Comments on: Can You Be an Entrepreneur in Your Spare Time?

By: Ray The Money Man

Ray The Money Man — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 05:12:34 +0000

Working from your home and on the side is the American way. While it isn’t easy it is the best way to get started without taking on massive debt.

Great post!

By: Joe Crawford

Joe Crawford — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:26:30 +0000

Good info. I’ve been self employeed since my early twenties and experienced much of what you talk about here. I learned that it is in the way you build your business and the way you grow personally. We need different stuff at different stages in maturity, both business and life wise.

Starting a business on the side is simple to do today, compared to ten or fifteen years ago. People would be wise to realise that businesses have life cycles, its not a business goal to keep on going. Not to downplay persisitance, but there comes a time to stop racing a three legged horse in some business ventures. What I like most about a home based business that uses the internet is that it innovates, the marketing message, the product, service, visual aspects, they can all innovate and you control the business cycle… A very powerful entrepreneurial advantage..

By: Rick Vaughn

Rick Vaughn — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 23:48:38 +0000

Interesting post,

There is nothing wrong with working for someone else if your happy. There are allot of bad things that can happen when you work for yourself. However, the thought of playing the corporate game for the rest of my life is just not fulfilling to me. I want to stake my claim and get my piece of the pie.

By: Randy

Randy — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:06:40 +0000

Another issue to consider is whether or not your present employer will allow you to even have a side business. In high-tech, many employment agreements include clauses around the ownership of IP; and some can be written such that anything you develop effectively belongs to your employer, regardless of when or where it was developed.

If you’re considering a side business, then be sure to review your employment contract and consult with lawyer, if needed.

By: Curt

Curt — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:28:43 +0000

You may not have pulled the trigger yet, but you have positioned yourself into a comfortable and secure income. One the best goals with creating a side-business is to find new opportunities by networking with other while providing additional income. Todays job culture with little regard for loyalty increases the risk of having to change jobs several times during your career. Having a side-business can provide a great income between jobs and provides the opportunity to never return to the corporate world.

The recession is changing the economy, as the reality of broke consumers are high inflation disrupt markets. Many jobs are likely to shift around. For these reasons, I think everyone should start a side-business.

By: RC@Thinkyourwaytowealth

RC@Thinkyourwaytowealth — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:05:48 +0000

Flexo-

You are spot on about the time required-anyone expecting to be successful in their own business can pretty much kiss free time goodbye and plan on spending less time with their family.

Thanks for including my article from the group writing project in your post, i appreciate it.

By: CJ

CJ — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 01:16:12 +0000

I think the ideal situation is to get a job that allows you to do your side job or adds to it.

I work a job where I get a lot of downtime where the projects are feast or famine. I double duty sometimes as the receptionist as well. During slow times, I can work on my personal finance blog and side web design projects. This gives me a steady income while also preventing me from cutting into family time. It’s like the best of both worlds.

The trouble is finding such a job. I guess I just got lucky. :-)

By: Julie

Julie — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:31:32 +0000

I became completely self-employed by accident – I had been contracting through an agency with a company for almost two years, and we discovered that my contract buyout fee had gone away and I could contract directly with the company and skip the agency. So the company severed my contract and instead of having a couple months to transition I had a couple weeks. Suddenly I was working from home full-time, coming in only for meetings, and rolling with an ebb and flow of work instead of a guaranteed 40 hours per week. In retrospect, 40 hours a week was… safe. We had money in the bank, my husband had a lucrative day job, and he was encouraging me to follow my dreams and make a go of it – but I don’t think I would have made the leap if the platform hadn’t been pulled out from under me. Thankfully things have worked out; I’ve either billed or contracted for enough work so far in the year to surpass my pre-tax income from all of last year – and I’ve still got five months to bring in some more client work. I haven’t had to do any advertising, because the network of contacts I’ve built in the past few years working part-time on the side have provided enough work to keep me busy. I’ve also been able to raise my rates, so I can focus on business development and accounting when I need to without seeing a drop in income. I’ve been one of the lucky ones so far, and my “spare-time entrepreneurship” is paying off. My “tipping point” – the point at which I needed to focus on business full-time to really succeed and truly replace my day-job income – happily coincided with the point I was forced into it.

By: matty dread

matty dread — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:48:08 +0000

i too did some side work outside my day job, and while I did bring in some income, the time I had to spend invoicing, collecting, documenting, and “communicating” (my term for clients asking for advice and not paying a fee) with clients and customers dug deep into my personal/family time.

i was doing that stuff at night and weekends and found myself real tired at my day job. i learned a lot, but probably the clearest messages were its not as easy as it seems, and once you take into account the administrative time, it is close to not worth it, or worth a lot less than you thought.

By: Robert Stribling

Robert Stribling — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:52:52 +0000

Hello Flexo,
You are right on target with your advice about “start-ups”. and becoming an entrepreneur. Most people really don’t have any sense of what is going on behind the scenes at their “Day Job”, that inconvenince that feeds the family. I have never been employed by others, however, I consider myself very lucky to have begun my entrepreneur career as a young man (without wife and children). People should use your guidance and suggestions before they make the big leap toward thier dream.

With this bad U.S. economy of recent, I am seeing way to many under capitalized small firms circling the drain toward failure. This does not only effect the entrepreneur but also their families and friends. It’s sad.

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:30:07 +0000

I’ve got a similar situation with the exception that I’ve embarked on two endevours. First is my side consulting for Application security and second is the Money magazine / blog. I’ve found my family time greatly dimished so what I did was started staying up later to get things done and dedicating time and whole day’s for family time.

My income from the security consulting has been sporadic. On the same note however, I’ve not really put much effort into marketing, advertising or networking. If I did It’s entirely possible for me to pull 2 months worth of income with a single consulting job. Yet, my full time employment distracts both of my endevours by taking up 40 hours a week. I find myself in the catch22 you mention above. Leave the day job and potentially be successful, but hit some hard financial roads without the pay checks. Or stay here, generate a few extra dollars but continue burning midnight oil.