“i am from a small country in South East Asia and I am trying to start an online business from scratch.i quit my job and there were the usual fears about money and stuff since when I am spending time developing the website, i wont have money coming in. now my parents are considering retirement after a robbery incident (long story..)
the question is this,
i am now trying to take up part time jobs that pay well in proportion to the time spent on them. In fact, I already have one.
is that advisable? I guess the consultant answer for that is it depends right?
I need to feed myself and yet make sure my attempt at entrepreneurial venture fails due to over committing myself to other stuff.”
The Harvard MBA Says:
As you point out in your question, whether or not you should take a part-time job to pay the bills depends on your situation.
Would Larry Page and Sergey Brin have been better off had they sought part-time work when they were starting Google? Probably not.
On the other hand, countless other entrepreneurs have been worse off because they lacked an income to support themselves and their families. Not only can a part-time job put bread on the table, it can also give you the additional months you need to get your business off the ground.
One of my standard pieces of advice to entrepreneurs is to avoid quitting their day jobs until they have complete confidence in their startup. Far too many entrepreneurs working on ideas in their spare time think, “If only I were working on this full-time! I’d make so much more progress.”
Unfortunately, this kind of extrapolation isn’t very accurate. It’s like taking the per-minute stats of an NBA benchwarmer and projecting the results across 40 minutes per game.
Furthermore, from my own experience as a partrepreneur, when you have both a startup and regular job, it’s very unlikely that you are truly spending 40 hours a week on your day job. Instead, you’re constantly stealing a few minutes here and there to reply to emails, IM collaborators, think about how to improve your business plan, and so on. As a result, quitting your job doesn’t give you an extra 8 hours per day. It’s more like 5 or 6.
The danger in keeping your job, or taking a part-time job, is that you’ll end up neglecting your startup, but in my experience, an aspiring entrepreneur who can’t maintain his or her focus while working a part-time job probably doesn’t have the discipline it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.
Good luck with your venture, and best wishes to your parents for a happy an uneventful retirement!
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One Comment
IMHO:
Don’t quit your day job until you are making enough money as an entrepreneur to support yourself and your family or you have adequate investor funding. Make sure other family members approve of your decision and are willing to help your dream by taking care of family and social responsibilities.
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[…] Second, don’t avoid starting your business because you feel you don’t have enough time. In the end, you’ll always have something in your life that will distract you, so you will likely never have all the time you think you have. Take it from Chris Yeh an entrepreneur with a Harvard MBA, quitting your job doesn’t give you an extra 8 hours per day - it’s more like 5 or 6. […]