Side Business
Side Business Millions – Why Wait?
Unfortunately, you’re not a developer and won’t be a Founding member of the next unicorn. In reality, you’re a support staff, waiting for the startup jobs to hire for your job role. You’re exceptional in your job. Yet, you have this burning idea and feel like you can make it work. You saved up enough money from your salary, bonus, stock options, and investments. You have the funds to start this on your own. You’re contemplating quitting, starting this venture and giving it 2 years to try it out.
You have a stable job and don’t want to leave:
- Good stable income
- Great benefits
- Stocks Options are still vesting
- Stable public sector job
- Cushy job for the next 5 – 10 years
- Retirement is 20 years away
- Want extra cashflow
The opportunity costs for you to quit your steady day job and start something unproven is too risky. In your case, I definitely agree. Starting a new business takes time and resources. Unless you absolutely have to leave your day job, then just stay put. Instead, you can start a Side Business.
Asset Rich – Cash Poor: Real Estate Investor
Real Estate investors make money on income producing assets. There are two factors to build wealth as a real estate investor:
Appreciation
Cashflow
If the property is in a developing market, then appreciation will happen gradually. If your Cashflow is lean, then you don’t have enough money to live from it full time. Your balance sheet looks great, because you have a solid asset and can use that as collateral for refinancing to acquire more property. Once your property is operating smoothly, then it’s hard to generate anymore income. Rent is fixed. That’s it. You need find other cashflow opportunities to keep you busy. This is why starting a side business is a good way to support yourself when you have extra time on your hands.
Pile of Cash – What to Do
If you have a pension or a settlement, then you know the distribution will be coming every month. You have time and funds to start a side business.
Be careful in becoming a day trader. Your investment principle can dwindle if you aren’t disciplined or understand the markets. Financial experts have learned over their lifetime on how to use investing strategies.
Side Business Becomes Your Full-Time Job
The reason why you start a side business is you can create extra cashflow as an SME in a related field. You can commit to work on this after work and weekends: 20 hours / week. You will need to invest money to get the idea off the ground, but you can get customers for your product or service. Once it starts to cashflow, then you can re-coup your initial capital and generate cash on the side as pure profit. This supplements your day job salary, and you can grow the side business at your pace. Once your side business surpasses your full-time salary, you can make the decision to leave at that time and focus on your side business full-time.
You Win Even if the Business Doesn’t
Even if it doesn’t work, you’ll be OK. Why? When you interview for the next job in your field, you’ll explain what you learned during your venture. In many cases, hiring managers like to see career growth. In this case, you paid for a real-life MBA with real-world experience. Your experience speaks more than theory. You may even get hired as a higher job title and a higher compensation, because you learned how a business operates. You may re-coup the 2 years of lost salary with the new job.