I know a lot of you guys are full time internet marketers, bloggers, affiliates, etc. At what point did you say, "Hey, I'm making enough money doing this," and stopped going in to work? I'm nowhere near that point yet. In my best month so far, I made just over $1,000 between my different sites. What kind of increase did you guys see when you went from doing it part time to full time?
I made sure to save at least 6 months worth of cash reserves to cover all expenses in case things went belly-up. After I had that accomplished, I researched actually how much it was going to cost me to work for myself. Since leaving my day job was going to cost me health care, retirement savings and someone paying my FICA/Medicare taxes... =) So be sure to consider all the pieces of the puzzle before making the leap. Self-employment taxes alone are 12-15% more than you pay in taxes right now at your current job... so that is a bit cut right there. Health insurance... and making sure you save for retirement... Paying your taxes quarterly... etc. If you are making $4000/month from your day job (gross).... Then I would shoot for around $7-8000/month (gross income AFTER expenses)... particularly if your site/business is not very diversified... (ie - you get most your traffic from search engines... or you rely heavily on one source of income, or one affiliate program, etc) Hope this helps!
I'm lucky in that I have a spouse to support me. When we moved to a new area we decided that I should focus on building an internet business, so I never got a new job after we relocated. If I were single (or had kids) I couldn't make the leap so soon.
I'm working full time right now, but im going for my second year of college this september, and I'm hoping to be able to pay for rent/misc expenses with what I earn online.
i've been teetering on the fence of quitting my day-job for about the last 6-months.. since i'm not much of a risk taker i guess i've been too chicken to take the plunge.. i've been using this time (and website-income) to pay down all my debts and get some money saved-up in case i quit then things go bad.. i've already done (i think) all the necessary things: got the business license, legal business entity, moving to my wife's insurance coverage... Now i'm just waiting for someone to piss-me-off at work..
Those are the best weeks (or months) of a job... when you know you are ready and can leave at any time... you suddenly don't mind being there so much... =)
I was lucky enough to start my venture right out of college. I haven't really had a "real job". I wouldn't be quick to quit your job though until you're making big bucks. It's too unstable from month to month. Plus you never really know when you're going to get paid. Even major companies like google and yahoo aren't on a set pay schedule. They sort of just pay you when they want to.
When you're making a regular salary figure? But it's best to wait a few months after that just in case your figure drops. Best advice is...once you quit your job, work double as hard and you should be fine.
Thanks everyone for this advise, I've also been considering this and its very useful to know all the ends I'd have to tie up first
My case is a little different anyway. I scored a job as an internet marketer for a small web startup, and so just about everything I do and learn on the job, I can apply to my own ventures. I definitely plan on staying until I can afford a new house, have an uh-oh fund of at least 6 months expenses, and make at least twice my salary with my online ventures. I just wanted to get an idea where everyone else is coming from.