Turns out, not really. I was reading a post today that had some good stats suggesting quite the opposite. We’ve all heard the stat that 95% of all new businesses fail, but is there really truth to that? The US Dept of Labor pegs it at roughly 17%. Almost 2 in 10 doesn’t have quite the same fear factor as 9.5 in 10.
This graph should be a real eye opener:
Working at home is a viable option, and for most they are running a zero-employee business (what some might call a side or part time project).
When people ask me if they should quit their full time jobs to pursue an online business dream I usually say no. Why? In most cases it’s not totally necessary. Working full time, and starting your project on the side can let you test the waters, figure out how viable your business is, and give you a steady stream of income from your full time job while you test the waters of working on your dream.
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Rightly said WDW,
Many times people just quit there jobs only to earn money online online. But the basic fact is that, earning money online looks really simple but it is a tough job to perform.
You can continue your online money making after your office hours as it can be managed. So give it a try like it first and then go for the next level if it suits you.
Yea, it’s risky to quit day job without having a stable income from online, it’s really difficult to start up your online business when you know nothing. That’s what I think and that’s why I’m still being a part time blogger, perhaps I’ll quit my day job in future, who knows?
Regards,
Lee
I agree – far too many people are looking for the easy out of their current job situation – and probably rightly so. Who wants to work for someone else? Many entrepreneurs think that if they quit their current job and dive right in – they’ll swim. But, if you don’t – it’s gonna hurt. Hedge your bets – and make sure you’re rolling forward before you burn your current job’s bridge.
I think marketing is key. You can do a lot of things wrong – screw up bringing people to your business in a well thought out, and economically feasible way – and you’re toast. I usually recommend entrepreneurs spend 80% of their time on marketing after setting up an Inc. to protect themselves from lawsuits, and to take advantage of the LLC or S-Corp in most cases.
I’ve just stumbled into your blog here and reading the left side column – many great articles for helping new business owners get started – good work! I’ll read some and grab your RSS feed… Thanks much. Vern
I would say… as long as you into a business with the knowledge, and understanding of it, and you understand how much risk is involved, and you open a business wisely, your odds of success are greatly increased. I bet most people that fail in business are those that have 0 experience in the business they purchased/opened, or ones that did not do their research on the business they bought.
I know one time when my father bought a busy pizzeria restaurant, he had no experience in the pizza business and as a result, the business failed and he eventually had to sell it. I would always say again.. there are factors that increase or decrease that risk of success/failure.
Till then,
Jean
Well said WDW! I’m thinking whether I should quit my job and make full time money online, but I couldn’t quit my job as I need money to pay my university fee right now, and I don’t want to play fire by just working online, I’ll die if later I can’t make money from online (I do make quite some money from online now).
Anyway, I still keep doing this as part time, when I can generate a stable passive income every monthly, I’ll consider to quit my day job.
Thanks,
Lee
I know the predicament Lee. If you can, stick at the daytime job as long as you can. You should still be able to build up your side income in your spare time. If you can’t build it up in spare time, there is a good chance, you won’t be able to build it up enough as a full time job. Don’t quit your job until you have saved up some money or your business is making enough to live on consistently. Always be aware that things can suddenly change though. You have to recognize when you might have to go back to working a daytime job, even if it is just temporary.
Yea, I’ll make sure and confirm that I can make a living from online income before quitting my day job, I don’t want to take risk since I need money to pay my university fees right now. Nevertheless, I hope to just work at home and make money online, I believe that I could make more money if I have more time online, but this is something I can’t do right now, perhaps in future.
Hiya Lee!
Just keep at it buddy, the rewards for your persistence and hard work will come in. You’ll reach the stage where you’ll have to choose, but not having to stress about money for the basics is a huge advantage.
Cashflow is inevitably the main cause for businesses failing, but if you can build up your online earnings over time you should be able to make a smooth transition from being an emplyee to your own boss.
Good Luck Mate!
Yes Jacques, I’ll not stop what I’m doing right now, I’ll just keep my blog to the end, perhaps I can stop my day job and get into full time make money online one day in the future.
Thanks,
Lee
Is it? I was totally thinking otherwise. I was believing that most of the startups are failure these days. You completely put me in new stats.
Somehow you seems to be right. There must be rise in one man company as the layoffs increased a lot and people got themselves involved in work from home projects to have some income for them.
I also think the same way. It is better to start slow and get used to new things before leaving the day job.
@Insurance – I was really under the same impression, buyt having said that, my experience is limited to the South African market. I did signage and printing and other below the line stuff for many years, and the attrition rate for new businesses was really atrocious.
I always reflect on how often upon phoning people back a couple of months or a year later to see if they needed any marketing material, and then hearing that they were either trying something else, or were working for a boss again.
This post is about the US market, but I honestly feel that government departments really cook the books when it comes to stats of this nature. Just look at unemployment stats for the biggest lie ever!
I think these stats might be skewed by people who don’t actually report starting their business. If the business fails right away, there is no point in reporting it.
I definitely agree that you should try to get your business going while still at a full time job. That way, if things don’t work out, you still have security. You don’t want to jump in and risk losing money and going into debt.
Good point. I don’t think they necessarily got accurate stats on this one. These days it is very easy to start an online business. So you don’t end up getting a business license and some don’t report this kind of income at first. So a lot of business startups could go unnoticed.
Yup, they definitely don’t take small businesses that fail before even being registered into account. That is definitely the case, but then how could they possibly monitor that?
That’s the problem, they can’t properly monitor this. They are either relying on business licenses or they are relying on people to just be honest. Not everyone is in a rush to pay taxes on their business though.
That is just so true. The more you can barter between both businesses and people, the more you can keep your declared income and taxation to a minimum. Cash isn’t necessarily king, not when the government is aware of you having it!
Stats in general will always be skewed by certain variables, and not always encompass the entire population, etc… its just the nature of statistics… For most things… usually we get to a certain “confidence level” in statistics. I am actually taking a statistics course this semester so yeah… LoL.
Till then,
Jean
I also took a statistics course in college. Unfortunately with many of the stats we read online, there often is no details of what kind of sample audience was used. This particularly stat does not say whether this data is based on income tax filings, business licenses or other.
Great point you made! The sample audience would be great to know, but its always something that is left out in most statistics, hehe.
Till then,
Jean
Yea I agree with you, it goes same to me. I’m working as a Quantity Surveyor in a construction company, at the same time I’m building my blog and earn some extra income online. But still I’m thinking to quit my day job when I’m able to make a living with the income from online.
Great stuff! This is vauable information.
We need more motivaton about legitimate home busniess opportunities. We should understand that it has some risks but it can be simply managed as as long as it is in your heart.
Thanks for sharing.
I am also an associate, who resides in Las Vegas, NV and if you would like to join my network, I promise to help you establish your own network as fast as possible. I will send you all the advice and information I have gathered so far and guide you to the ultimate success of your new business.
The reason is that your costumers aren’t motivated to make you rich. They’re motivated to keep as much of their money as they can. To “get rich” you have to provide a service or product that those customers will pay for AND do it better than your competition. It is indeed possible though.
Opening any new business means some risk involved. But sometimes this risk is not so scary and we can easily evolve to maintain our small company on our own. In years of crisis many big companies have gone bankruptcy because of many reasons.
Especially with all the different options and with the economy problems I think that starting your own business is one of the best ways to go. I believe we will continue to see this trend for several years…until it bubbles out as well.
I think that there is always some risk, and lately this risk has been reduced, because economy is gaining fast and soon there will be no trace of the crisis.
There are so many virtual office opportunities available, that certainly allows one to keep his/her “day job.” As your article states, you can test the waters, see if you have an affinity for starting a home business, while maintaining your full-time job.
There are definite risks to starting a business, but there are risks to being an employee also. The risks are just different. The stress level of being a business owner can be higher at times.