You’ve dreamed about starting your own business for months or years. Eventually, enough is enough and you have to make that jump and finally follow through on it. But when is the right time?

When should you quit your job to become a full-time freelancer or entrepreneur? Quitting your job doesn’t have to be an all or nothing thing that happens overnight. Start building up your freelance business in the evenings and on weekends and gradually transition instead. Make a budget and have at least six months of savings before you do decide to quit.

In this article, I’ll explain when you should quit to work for yourself. I’ll explain how you can make it easier by gradually transitioning from your job to working for yourself, and what you should have in place before you take that final step.

Don’t Feel Like Reading? Check Out My Video On This Topic!

Quitting Your Job To Work For Yourself

We all have experienced those days at work where we’re really pushed to the edge.

If you didn’t need the financial security, you’d probably just march into your manager’s office and tell them to shove it.

You sit at your desk all daydreaming of what it would be like to work for yourself. Imagining not having a boss to report to any more.

Not having to show up to the office at a certain time, and stick around until another arbitrary time even if all your work for the day is done.

No more office politics, or pretending to be busy.

No more stupid pot luck lunches.

Sure, it would feel super cathartic to just tell your boss to go screw themself. But then you’ll be left scrambling to make your business work with no backup plan.

So I don’t recommend it.

Instead, bide your time. Grit your teeth and continue working your job you hate during the day. All the time, empowering yourself to eventually have that “I quit” moment with no regrets.

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It Doesn’t Have To Be An All or Nothing Decision

Many people don’t realize that you don’t have to go from having a full-time job to nothing, and then try to build up a business without any kind of safety net.

Instead, I would highly recommend gradually transitioning to another job. Especially if you have a family that you need to support, or no savings to hold you over for a few months if things don’t work out with your business.

I started off by working during the day, and then I’d come home and work on my freelance business at night or on the weekends.

Sure, it kind of sucks temporarily. You’ll basically have two jobs for a little while until you can make the switch. But you have to convince yourself that it will all be worth it in the long run.

You have to want it bad enough that you’re willing to give up a couple hours of television in the evening to work on building your business instead.

As an unethical life hack, you can also start working on your business a little bit on company time, if you have a job where you can hide it. If you work in an office, chances are that you’re already slacking off for a couple of hours each day. Just instead of checking Facebook or your fantasy football team, start sneakily working on freelance writing, writing blogs, or editing your ebook instead when nobody is looking.

But you didn’t hear that from me. Wink wink, nudge nudge.

However, I wouldn’t necessarily risk this if you need your job and aren’t sure you’re going to leave yet. Once you’re pretty confident that you’re going to leave your job, there’s not much to lose by slacking off and working on your business on company time. Aside from the fact that it’s technically theft. But especially once you hand in your notice, what are they going to do, fire you?

Trying to juggle a full-time job and writing? Read my article How To Start Writing With A Busy Schedule or Full-time Job for some tips!

Make A Budget

If you don’t already have a budget for your finances, you’ll definitely want to make one before you quit your job.

You need to figure out how much money you need each month to pay for food, your rent or mortgage, your car, utilities, and whatever else you may pay for each month.

Go through your bank statements and look at everything you’ve paid for in the past few months to make sure that you don’t miss anything.

Regardless of your situation in life, I recommend having at least six months of savings before you quit your job to pursue your business. That way you won’t need to panic and start looking for another job if you’re two or three months in and haven’t landed any clients yet.

If you’ve got kids, you probably want to save up more like a year’s salary before you think about quitting your job.

Talk It Over With Loved Ones

Quitting your job to start your own business is a huge life decision. And your wife will be pissed if you do it without asking her first!

Even if you still live with your parents, I would explain the situation to them. They can raise their concerns and you can reassure them that you’ve already considered everything.

If you have a partner’s income you can at least partially rely on, that provides a nice safety net. At least your household income won’t go down to $0 when you quit your job. But if business doesn’t pick up soon, it will start to put a real burden on your family.

Personally I had an agreement with my girlfriend at the time (now wife) that if my business didn’t work out within six months, I would start looking for another accounting job to go back to.

We agreed to realistic but reasonable goals for me, like that I should be earning at least $500 per month from my business by the six month mark. That way at least I could pay for my own expenses like my phone bill, internet, half of the groceries, and some of the rent without becoming a huge burden.

Then we said that by the end of the year I should be earning $1,000 per month from my business on average, which would be enough to cover my half of everything at the time. Although without much of anything really left over.

Doubting yourself? Check out my article How To Overcome Fear and Self-Doubt As A Freelance Writer

When Is The Perfect Time To Quit Your Job?

The truth is that there will never be a perfect time to quit your job. You will always keep finding excuses to keep putting it off.

So if you’re really sure that this is something that you want to do, go for it. Set a deadline for yourself, like that you’ll quit in six months, and then stick to it.

If you have a boss that you think will be supportive, you can work together and let them know about your deadline. Or maybe even get permission to work one less day per week to start working on your business, without putting your main job at risk.

Just be sure that you have enough savings that you’ll be okay if the deadline comes and your business hasn’t taken off yet.

To be completely safe, I’d recommend working on your freelance business on the side and waiting until it matches the income of your fulltime job, or at least 50 – 70% of your regular pay.

That way it isn’t a huge risk to leave with no guaranteed income. If you’ve got a proven track record of success, it’s less scary to take that next step. Although not everyone has the time or energy to build up their business while also working full-time somewhere else.

Conclusion

Quitting your job doesn’t have to be an all or nothing decision.

There are different ways that you can transition away from your current full-time job into running your freelance business.

You may start to build up your business in the evenings and on the weekends until you’re making enough money that you can just quit.

Or if you have a supportive boss, you may be able to reduce the amount of hours you work. Maybe you can have every Friday off to work on your business.

No matter what your situation is, I recommend making a budget and having at least six months worth of savings before deciding to quit and pursue your business.

But do set a deadline for yourself. Otherwise the fear may hold you back and you’ll never get started.