Depends on if your business is currently providing enough income to support you.
Just to add a bit to Marci s thoughts: This question goes directly to your tolerance for risk. But here s an idea on how to mitigate some of that risk. I typically advise people to have a five-year plan for starting and operating their companies. Included in that plan should be financial modeling for both your company and your home. You ll want to include your current job in those models, then start figuring out whether and when you can bail out on the consistent salary.Be very honest in the models, probably even overly conservative if you choose to. By the end of the process, you ll have a pretty good picture of when you might be able to slide over to the business full-time -- or even whether you should.
Nurimee, this is a question only you can answer. A few years ago I wrote a book called One Person/Multiple Careers about people who were pursuing multiple vocations simultaneously (e.g. lawyer/chefs, teacher/real estate brokers). Many of the folks I profiled were like you -- working full-time jobs while running their businesses on the side. And often when I went to do follow-up interviews with them, they had ditched their day jobs (I ll use that term loosely since they don t all happen during the day) to dedicate more time to their businesses. But the timetable on that shift on that varies widely.Some businesses can flourish with the extra scraps of time you can give them after the day job is over. I ve seen many people build successful online businesses or consulting practices while going to a job with defined hours. That works because they can focus on their business any time of the day. Others find that their businesses stagnate because they are not physically present or they can t have meetings or make phone calls while keeping up the day job.The trigger moment usually happens when you realize that your business is asking for more of you. Clients are showing up, orders are streaming in, and you re seeing other evidence that there s a great demand for whatever you re offering.This could happen before the business generates enough income to support you. If that s the case, you should leave a job once you ve figured out how you re going to support yourself.Good luck!
Don t ask us, what does the math say..Can your business provide you enough to live on, if your very very frugal?If it can, go for it. Otherwise, hang onto the day job.
