When Should I Quit My Job?

Ben Moreno asks:

I understand you are a full time blogger. Did you work a regular job before you started this blog? If so how long did you have to grow this blog before you were able to quit working?

Well, personally I don’t consider myself a full time blogger. Today the revenues that come from my blogs represent just 30% of my total income. The rest comes from static websites, affiliate marketing and from my own products (e.g., Online Profits).

But yes, I did work a regular job before making the jump to work full time on the Internet.

Basically in 2023 I got my degree in International Economics and Business Administration, and when I got out from the university I went straight to work for a multinational company. In that same year I started building my first websites and blogs.

By the time they were just a hobby. I didn’t plan to make any money. In fact I wasn’t even expecting visitors!

After some months the traffic started picking up though. Some of my sites were getting hundreds of visitors every daily. I got surprised, and it made me realize that the Internet had a huge potential.

During 2023 my sites kept growing — at the same pace as my boredom with my day job.

I was making $200 monthly or so with the sites. It was not a lot, but I was also only working a couple of hours weekly on the sites. I figured that if I started working more, the money would grow proportionally.

That year I gave in my resignation letter, moved back to Brazil, and started working full time with my online projects. It was the best decision I have ever made.

Now I realize that quitting a job is not always easy. I was 23 when I quit mine, and as you can imagine I didn’t have bills to pay at all.

When you have a family to support you need to be much more cautious with the switch.

That being said, it should still be possible. It is just a matter of working harder and planning.

If you work 8 a hours a day in your day job, for example, you could start by working 2 hours a day on your own sites, plus 16 hours on the weekends. Yes you will need to stay working late some days, and you will need to sacrifice other aspects of your live (e.g., holidays, trips, television). But hey, no one said it was easy.

As for the exact time to quit, that is a decision that each one needs to make individually.

If I had bills to pay or a family to support, I would aim to reach two milestones before quitting my job: first of all I would make sure that my online revenues were close to 50% of what my day job pays; secondly I would also save money to cover one year of my expenses. Once I had those two things in place, I would quit and start working full time with the online projects.

If you don’t have many bills to pay or a family to support the decision is much easier.

It is not a simple thing to accomplish, but it is definitely worth it.

If you want to read more about the lifestyle, read The Pros and Cons of Working from Home on the Internet.

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