How I Quit My Full Time Job and Started a Home-Based Business

If you’ve been wondering about how to quit your full time job and work for yourself with a home-based business, stay put because I’m going to share my story with you. Before we get into how I was able to quit my full time corporate job and start my own business from home, let’s talk about why you may want to have your own home-based business.

What Are the Advantages to Having a Home-Based Business?

There are so many pros when it comes to having your own business in the comfort of your own home. If you have young children, the obvious benefit is having the option to not use daycare (although many parents who own a home-based business still use daycare). Another benefit is not having to call in sick when your child is sick. There’s no commuting with a home-based business which saves you time and money. Oh, and not having a boss is pretty awesome 😆

Why Should I Start A Home-Based Business?

If you’re employed full time outside of the home, it’s always a great idea to start your own business. Think about what the chances you might lose your job suddenly or decide that you want to quit? Wouldn’t it be great to already have your own business to fall back on?

What Are the Steps I Should Take To Start My Own Home-Based Business?

First off, you’ll want to decide what type of business you want to start. Make sure it’s something you’re not only good at, but something you enjoy since it takes a lot of motivation to start your own business.

After you’ve decided what type of business you want to start – create a business plan. This will help keep you focused on what your business is about, the types of services you want to offer and also track and stay on top of business goals.

Make sure to register your business as an LLC in order to protect your personal assets since you’ll be using your home as your workplace.

Keep reading to hear about how I maintained a full time corporate job while starting my own small business. In my first years I managed to save $45,000 which was used towards a down payment on our first home. I went on earn more with my own business than I did at my full time job and was able to stay at home and raise our two children.

How I Started My First Business

Around 2011 I was working as a Senior Designer for an agency in New York and found myself dreaming about how I could start my own business. I wanted to have my own design clients and found that my full time job was leaving me bored and unfulfilled. After doing some research I decided to launch a clip art store on Etsy – and Sugar Studios was born!

How I Maintained Running a Home-Based Business While Being Employed Full Time

Over the next few years I began growing my business (rapidly!) and found it so exciting. Every time a new sale came through on Etsy I would smile with excitement. Eventually I found myself working on my own business while I was at work. At the time I felt like I was doing something wrong and would get fired if anyone knew, but eventually I realized as long as my work for my employer was done it wasn’t such a big deal.

In 2016 I had my first child and went on maternity leave. I knew I wouldn’t be returning to my full time job if I could make my own business match my salary. After I had Ryan, it was so much harder to take care of a baby than I ever imagined. I was sleep deprived, nursing, stressed out and overwhelmed. I tried to keep my job with my employer and reduce my hours down to part time, but even that was too much for me to manage on top of having a baby and my own business.

Although my business income wasn’t anything close to my full time salary, I quit my job! After talking things through with my husband, we decided it would be almost impossible for me to grow my own business without letting go of my corporate job once and for all.

The next couple of years were pretty stressful and sometimes I doubted my decision. As our first child grew into being a toddler, it was even more work than having an infant and I found myself staying up very late at night to get work done since there was no time during the day.

While it took a lot of time to get my business to where I wanted it to be BEFORE I quit my full time job, I’m thankful for the extra time I was able to spend at home with our two young children. Whenever the kids were sick, I never had to worry about cancelling a meeting or calling my boss to let them know I wouldn’t be in. I could take them for a picnic in the middle of the day and go to the beach on a whim.

If you’re thinking about starting a home-based business, you may have a lot of questions swirling around in your head on top of a lot of worries and doubts.

Quitting my full time job BEFORE I was ready, was the best decision because I don’t think I would have ever felt ready. Who knows, I may have still been stuck at that full time corporate job and dreaming about what would have happened if I had quit.

Have a question or a comment? Ask me in the comments below and I’ll reply back!