Quick comment, short on time.

It's simple. You have to know how the system is setup.

To succeed in business you have to be in business.

P>S. There's an intense video, two (2) million + views, on Youtube by Trent Dyrsmid called, "The Best Way to

Succeed in Business is to be in Business." Recommend viewing.

From my experience, I think most people will only play at making a business if they have a job. There is no burning need to make more money. It would be nice but if you have a paycheck coming in the lights are going to stay on. Business is tough. It takes some major brass and major commitment to stick to it, earn next to nothing for years sometimes while working way more than average and never being able to switch off.

Most folks aren't capable of generating that kind of horsepower when the cupboard is not bare and nobody is evicting you. Yes the extra money would be nice, but so is taking it easy tonight or chilling out for the weekend. Maybe nicer than the extra cash.

It's kind of like being a little over-weight. Yea, the pants are a little tighter and I don't look as good or feel as good as I want but it's not keeping me up at night. Now if I'm 400 lbs and the doctors tell me if I don't start losing some major weight right now, I'm not going to live another 2 years, I'm going to get very focused on losing weight. Probably.

Just my two cents and more along the lines of a real business type business anyway. But even a youtube business needs to be run like a real business if it has much chance of being successful.

Thank you for this post. I was at my wit's end trying to decide if I should leave my job b/c it is heart wrenching, drone work. I realize the I can leave work at work and pursue something on the side. If I don't like it or it's not successful, then I will still have the job and keep looking until I can solve a problem that will generate enough money to leave.

Maybe it's been said already, but if you really want to quit your job, but don't have a business, or business skills and experience, (like I where I was), a great intermediate step is to quit the job you hate, and work hard to find ANOTHER JOB that you love.

It proves to yourself that you have value in the market, and that anything worthwhile takes a lot of time and work.

Hey Neville,

Man, I know this has nothing to do with the post but Joseph Sugarman would be proud of you. I couldn't help myself. I read the entire thing without stopping. I got sucked in.

OK, to make this comment relevant to the post...

I just want to expand on this sentence: "If you don’t have a job + don’t have a business = Try both."

I think it should be more like "If you don't have a job + don't have a business = get a job + start a business on the side." That way, you can "try both" while mitigating risk. And, there's the bonus of not having to worry about going too far "off course".

Having multiple sources of income is always better than just having one source. So, even if you LOOOVE your job, and it's a GOOD job, I would suggest you try starting a business on the side on that topic/niche/specialty. So if anything happens to the "DREAM JOB", you have a fallback plan.

Many thanks for the great article Neville!

My boss may never guess that he paid me to quit!

Freedom to go anywhere and not be chained to a desk 5 days a week is the dream for most copywriters and Internet marketers.

So many then take the plunge and say "screw you!!" to work long before they ever have anything running for themselves.

For me, I go with the "let my 'real' job fund my passions" path.

Soon enough I'll have everything in place to hand in my notice and I can float away from my desk on a river of cash. Sounds way better than the "plunge" to me.

As humans we are prone to illogical choices, but having the choice to quit the job comes down to life stage, financials and self-assuredness to actually get the job done. I made all the wrong choices, faced everything head first, tripped up over everything and got smacked in the face by the unknown. In my first year there was barely a move I made that could be classified as the right move. My bank balance dwindled and my work rate quadrupled. However my life stage and lack of mouths to feed meant I could roll with the punches and learn the lessons the hard way.

Half way through year two (currently) of my mission and I am a lot smarter with everything I do, more focused, and even work less to get more done. I am a long way from financial freedom but most of the doubts and pains I suffered have eased as I know how to deal with or manage perceived failure. I spend say three months boosting my SEO knowledge only to have an affiliate site that does not make the ROI planned, so I have to accept that I need to return to the Kopy Kourse and learn more about marketing.

If I could do it all again then without a doubt I would have stayed in my job, but I did not and the pain I suffered has accelerated my learning and that is main positive I can offer to anyone who is thinking of leaving a job and perhaps deep down knows that they are not quite ready. If you do jump then you have to have enough capital and be prepared to waste it as much as use it wisely if you are going to blindly barrel you way into a chosen business model. Other than that you just have to wake up everyday and give it all you have got in the tank as nobody else is going to pay the rent when you first 77 great ideas fall flat and you need money for the next one...

Job is soo good, and soo bad !

I love the constant cash, the stability ... and I hate working for someone's else cars and villas.

If you want to be 100% free you gotta have a business.

neville - write something about how to get this side freelancing job.

Freelancing is easy if you over deliver and upsell your clients with integrity.

-Make crib sheets to explain your services

-Create a simple website to showcase services and build trust

-Have a genuine interest in helping the client achieve their goals

 

Freelancing is tough if you have high monthly bills.

 

Fiverr has paid for my SEO software, this course, and currently I use my balance to purchase gigs rather than it being my sole income. Good writers are in demand on Fiverr and $5 for 500 words opens a relationship with the client. I made up cheat sheets for keyword explanations and advised the client how to use keywords, often in live chat at random times and constantly back and forth with messages. Time consuming.

After explaining keywords in detail the client would often request a custom offer as the price was only $5. From here I would introduce the client to aspects of their website that could be improved easily such as using keywords on alt tags for images. I would explain to the client why they should do it, I would send a screen cast showing them how to do. I offered a price to complete the work based on labour rather than confusing them and scaring them. Once inside the website and you continue to instruct clients how to fix the issues or offer to do the labour. Of course if content is your game then you can advise on increased length and specialist pieces, once you have a few ongoing writing gigs you put the price of your micro-job site gigs up so the gigs slow down but the ones coming through paying more. There is a huge number of clients who after purchasing your work once want more material. I should say I had moved to Asia so my rent was $300 a month and $500 a month was my first target.

I had enough cash to not work but the grind of Fiverr or your chosen site was an instant taste of running a business and managing my time, accounts...blah blah. This was the acid test.

The rational brain would advise building up these clients before piling on the pressure of having to find rent but freelancing quickly became a full time role that took me to the next step.

What a great post! I've been working in a Marketing dept for 10 years. It's pretty cushy - I don't have a boss who is busting my balls (in fact, I know I get an easy ride from him - very little pressure EVER), I enjoy a good wage (for my skills and my location), I get on and enjoy the company of around 95% of my colleagues. Sounds pretty sweet, right? Why would I want to drop all that to go freelance copywriting??

Because I can't FREAKING stand it there! There's too much BS from above, decisions take an age to be made, the ethos of the company is archaic, the IT & software infrastructure is shockingly poor, there are people in my office that I can't STAND and are real slackers.

My decision to 'start a business' was easy. I've been copywriting for 2-3 years and have been earning £££ for the last year on the side. I want to do it. I love it.

Easy decision to quit for me. I'm working out my notice right now and when it's made public to my colleagues, they will be shocked - they all thought I was a lifer! No Siree Bob!

Gold.

Ian - thank you for you valuable tips.

I read your comment 3 times and saved it to read more and more!

Thanks for such a great post! I've been pondering this very conundrum for the past year or so myself. I've been steadily moving my way up the corporate ladder and doing quite well for myself, always managing to escape the layoffs that periodically happen. But, ultimately, I don't want my financial future to be at the mercy of someone else's whims. I realized that I needed to beef up my technical skills in a few areas and have gone out to do that. I'm just about done and almost ready to start my "side business." I can't wait to get started on this new adventure!

Hey Arnie, so glad that was helpful to you.

I think it's quite risky to actually just leave your primary source of income (just like Leo said) until you have something ALREADY GOING on the side.

A good quote to follow is: "Don't jump ship until there's another ship nearby to swim to."

I agree and disagree Nancy. I agree that it's best to keep the job and work on the side, I disagree that there's a less than 1% chance. I actually know a lot of people who've successfully transitioned out of a job.

I think if you're DETERMINED and working hard on it, you have more than a 1% chance. I think the reason so many people fail at it is because they try one tiny thing, fail, then get discouraged and think they can never do it.

Almost everyone I know that transitioned out of a job to their own business took several first/second/third attempts before finally striking something that worked.

What's wrong with consulting?? It's awesome!

It might be in the same field as you're currently in, BUT it teaches you how to run your own business, get clients, manage them, bill them etc.

You also get to write a bunch of expenses off. I would say keep doing your consulting and learning as your first "side business" and then start experimenting with other things too. It takes MORE THAN ONE ATTEMPT to strike something big!

Keep going Spencer :)

James, I think you're in the ideal spot.

Milk that job long as you can.

Hell, at some point you might even tell them you need to cut back your hours or increase your pay. Since you're not reliant on them (at least TOTALLY RELIANT) for income, you'll have a stronger backbone when negotiating.

I think "passion" is bullshit. "Passion" is whatever you're really good at and like. You might not know what your passion is yet, and most people pursue it their whole life.

You have to make profit first, but you can "shape" the business to your passion.

If you really love building wells for poor people in Africa, then you can have a marketing business or whatever that throws off profit, and focus the company on building a well for each new client.

It's always possible to work on your passion AND make a profit.

Michael that is awesome, that is a worthy comment for a prize :)

I totally agree that YES as a business owner you get all the benefits of the business, but you also get all the crap jobs too. That part is rarely talked about or shown.

A really rich guy once told me: "My first $50,000 was harder to get than my last $5,000,000."

I always remembered that (although forgot who told it to me in college). Great job Michael!!

I agree Chris!

I cut out this entire part of the post (it got a little too long) about how if your job is cool, the people are cool, and you get great pay/benefits.....then WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO START A BUSINESS?

People start businesses because they want all of those things above. At least with a great job you have almost zero downside, whereas a business owner has possibly 100% of it.

Depending on where you are in life (18yrs old vs. 60 yrs old for example) your choice could be different, but I know a lot of people who get treated super well at their jobs and would never quit them, even if they have a good side business.

My buddy Steve (http://mywifequitherjob.com) has a thriving side business making a lot of money, and he STILL goes to work everyday because it gives him stable income, cool people, good workplace etc.

Thanks Chris!

P.S. I like the simplicity of your website/copy.

Thanks Danny, appreciate the feedback.

I look at it in a purely financial way, if you're making a great side income, it's more ok to quit your day job.

Or if your day job is REALLY good, sometimes there may be no reason to quit ever!

Great comment Nick! Worthy of a prize almost :-P

The last 10 years have definitely pimped this idea that college degrees suck, which is true to an EXTENT, but all the other skills college prepares you for is not mentioned.

I think the best route is to get a degree --> Get a good job --> Learn from job --> Make money from job --> Start a biz on the side.

That seems like a logical (and actually very safe) route to take.

Thanks Nick!!

Hahah....that was actually one of the main reasons I wrote it, I just get the question (via email) a lot, so this is a great thing to just send people to.

If you don't mind, I might actually use a snippet of your comment in the post itself!

Yeah, there's a lot of emphasis of quitting a job and traveling and doing no work. Those people come back to reality VERY quickly.

I've seen many people with jobs that treat them great, pay them great, and get to work on cool things. They often end up making FAR more take-home-money than other entrepreneurs I know.

Great advice Will.

I think a lot of people can actually "work on their passion" a lot better if they just keep their day job to pay the bills.

It seems a lot of people want to "work on their passion" but do ONLY that. Which sounds just lazy :)

In total agreement with you there !!

Hey John, I think you're doing the right thing.

Don't listen to all the bullshit about how QUITTING YOUR JOB IS SO GREAT.

You need money coming in, especially if you have a family. However you're on the right path trying stuff on the side, if you keep it up, you might hit it big with something.

Most people I know that've transitioned from a job to a successful business tried between 2 and 6 things BEFORE they're current success.

Keep it up John, you're doing great!!