Should You Quit Your 9-5? | #22

When is the right time to quit your 9-5 to pursue your creative business full time? This is one of the toughest decisions you need to make on your entrepreneurial path.

There are really only 2 ways to do it.

First, you can wait until you have a handful of clients and some recurring retainers. This gives you financial security knowing that you’ll have money coming in every month.

Second, you can do what I did and quit just after you sign your first client. Dumb move? Not necessarily.

And I know what you’re thinking, I must have rich parents or that client must have been HUGE. Neither is true. I had no outside help and that client was less than a thousand bucks. So why did I quit after just 1 client?

I built out a system that would get me clients if I put in the work. If I put in X amount of hours, I was almost guaranteed to gain Y amount of clients. I had a structured cold outreach plan, sales plan, and fulfillment plan that I knew would be able to acquire clients for me... I just had to prove it worked once. If I could prove it worked, I would be able to quit my 9-5 and put in an extra 40 hours a week into that system.

After I signed my first client, I knew the machine worked so I put in my two weeks, and here we are, almost 2 years later.

This didn’t come without risk. To help mitigate this risk, I saved up 6 months of living expenses. I gave myself a 6 month trial period to see if I could actually pull this off.

Some of you are still saying that I should’ve waited to get a bunch of clients to make sure I had money coming in. 2 years ago I was on the brink of burnout. I was working ridiculous hours outside my 9-5 to make this creative business work. At the same time, my job was draining all my energy. I took a calculated risk to pursue my passion, and that risk paid off.

Don’t confuse risk with recklessness. Risks will pay off in the long run. Reckless decisions will only cause you pain.

I share this with you to help in your decision-making process. Do you have systems in place? Do you have living expenses saved up? Are you on the brink of burnout? Answer these and see how they fit into your transition to full-time entrepreneur.