How To Know When It's Time To Quit Your Day Job

It's the question on everyone's mind. Well, anyone who ever thought about working from home.

"When will I know it's time to quit my day job?"

Some people will go through their entire life wondering this question. Some are so afraid of giving up the security of their day job and walking out on the limb of the unknown. These people will never realize their dream of making a living from home.

Others are so eager to quit their jobs, they quit prematurely and find their self financially strapped or worse. Of course, in my opinion, there's few things worse than working at a dead end job you hate! :)

So I've compiled a few tips for my readers on how to know when it's time to tell you boss "Take this job and shove it."

1. Obviously, one of the easy ways to determine when it's time to quit your day job is when your income from your work at home job rises to a comfortable level. This doesn't mean when the income reaches the same level as you're making now. This is any level where you're sure you could quit your day job and still live comfortable. Many work from homers will cut expenses and luxuries in order to be able to work from home. I certainly did years ago in order to be able to work out of my home.
2. When you day job starts holding you back from growing your home business. If your day job begins to interfere with your work from home job, it might be time to say "Adios day job!" If you're sure that you can keep growing your home business if you didn't have to trudge into the Office every day, then it might be the time to make the Big Move.
   
3. When your day job starts affecting your home business. If the stress and time constraints of your day job are hurting your home business, it's time to take a hard look at walking away from your 9 to 5 job. Many potential work from homers let their day job continually hurt their work from home job and never realize that they could have been successful a lot earlier if they had given up their day job.
4. When either job starts affecting your Family. I know how hard it is to work at a day job and try to start and run a home business. It can affect the way you treat your Family. If you find this is true in your case, then you need to sit down and take a hard look at both careers. One has to go. You'll need to ask yourself "Why am I trying to start a home business?" and "Why am I still at my day job?" Chances are, you're starting a home business for your Family. Don't let the stress affect your physical or mental health because just like crap, it rolls down hill. But in this case, it's generally your Family who is at the bottom of that hill and that just isn't right!
   
5. When your ethics are higher than the company's you work for. Believe it or not, I'm seeing more and more people go out on their own because they do not want to work for an unethical company. When you start sacrificing your own moral beliefs, bad things can happen in your life. Life is too short to put up with that!
6. Your co-workers hate you. Many of you will find that your co-workers will despise you for making a living from home. It's only because they are jealous. Many people love to see other fail and can not stand to see someone succeed. They may even go as far as trying to sabotage your home business in hopes you'll fail. I'm not joking, I've seen it happen too many times. Don't let these type of people bring you down. I used to work with a great guy. I even considered him a friend. But he was so negative when I started my home business I finally had to stop hanging around him. I simply chose friends who inspired me and encourage me to succeed.

There can be other clues as to when it's time to quit your day job. You may have your own reasons. The important thing is that you plan ahead for that great day when you walk out the door forever. It's generally not as easy as you think it will be, plus it can be kinda scary.

I know, I walked away from a good paying job with great benefits that I had been at for 9 years. The day I drove out of the parking lot for one last time was really scary. I was thinking the whole time "God, I hope I didn't just make a big mistake."

But I had to do it. It was holding me back from going forward with the business I had at the time. Which, I might add, failed two years later. But that's okay. I survived and learned many valuable lessons that I wouldn't have otherwise. Lessons that helped me on down the road.

My Supervisor said something to me as I was walking out the door that has stayed with me all these years. He said "When I hired you, I was sure you wouldn't hang around very long. I wondered why you stayed here all these years." Wow, you could have floored me. I simply said "I don't know either."

I knew I had stayed because I'd grown accustomed to the security of a weekly paycheck and benefits. I was unhappy, unchallenged and unappreciated. I knew I deserved more.

Since that time, I've started other successful work from home businesses. My only regret is that I didn't walk out sooner!