One way or another, it’s gonna hurt
From the forum:
I just wish there was an obvious path… How do you know when you can make the break [from the day job]? Or is the smart thing just to burn the candle at both ends, doing the apparel thing on the side and after hours, until you can generate enough income to warrant walking away from the 8-5 job? Has anyone on this forum followed that path successfully?
Yes people have quit their jobs to do this full-time so now you want to know the secret to how how they’ve gone off to live their dream. Ha ha. The reality is that they’ve traded one set of problems for another. What you need to ask yourself is, what set of problems do you prefer? As glorious as the option looks, it’s gonna hurt one way or another. As long as you know that and welcome the burn, you should be okay.
Let’s say you think it’s a matter of getting over a hump or meeting some kind of benchmark that leads to steady cash flow or whatever and then everything will be great because you can relax. That doesn’t happen either because you end up with new sets of problems -and they all cost money. And that is what this really boils down to -can you handle problems and get less in return than you probably deserve?
The truth of running a business is that you get crumbs. Compared to what is coming in -oh my, doesn’t that look grand?- you have almost as much going out so you get whatever crumbs are left over. And you know what? Comparatively speaking, it never gets any better. As long as you know that you’re okay. The trick to making a better living is for your business to get a little bigger and a little better so that the crumbs you’re left with are also a little larger. Which reminds me, as an employer, you should drive a ratty car. People are afraid to ask for raises if yours is the worst car on the lot.