Should I Blog Full-time?
My recent lay-off has forced me to think about the future and how I want to live my life down the road. While the money plays an important part in that, it’s not everything. I’ve been asking myself: do I really want to be a corporate slave? Do I want to rely on the largesse of any one company to put food on the table?
The answer, of course, is a resounding no, which is part of the reason I started this blog in the first place. Eventually, I want to retire from the corporate world and focus on running my small businesses full-time. Sure, I may decide to do contract work in my old industry from time to time if the pay is right, but for the most part the goal is independence.
I’m At A Crossroads
It seems fate has forced my hand somewhat. My original goal was to make the transition by my 30th birthday a little over 3 years from now, but I suddenly find myself in a situation where I need to be able to generate enough money to support myself with no job to fill the gap. The question is, should I accelerate my plans in response to this new development or should I go the less risky route of finding gainful employment and continuing to chug along on various side projects in my spare time?
On the one hand, I was a bit underpaid at my last job. I’ve talked to several recruiters (referred to me as being the best) and they have all told me that with my resume, I should be able to find something by Christmas paying at least $5,000 more than I was making before. That’s heartening, to say the least, but it also makes me lean more towards striking out on my own for now. After all, if I could find a new job that easily in a down economy it means I could find one even easier once the recovery starts (soon hopefully!). Thus, there’s less risk in trying the blogging thing for 6-12 months to see how it goes. If, after 6 months, I don’t feel like I’ll be able to support myself before my savings run out, I could always hit the job search trail again. In the meantime, I will have built a significant alternative income stream, even if it’s not enough to support me full-time. Yet.
On the other hand, going full-time at this point would be a huge risk. Sure, I have plenty of cash reserves for now, but there’s no guarantee I could generate enough revenue to be self-sufficient 12 months from now. Is it possible? Sure. I’ve seen people do it. But the odds are still relatively low in my opinion. Give me two years and I would absolutely go for it, but one? That’s a long, difficult road. And that doesn’t even include the fact that online revenue tends to be relatively volatile. What if, 12 months from now, I think I’m fine and then all of a sudden the bottom drops out? My emergency fund will have been pretty much completely depleted by then and I would have nothing to fall back on.
A Hybrid Approach
As you may have guessed, I’ve decided on a hybrid approach. Since I likely have 4-8 weeks at the very least before I would be able to nail down a new job anyway, I’m going to work full-time on my online ventures in the meantime. That means at least 40 hours per week, if not more. That should give me ample time to write quality content for this blog, promote it, create a few more mini-sites, and maybe even start another blog (in the Travel niche, perhaps? Any thoughts?) At the same time, I will actively be seeking freelance and short-term contract work in my old industry for extra cash (software development, and maybe some light scripting and web design as well). As for job offers, I will be extremely picky, at least at this early juncture. Unless I fall in love with the job, I’m not likely to accept an offer for less than $5,000 more than I was making before. That said, if an amazing job opportunity fell into my lap I would probably accept it. Independence can wait a few years, and it’s difficult to put a price on subsized health insurance! It may not be ideal and I wasn’t fully prepared (how can you ever be?), but this is my best shot at an initial plan to manage outside the corporate world.
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I have considered the same thing many times, but the reality is that it takes several years to build an income stream large enough to support a family (in my case). But, if I was pushed (laid off), I would probably focus on growing my business and forget the corporate world.
At the very least, if I were you, I would create a legal business entity (like an S-Corp or LLC) and fugure out how you are going to manage marketing/ support/ accounting/ pricing/ distribution/ etc. – so that the foundation is well established.
The presidential election could change a lot of things. If the health care changes are favorable to small businesses, that would be a big factor in my decision.
You should consider creating a new business for the new economy. If many other people are going to get laid off, they will all be looking for work. If you can find a way to put them to work for you, as independent sales reps, you could build your business without employees and take advantage of the current poor of unemployed talent in the market.
I wouldn’t believe the recruiters either. There numbers are based on the past. Going forward, companies are laying off.
Kyle, start submitting your article to tipd.com, a new pfbuzz.com.
Just popped in via Tipd. I’m sorry to hear about your layoff.
It sounds like you’ve got a great plan though. Definitely a good opportunity to take advantage of your newly-available hours to build your business(es).
Best of luck!
Do what’s in your heart man. If you can make it blogging, then that’s the answer. If it’s a balance between the clock puncher job and blogging, make it work until blogging can become your full time passion. Blogging is definitely fun. Don’t if it will become my full time profession, but can see it being a second full-time job/hobby.
I just popped in via Tipd too and I have to say, your hybrid approach is the best but I wouldn’t too picky about the next new job. It’s one thing to work on your passion because you love it, it’s another to work on it because you are forced to. Blogging isn’t a “spend X hours, get X results” type of business.
I had been blogging for over three years before I opted to voluntarily resign and work on it full time. I definitely still enjoy it, have no regrets, so I can say that you’re going in the right direction; just don’t try to rush it. You can still work 8 and then put in 2-3 hrs at night on it and still be successful by the time you’re 30.
Go for it Kyle, provide some inspiration to the rest of us who want to follow the full time blogging path. Given the responses to your last 2 articles on this I am sure there will be a lot of interest in your journey.
Blogging is a great long term goal, and it will be possible to make decent income from it in the future. However I think your optimism in the short term is misplaced.
As George Soros put it, we are moving into a wealth destruction phase. I think it would be wise not to underestimate the potential seriousness of the crisis we are in, which was caused by people spending way beyond their means in many areas. As the economy contracts, so will advertising budgets, expenditures on webpages, and online purchases. Bloggers making money on advertising should expect to see a dramatic loss of revenue, and I suspect that there will be many who are not able to live on their incomes any longer.
Also, unfortunately, you should be realize that your financial cushion could disappear more quickly than you think in this environment.
You are young and have plenty of time to create the independence you want. In my opinion, this is a terrible time to turn down any reasonable job.
Found you via Tipd. I too like the hybrid approach. I never like the feeling of dipping into my savings…
If I were you I would go for the job first which would let you accumulate a higher nest egg and possibly give you a higher security in the short-term.
You could always build your business in the afternoons and weekends.
I also believe however that Matt was correct in the fact that during a recession advertising budgets are cut. So relying mainly on ad revenues during a downturn is not a good diversifier. You should also try to create another income stream from dividend income as well.
Here’s my opinion for what it’s worth. In ordinary times I would say go ahead with the blogging option since you seem to have the motivation to succeed. Call me a pessimist though but I still think the economy has to further to drop before hitting a bottom that a recovery can be built on. If I’m right about that, you’d be better off getting a job now while things are only moderately bad, then further down the road when things are worse. This is the time when you want to be putting money in the bank so that you will be poised to act when the economy does recover. Long term I think blogging will be viable as a career option, but I would elect to do it in your spare time and make sure your #1 priority is a fairly reliable source of income and benefits. I think even though advertising will be reduced overall during the economy’s downturn, I believe the economic situation could precipitate a sharp move of advertising dollars to the web as a cost cutting move. This is good for long-term outlook of blogging in general, but in the short term my worry would be disruptions to your income stream caused by businesses cutting back sharply on all their expenses at once in a fear response to what they see happening in the markets. In this situation, you want to have money in the bank so that your decisions can be made not out of fear, but in accordance with your long term strategy.
Being a university student who has invested in real estate and has a source of passive income, I feel it is important to generate as much income at this point as possible.
On top of studying full time, I also work full time in a position that is not in the field because I strongly believe in a diversified income.
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