good at project management. Instead of starting with a solid plan of precisely what I wanted to accomplish, broken down into realistic, achievable milestones, I spent my time "flying by the seat of my pants," guessing at what I should do next, and taking a stab in the dark every time.
• I didn't have any accountability. At the beginning, I was a productivity beast, getting up early every day, hitting the gym consistently, and feeling like I was on top of the world. But I didn't have any leverage beyond that. I was the only one I had to answer to. And that's dangerous. I didn't handle it well. I ended up erring on the side of indulging myself rather than holding myself to a high standard of execution. "Oh, you need more sleep? OK." "Oh, you need to take a break? OK." "Oh, you want to learn this fascinating thing and go down this rabbit trail that is totally irrelevant to your overall direction? OK." It was "sure, go ahead" anytime I wanted to indulge myself, and it was "nah" every time it was going to cost me something. Bad recipe.

Green lights I would look for:

You have a solid backup plan. You have a product that you know people will buy from you. It's already making some money. The only thing that's holding it up is the amount of time you can invest in it. If you invested 8 hours a day in your side gig instead of your main gig, your income would explode. You have a proof of concept that this is true, not just a guess.

You are productive and focused. You're diligent and determined. You don't indulge yourself like I did when given the choice. You stay the course that you've defined for yourself, making any sacrifices necessary to get there.

You have a viable business plan, not a pipe dream, not wishful thinking, not a "hopeful scenario." You are confident that if you execute your plan, it will pay off. You've looked at the contingencies, overcome the objections, and realistically planned for the unexpected. Other people have vetted your plan and think that it's solid and viable, not just you.

You have at least some project management skills. You're good at breaking a big task down into milestones, and then hitting those milestones. You're great at hitting deadlines.

You've identified any personal weaknesses that tend to plague you, and you've gotten a reasonable amount of wins in those areas, so you're confident they won't derail you.

This is *really* great advice. Make sure you follow it.

Currently suffering from 2 of the red flags mentioned: the unfocused problem (a.k.a. Shinny object syndrome), and partially from burn out after working non-stop with almost no breaks or freeing myself from the "guilt" of not working and learning all the time. Believe me, that's not fun and can kill you and your entrepreneurship.

 

[raad182]

In 2016, I went through a failed version of this experiment.

I had a runway of about 6 months in savings.

I had some legitimate business skills and knowledge that I believed I could monetize.

I set a hard deadline where if I wasn't making money in 3 months, I would have to look for a job.

I thought that the looming spectre of disaster would be leverage to get me motivated. "I'm going to be homeless and starving if this doesn't work, so I'd better get moving." But it didn't work.

At the end of it all, I didn't make money and I had to look for another job to get me ramped back up.

What caused it to fail? (Consider these as "red lights" if you're in the same boat, or consider them as potential "green lights" if you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you already embody the exact opposite of the things on this list. Already is the key here; don't kid yourself that you'll fulfill your best intentions at being the ideal version of yourself. Prove it now by being that way consistently already, and THEN go ahead and quit your job.)

• I was unfocused. I had a bunch of things that I could do, that were on the cusp of being viable money-earners, but I kept thinking of other things that I could do. "Maybe I should create an app that does X. Maybe I should learn app development so that I can create it myself. Maybe I should publish my book. Maybe I should create an online course to teach X." In the end, I spent my time and energy dabbling in little things rather than committing to ONE item with laser focus until it paid off.
• I didn't ruthlessly guard my "work time" against intruders. There I was, in an IDEAL work environment - alone in the house for 3 months with nothing to interrupt me... but interruptions gobbled up my time anyway. I went to Utah to explore national parks with my brother. I took a road trip to see my sister and stay for a week. I accepted too many invitations to coffee with different people. I spent too much time being a consumer and not a producer, taking multiple online courses from the Shaw Academy and other places. Learning mode is SO much more fun and interesting than execution mode. So I was essentially action faking, and when I look back, the number of hours spent on my most important work ended up being very few.
• I wasn't good at project management. Instead of starting with a solid plan of precisely what I wanted to accomplish, broken down into realistic, achievable milestones, I spent my time "flying by the seat of my pants," guessing at what I should do next, and taking a stab in the dark every time.
• I didn't have any accountability. At the beginning, I was a productivity beast, getting up early every day, hitting the gym consistently, and feeling like I was on top of the world. But I didn't have any leverage beyond that. I was the only one I had to answer to. And that's dangerous. I didn't handle it well. I ended up erring on the side of indulging myself rather than holding myself to a high standard of execution. "Oh, you need more sleep? OK." "Oh, you need to take a break? OK." "Oh, you want to learn this fascinating thing and go down this rabbit trail that is totally irrelevant to your overall direction? OK." It was "sure, go ahead" anytime I wanted to indulge myself, and it was "nah" every time it was going to cost me something. Bad recipe.

Green lights I would look for:

You have a solid income plan for when you quit your job. You have a product or service that you know people will buy from you. It's already making some money. The only thing that's holding it up is the amount of time you can invest in it. If you invested 8 hours a day in your side gig instead of your main gig, your income would explode. You have a proof of concept that this is true, not just a guess.

You are productive and focused. You're diligent and determined. You don't indulge yourself like I did when given the choice. You stay the course that you've defined for yourself, making any sacrifices necessary to get there.

You have a viable business plan, not a pipe dream, not wishful thinking, not a "hopeful scenario." You are confident that if you execute your plan, it will pay off. You've looked at the contingencies, overcome the objections, and realistically planned for the unexpected. Other people have vetted your plan and think that it's solid and viable, not just you.

You have at least some project management skills. You're good at breaking a big task down into milestones, and then hitting those milestones. You're great at hitting deadlines.

You've identified any personal weaknesses that tend to plague you, and you've gotten a reasonable amount of wins in those areas, so you're confident they won't derail you.

You are accountable. You've implemented an external source of leverage that can get you back on track if you start to stray off course. You have enough respect for your accountability partner that you'll actually DO what they say instead of shrugging it off. You've created something that makes sure that you're not just accountable to yourself. They have leverage over you so that when your own leverage over yourself is insufficient, you still go the right direction anyway.

Thanks for this answer!

The 1st red light turned on...I already knew that Im not ready right now but I will save this list for later consultation when I had any doubt about.

Really thanks...Sorry to give an direct reply without elaboration but I just invested the whole day reading the Unscripted and my mind is freaking tired now.

 

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