Should I stay at my job while working on a side business to grow?

I don’t see how you can keep your current job with the pressures it has as you’ve described them and have time to develop a side business. I think it makes sense to look for something less stressful and time consuming while working on what excites you. If it is not unpleasant, maybe going back to your parents’ business is not a bad idea if you don’t feel you’d get sucked in to doing more there than you’d want to.

Not to be snarky, but I remember how badly you wanted your HR job. Have you considered applying for a similar position elsewhere? At other places it may not be so hectic. I do not recall you mentioning wanting to work for yourself.

If you really have your heart set on owning your own business then I go along with @janbb‘s suggestion of working for your parents while doing so. Is there any way of testing the market to see if there is a demand for what you would be offering?

I have posted this a few years ago https://www.fluther.com/172372/what-small-businesses-are-profitable/. I posted somewhere else too but I don’t feel like searching further back lol. Also, as I said before, I felt that getting a job after graduating is the “safest and normal” thing to do but I’ve almost been laid off at every job and I never liked the hierarchy and politics so it’s not always secure as we think.

An idea for testing the market… I was thinking of starting with small amount of product like a few hundred. I can try selling on Amazon FBA and see how that goes and start an online store before buying a ton of product. I’ve tried doing research on what to look for as far as number of competitors, seller ranking, reviews, for the demand and how often words are searched online. I’m not sure how much more research I can do.

About seven years ago my daughter, having finished an undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin, was working as an assistant manager at a popular local pub. She liked the place, the people, including the customers and the boss, and the pay – nothing was really bothering her, and the job wasn’t particularly high-stress. But she had other ambitions.

As anyone who lives in or visits Madison, WI already knows, there is a thriving food cart industry in the town. She decided that she wanted to start a food cart business. (Never mind that most of the existing food cart businesses were offshoots of already-successful local restaurants – and she didn’t own a restaurant. She just knew that she could do this thing, and figured that it could support her.) So, in order to get some reliable market information – and discount some of her own bias – she hired some undergrads “to eat lunch” at various food carts. In reality, she was employing them, not as “spies”, but as open and public surveyors. She’d give them a checklist of things to watch for at some of her target operations: how long were the lines of customers and how quickly were orders delivered; what was the average purchase per customer; what was their impression of the presentation of the food and other aspects of the transaction, and some other things that I don’t recall. So she’d pay them for an hour or so of their survey time, and pay for their lunch, too. (She also wanted their opinions on the various food being offered.)

I thought that was a pretty good way for her to get “real data” that wouldn’t be colored too much by her own “gut feel” that this would work. From there I helped her to develop a simple business plan for her fixed and variable expenses; wages (including hers), and how long in the season she could reasonably expect to operate (Wisconsin winters can be pretty brutal). In the meantime, she developed a menu and “theme” for the cart – and then she went and did it.

I lent her some money to buy and set up her first cart, and she made her own arrangements to rent kitchen space. (Since she was leaving her employer on excellent terms, they offered her their kitchen space in their off-hours.) Her first year was tough: she had rented “a room” in a local boarding house (in fact, since she had no warehouse, kitchen of her own or other storage, she told me stories about keeping cartons and cartons of her bulk-purchase plates, bowls, napkins and plasticware in the room, piled all around her one room, from which she would daily draw what she needed to stock the cart). But… she managed to pay her own rent and feed herself. She worked throughout the winter, too, which was pretty unusual. And since then…

She now runs two carts (she wore one out and had to replace it), she rented her own kitchen later in that first year, which she maintained for about six years, improving it as she grew the business, branched out to include catering in her second year, and last year rented a former coffee shop space, improved that and moved her kitchen into that space, too. So, she did the opposite of the other cart businesses: she grew from carts to catering to a restaurant. She employs, I think, between 12 – 20 people, depending on the catering load week by week. (I won’t be a bit surprised if she starts a chain.)

She still likes it. (So much that she got married the month after she started the new restaurant operation from scratch last spring, and her husband has joined her 100% in the total and daily operation.) And now banks and developers are pestering her with schemes to expand, to move to new or additional locations, and “can they lend her any money?” to accomplish any of this.

It’s not simple, but… it’s not rocket science, either. If you’re determined, knowledgeable and smart… and have a little bit of luck and some support, you can do it.

@CWOTUS, that sounds amazing. What a great parent for you to have believed in her instead of shooting her down. I mention my family a lot because I look up to them. My cousin is a go-getter, she is not afraid to try multiple different things to see what makes money! She has her side baking, her own bread route company, she does nails on weekend, and she is a dental assistant! My sister owns 2 daycares now, they struggled first year and broke even where I had to help but now they’re making so much money… My father and uncles have a long reputation in the community with the grocery and restaurant. Maybe now is my move for online.

I really am debating quitting my job but I’m not sure what I should do at the moment. If I continue to feel like puking every day like I do now at the thought of work for the next month or so then I will quit. I feel terrible if I just drop school but I don’t think I need it. This is combining my love for so many things, things I already do, things I’ve done in the past, I think it is possible BUT of course with anything I’ll never know…but I’ll never know until I try. I’ve been obsessed with research and trying to move forward little by little but not fast as I’d like. I am honest with myself if something is crappy looking or what sucks. I’ve seen some pretty unprofessional looking sites that I know I could do better on.

@chelle21689 If my first post sounded discouraging, I didn’t mean it to be. I think you should definitely go for it. I just think you are overworked and overwhelmed at the job you’re now in so you should find something else that will be more compatible with the start-up. It sounds like fun!

Well, look at things this way (as a suggestion):

You need income to live, so that’s primary, whether you keep your current job or start a new business. However, you’re not ready to start a business “just yet” (apparently, anyway; at least you haven’t mentioned one that I’ve seen as a solid prospect). So that means for the near term you either need to keep your current job or get another one – soon! – until you’re ready to start whatever business.

Assuming you quit your current job, you probably won’t stay on track for the Masters program at that school – and since it sounds like you’re on your last legs at that job, then… most likely the Masters degree (at least at that school) is going to have to wait until you re-apply and pay for it yourself with the funds you earn from another job or your business – whenever – so my suggestion would be to quit the Masters program right now UNLESS you’re going to achieve that in the next couple of months or so, and it’s just a matter of being miserable and hanging on for that day in the near future.

If that’s not going to happen soon, then it’s likely to never happen in the way that you’re currently pursuing it, so… something has to give. And if you quit your job, then apparently you won’t be able to continue the Masters program there under your current terms, anyway. (Alternatively, you could perhaps apply for a leave of absence from your job to finish the degree, but that also seems unlikely. Just wanted to mention it because no matter how unlikely it is, it’s still in the realm of the possible.) The other option might be to ask a family member for the funds to finish the Masters degree, and just plain quit the job and do the school work.

Quitting the Masters program now may relieve “just enough” of the pressure that you feel at your current job to at least catch your breath, use your free time to map out a better future, or even just look for a better salaried position until you take your big plunge. But since so much depends on that current job, no matter how awful it is, you need to replace that income, because as things stand now you wouldn’t be able to do school without “that job” anyway. So the Masters program seems to be the first thing to toss out of the lifeboat, for now.

Find a different job now before the present one becomes untenable. And don’t tell your co-workers about the side job unless it can’t be avoided, and then don’t say too much.

I guess I can start looking to see what might be out there. Possible part-time job or even a job that doesn’t seem as stressful but that’s hard to determine knowing nothing about the company. Another thought comes to mind is the unfamiliar, possibility of even more hours, bigger learning curve, etc. I should probably calculate how much I can live on before quitting.

I start school next week. I know I can graduate, I just hope my parents don’t get disapppinted. Maybe I can just do one class instead of two to free up time. I’ve already started mapping out how I want to implement this business so if I’m feeling I have no time I will just quit school.

@kritiper what’s wrong with mentioning a side hustle? Not that I would tell them but curious for your thoughts.

@chelle21689 Even though the company policy may say that some outside business opportunity is acceptable if it doesn’t conflict with your current work’s business dealings, it doesn’t mean management, or someone in management, won’t be offended because with you only working the one job, for them, you working only for them is a method their control over you. So, you not working solely for them, could mean that you could be seen as expendable.

Depends on you work place rules on moonlighting.

I should probably mention that since I’ve returned to work, I’ve been having chest pains. Yikes.