Side business is growing - when do you quit your day job?

http://www.examiner.com/x-3040-Life-in-the-Cubicle-Examiner~y2009m7d12-Dear-Dudley-Should-I-quit-my-day-job-after-starting-my-own-business

by CubeGuy • 17 years ago

23 15 17 years ago

examiner.com

ori_b• 17 years ago

Good advice - Burn all the bridges you can, and then go off to work on a project that has a mediocre chance of success.

Sorry, but if you follow the advice in this article, you are an asshole.

Retric2• 17 years ago

It's ok to quietly burn some bridges. Most of what was said was "unethical" but you can go far without being that bad.

Let's say you are talented, make 80 to 100k, work a 60 hour week most weeks, and work as a low to mid level drone at 5,000+ person company. Chances are you can work 40 hours a week for 6 months without getting fired. You are not going to get a significant promotion or pay raise any time soon, but that's fine if you have other goals. And you might find you can do this for several years.

Not enough? Let's say you have 2 weeks of vacation and take one day a week off for 10 weeks, in 10 weeks you will have earned a few extra days, so you can probably do that for ~3 months. If they let you move some hours around you might be able to do that for longer. You might try 4 * 9 + 4 hours of vacation for something like 6 months.

PS: Performing as well as the average office drone takes a lot less effort than you might expect. I would avoid working on you startup while at work, or sleeping at work. But, plenty of people pay their bills or check personal email and do other things that give them more free time at home.

nixme2• 17 years ago

Folks, this is supposed to be satire. Everyone's taking this advice seriously again. See my previous comment from an earlier Dudely article: http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=671618

This is equivalent to getting worked up over an Onion story.

wyday• 17 years ago

Satire is supposed to have wit. Plus, the "angry slacker" humor has been done many times (and better in every instance). This guy's writing is like a much less funny photocopy of Maddox.

I can see tripe like this being on Digg, but why is this on hacker news?

edw519• 17 years ago

"We sit in miserable offices where we are under appreciated, our skills are misused or ignored, and our passion for life deteriorates quickly. Why? Because we are risk-averse people that need to be assured we have the money to pay for our monthly bills. In return, our souls are sucked."

How can an article that cuts to the essence so well give such bad advice. I have tried all 4 strategies and they don't work.

"1. Stop caring."

Bad idea for anything. I have to care about what I spend time on. That's probably what makes me want to do my startup in the first place. Not caring about work is contagious. Next thing you know, you won't care about anything.

"2. Build up vacation."

This takes too long. Even if you only have 1 or 2 weeks to "plunge" into your startup, you never get enough done. Vacation should be for vacation, not your startup.

"3. Make a suggestion that HR should implement temporary paid leave for employees."

This is just stupid. If I'm not getting paid, why would I want to do this. Just quit and get another job later if you have to.

"4. Try to get laid off."

This is the same as #1 and just as stupid. Even if it works, $200 per week != $1000 per week.

My best strategy: Code every day. 5 minutes, 6 hours, doesn't matter. Just keep the damn thing moving forward every day until it's time to quit, then quit. It's worked for me before. It'll work again.

Retric2• 17 years ago

I don't know about your state but in Virgina uemployment caps at 378$ a week. Legaly you are not allowed to work. Still, that can go a long way and you can move to a cheeper cost of living area.

kaiserama• 17 years ago

Maybe the author himself has a side business that's becoming successful and is thus following his 4th rule ;)

CubeGuy2• 17 years ago

Bingo bango.

Edinburger• 17 years ago

"3. Make a suggestion that HR should implement temporary paid leave for employees."

Enlightened companies may allow you to take unpaid leave for a few months. Yes, you'll need some savings to get through the period but at least you (hopefully) will have a job at the end of the period if it isn't working out.

euroclydon2• 17 years ago

Flagged: This guy just advocates lying and underhanded practices in his column. I think it's just blog-trolling.

If it's supposed to be funny, I find the humor very elusive.

Here is another post from a couple of weeks ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=678861

CubeGuy2• 17 years ago

Flagged because you lack similar sense of humor? Wasn't aware that was a reason to flag.

http://twitter.com/360JobInterview http://twitter.com/truebusiness

Those two organizations who are serious businesses seem to have no problem finding the humor.

euroclydon2• 17 years ago

Oh, so it is humor! Most everybody here just thinks it is terrible advice. I'll remove the flag.

itodd• 17 years ago

I'm in this very same position. I'm taking another approach. I plan to propose that I go from employee to contractor. I was disappointed this option wasn't discussed, but not surprised. It's risky, yes. But it's a lot better than being an asshole.

Kirby• 17 years ago

Terrible advice!

Also, if your side-job is at _all_ related to your main job, be very careful, and lean towards quitting sooner rather than later. Talk to a lawyer to make sure you'll actually own your side-work and get your documents in order.

Figure out a realistic assessment on how cheap you can actually live. This will be different for different folks. Examine your savings. See if you can get some Angel Investments (know any rich people you can convince that your idea is good?) This analysis will tell you how long you have until you need to find another job for someone else and give up. I'd be scared if this number came up as less than a year.

If it is a money-making idea, and you can get some angel money (or VC, or have a nice nest-egg), don't hesitate to hire people with the skills you don't. Particularly sales, marketing, and CEO. Geeks think we can fake these, and I've faked sales better than a salesman can fake code, but it was a mistake.

If you can do the math, see that you've given yourself enough time to develop a product and give it a chance in the marketplace, can hire the key personnel and afford them, have an actual business plan - go for it! Especially if you're under 30. The downside to a failed startup is actually rather small, and I've found people like it that I've founded a company on my resume, even if it didn't succeed. And if you create something people will actually pay for, hey, congrats!

Side business is growing - when do you quit your day job?

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