Tough life decision to make.... what would you do?

Question

I feel like I am at a cross roads in my life and I don't know which way to turn... feels like I have 2 options:

1. I continue to work in my long hours job, be thankful that I am employed, well paid and have the ability to provide a stable life for my family.

2. Take a risk, give up my regular income and do what I have always dreamed of- starting my own business.

Would I be crazy to do this with the country in or heading for a recession? Should I bide my time for a few years until the economy picks up?

I'm not the best at handling stress- given this should I stick to the guaranteed income and security my job provides me with?

What if I stick with my job and then 20 years down the line realise I should have followed my dreams while I still had the chance?

I don't expect anyone to be able to make the right decision for me- this will have to come from myself- but has anyone been in the same situation?

Any words of inspiration would be appreciated!

Answer 1

personally i would cut back my long work hours and use the time to work out the options of being self-employed.  

keeping your job gives financial security while you work out your finances for your new venture.

is that something completely different to your job?

make sure you have a market for your new venture.

we all need stress to keep us motivated.  at least i do.

good luck.

Answer 2

You have passed half of your battle!  That is by knowing one key part of who you are.  Your handicap is "not able to manage stress".  

The real thing actually everyone takes time to manage particular stress.  Your current job has stress but you had founf ways to manage them by having peers to talk to or focusing on the fact that you are getting paid anyway!

Self employed will see the same situation that is stresses and finding ways to manage them.

Key question is, are you willing to go through series of new stresses and managing them for potentially high return or high satisfaction of having your own businesses?

Business is all time high but the challange is identifying what is right for this time of economy and match it with your skills and resources.

More to talk and it takes months to cover.  

Cheers,  Mr BOXER

Answer 3

Follow your dreams but only do this is you have enough money to fall back on should it all fail. Being insolvent is hard to get through especially if you have a family to support.

Answer 4

im in a similar situation but instead of starting a new business im wanting to go back to college but money wud be very short if i did. If opening a business is your dream then i guess you should do it, nothing ventured nothing gained as the saying goes. All i could advise is, is that you have some form of a fall back plan (in case the business doesnt do well) as most new business go under within the first 2 years, apart from that, can just say best of luck mate :)

Answer 5

no words of inspiration here, i dont think it would be a good move to start a new business now, as you said, this country is heading to recession! busniess is low in all feilds... i would stick it out with your current job and provide for your family.

Answer 6

having started my own business from scratch i would always encourage people to have a go at it if they have the opportunity.

for me i did not need to make money so could afford to take a risk trying - however perhaps i'd have worked harder 'trying' if i'd needed the money!

my advice to you would be to stay in work at the moment and concentrate on doing research for your business ideas and creating a business plan - that way you can bide your time in the current economy, check out what situation the market is in in relation to your product/service, assess weather your business will be viable, and make a really solid plan to help get funding or help to direct your business and focus on the important issues.

there are loads of places (especially online) where you can get business advice and tips on how to produce a business plan. then when you've done that maybe you can consider testing/starting the business slowly whilst reducing your working hours but not giving up work totally until you've got the business more established.

some of my fav business advice sites are below to help you get started:

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/act...

http://www.clearlybusiness.com/advice-an...

http://www.advicenow.org.uk/infoset.html...

http://www.newbiztips.net/default.aspx

http://www.startups.co.uk/66788429092155...

http://www.scavenger.net/home.php

another important thing is to have the backing and support of your partner, otherwise it could put huge pressures on your family life and could destroy your relationship (and mean the business also suffers and could possibly fail). having a supportive partner and close family can really make all the difference!

I wish you all the best with your decision and any new venture you may take on. Rebecca

Answer 7

You're fortunate that you have something you can start your own business with - not a lot of people can say the same. Also, your use of 'stress' seems to be associated with financial risk - fair enough, mine is too! :)

I do think though, that everyone should go for their dreams, because you only live once, and why live with regret?

So I think your question then becomes:

'How can I follow my dream of starting my own business without losing the financial security that comes from having a permanent job?'

The simple answer, as RossT and AnnOnnyMouse have said, is to do both.

Basically, continue working at your full-time job and use your spare time to start researching your start-up, talking to venture capitalists/business incubators, building connections and getting clients. You're going to start small, so you will probably be able to manage your first few clients while working at your full-time job. You might need to take a few days off every now and then, but you can do it. And while you will probably be working pretty hard, at least financial security will not be on your mind. And once your start-up takes off, you can quit your job and still be financially secure thanks to your own company!

One thing to think about though, is whether the 'conflict of interest' clause comes into play. Odds are your company has a clause in your contract that prohibits you from engaging in any other business which is going to compete directly with them - up to several months after you resign. So figure out if this applies, if it does, you will probably need to:

- start your research and networking while still working at your full time job

- do some analyses as to whether your start-up idea will float, how much money you will need, how you will fund it, and what your contingency plan is - i.e. if it doesn't work, when will you call it quits and how will you get a full-time job again?

- build the financial buffer you need for financial and emotional stability (this is where your financial stress issues need to be considered!)

- quit your job and go for it! But know that you have a backup plan in case it all goes wrong.

Personally, I don't think the current economic climate is going to be a factor for two reasons:

1. Good things take time. By the time you get a business plan written, all your analyses and networking done and you're actually about to start, the economic climate could (and probably will) be totally different.  

2. While the current climate isn't the best time to be a business, lots of businesses are still doing really well. What you need to consider is if YOUR business will suffer because of the climate.

Finally, I strongly believe that if you really want it, you can get it. But be smart and make sure you have a really good plan B and plan C.

Good luck! :)

Answer 8

If you are not good at handling stress, really, starting a business, to be brutally honest, does not seem right for you as an either or.  I'm wondering though if you couldn't do something like cutting your hours at work a bit and seeing if you could begin to launch the business part-time, which would give the best of both worlds for the time being.