I recently discoverd that my former workplace has become a victim of this terrible economy and has closed its doors permanently. It was my first job as a web developer and I worked there for close to 5 years before turning in my resignation. When times were good, they were really good. I recall meetings about how well the company was doing and we were getting in new hires in what seemed to be almost every month.
Although the company was doing well at the time, I was still stressed out and frustrated with my daily commute. I knew I wanted something different for my life which is why I resigned with no back-up plan (which I would never recommend to anyone.) Fortunately, my skills were easily transferable to freelance work which is what I’ve been doing for 4 years as of this writing.
Starting a Part-Time Business While You Still Have a Job
Looking back and considering how frustrated I was, I would have started freelancing sooner. However, knowing what I know now, I would have actually started internet marketing sooner. I would have built niche sites and PPC sites. I would have been writing articles, link building, and driving traffic to my sites.
While hindsight is always 20/20, the good thing is that I do internet marketing part-time to supplement my freelance income. My goal is to one day have internet marketing as my full-time income but until then, I keep building, writing, learning, and plugging away.
Whatever you are doing right now, it is good to have something on the side that you can develop into your full-time income. No job is guaranteed and if something should happen like layoffs, closing, or even being fired, you will already have something that you can jump into and even make your new career.
Make It Something That You Love
Starting a part-time business is not only something that should supplement an income, it should eventually take over as your bread and butter. You may as well do something fun that doesn’t feel like work at all. Why trade one job for another? Even if someone else thinks what you love to do is “work”, who cares as long as you don’t feel that way?
Creating a part-time business while you are still working full-time is not all fun and games. Every free moment you have will probably be spent working on your business. However, chances are that your part-time business will be something that you love (I highly recommend that it is) and it won’t feel like work at all. Although making money with web sites is a lot of work, I love it. When I spend my free time working on my part-time business, it is so much fun for me, I hardly notice how many hours I spend on it.
For me, that is a good sign because when the day comes that I can do it full-time, I know that I won’t hate it. Freelancing is definitely more fun than working for someone else. I still get to dictate my work hours, who I want to do work for, and I can come and go as I please. Yet, if I don’t work, I don’t eat.
My web sites earn extra income at all hours. Things I built 6 months ago are still working when I’m not. This is called residual income (residual income is getting paid for work you’ve once done in the past.) That is something you may want to consider when developing your part-time business.
Have you started to develop a part-time business? Do you have a success story to share?
