Do you remember the day when you quit 9-5 job?

Yes, our boss took us out to dinner on the day it was time to get a raise informing us they would not be able to increase our salary as they had agreed after we had been there 5 years. They apologized and told us that is we could find something better, they would understand. We put in our notice the following day.

That's a rough spot. That hasn't happened to me yet and hopefully I get out of the sand trap before it does.

I have it all planned out, its gonna be funny and memorable. I just have a long way to go.

18 years as a Plant Manager with Coca-Cola and on Feb 14 2011 decided to go full time with my marketing business. Love every last minute of it. It is a lot of work but I control my own destiny and can spend much more time with my 7 and 9 year old children.

I had been doing this part time for about three years so I did not start from scratch. I am so happy I did this.

My brother is a General Manager for Sam's Club and tells me every day how much he envies me because I set my own schedule. No longer do I spend the entire week wishing the weekend will get here….. everyday is the weekend when you love what you do (I know that sounds cliche' but it is true).

I DO NOT recommend just quitting your job if you are not making money at this yet. I was making over $50k per year at this part time when I quit and will make north of $100k this year doing this full time.

That being said…. work your butt off to get here…. it will be the best move you ever make.

Best of luck to you.

I remember mine.

It wasn't the best decision I ever made.

It's not always a good idea to quit your full time job, espcially if you're not earning enough elsewhere.

In hindsight, I would have stayed there until I was set up financially before I quit.

And I did hate the job, towards the end.

Sorry to say that I didn't have a Day Job...to quit..

Back a few years ago I was about to launch a membership site. I gathered 140 affiliates and thought I was set...and at the time I had a work place injury. Work made me choose between IM or work and I went with my dream.

Come launch time...and it flopped big time. It took me several months to find another job and was really depressing time. I would of had tens of thousands of dollars more if I never quit my job.

I wouldn't ever quit unless you were already making good money online.

Two weeks into a new job, I was seeing what it was like to work at a call center (almost 2 years ago). The day started at 8 AM, and by 8:45 I was bored. Calling people, asking people to pay their debts SUCKED!

I grabbed my stuff, got up, and walked out.

Last job I ever had.


Followed that with random money making ideas. Scrap metal, ebay, and then came into internet marketing.

Created a product. Built a website. Started selling the products. Started selling websites. Learned SEO. Started Selling SEO. Now I do SEO for 33 client sites. I worry about keyword research, competition research, on site changes, and off site strategy development. The rest I outsource to my team. And life is fantastic.

I will never work a "job" again.

Yep I remember when I quit my day job. I was marketing events for a lot of local businesses. And I sold $6,000 dollars in tickets and sponsorships for the event.

This made a light bulb go off in my head. Man I never generated $6,000 in a day working for someone else. I'm hard pressed to make this in a month working for someone else.

That was almost 20 years ago. So I planned to start my own clothing design company. Since I loved Marketing I used all my energy and resources to promo the hell out of my business in advance.

In short the 1st day we opened I made over $5,000 dollars. The 1st month we made over $12,000 dollars. On the other hand with taxes I was hard pressed to bring home $2,000 a month after taxes, SSI, ect from my Job (I was a single male with no real write offs).

I tried to stay on my job as long as I could to finance my business. But it was hard on me physically to run a business doing $11,000 or $12,000 a month and a full time job too. I became sick and exhausted trying to do both.

Finally, a national magazine Black Enterprise, and a lot of local newspapers started doing stories on my business. My old company saw a big two page spread picture of me in Black Enterprise and asked me to leave.

I had worked for this Fortune 1000 company for 9 years as a senior field engineer. But I left and never looked back. Being an entrepreneur is tough though and not for the faint of heart. I would recommend before you leave your job (I know how hard it is to stay on a job you hate) you should do these 3 things:

1. Make sure your business concept makes significant money before you leave;

2. If you have a lover or spouse make sure they are entrepreneurial minded and believe in you or - they will cut you down;

3. Try to have good credit or good relations with a nonprofit microloan organization which can give you business loans.

You ignore these my friend and you will more than likely be toast in business.

Actually I still have my 9-5, I'm not too eager to quit since I get medical and stuff; but when I start making 300$ a day, I'm probably going to quit it.

It's not the worst though, because on the slow days, I can actually work on my online business through my VPS (I have Xxserver), and I can access all my IM tools from there.

I have a pretty good relationship with my manager, he doesn't give a crap as long as I get the job done. So yeah, quitting a 9 to 5 is nice, but making money at home can get kind of lonely to be honest.

I look forward to quitting my job in the next year. I am learning everything possible about IM, SEO, SEM, etc. I have created about 10 sites and I am learning a ton every single day on this forum. I see myself quitting my job in a year. I will cross my fingers, and continue working hard : )

When I quit, it was quite funny. I wrote a resignation letter stating that I felt that I was overpaid and the only way that I would stay is if they reduced my salary in half. Of course this was BS, but I wanted to see their reaction.

They came back to me and told me that they could not reduce my salary, because it would effect the contract that they had with the government. Ahh government spending at its best!

This is a great thread. I'm fortunate enough to have a situation where I can work part time about 15-20 hours a week and support myself, which is giving me enough time to study, learn, and practice all this IM/SEO/SEM stuff. Going to keep at it until I can give up the part time stuff for full-time IM.

Yes, I do remember the day I quit my 9-5 job.

I worked there only fairly briefly (a few short months) and was running a small web-hosting business on the side. I wanted to go full-time with it, but didn't feel I could take it to that level whilst working 8 hours per day, 5 days per week (with a ~45 minute commute between my home and my workplace).

The tipping point came when I realised one day just how screwed up the whole deal was, and I felt physically ill with this morbid sense of impending doom.

I just went home at dinner time (a.k.a. on my lunch break ) and didn't go back. I was half expecting a good earful for "breaking my contract", but I was so depressed and infuriated with the whole thing that I didn't really care.

"If you wanted to leave, you were supposed to give notice!", said the HR lady when she called me up. "This reflects badly on me!"

My response was "If you wanted a slave, you were a couple of hundred years too late. Your crap affected me badly."

And that, as they say, was the end of that.

Hi:

Shireen here :-)

The day I quit my 9-5 job is the greatest day of my live so far.

I let go of my lecturing career when my IM income more than my job.

Yes, I remember...

It wasn't really 9-5 because it was in show biz, so the hours varied all the time.

Anyway, I was being offered a promotion. My "boss" told me that he could see me as of of his top people in 10 years...

I thought to myself - in 10 years I want to make more money in a day, than he makes in a year (he makes of couple of million a year).

So, a few days later I handed in my resignation.

Boy, has it been a roller coaster! I just love it, hehe

Yes it was a weird day because I actually liked all of the people I worked with and didnt mind the job itself but I just knew I could make more money and have more fun with IM.

The best part was walking out of the office on my last day knowing that I would never have to work a 9-5 again.

Plus I used to have to get a crammed train to work everyday through central London, which was horrendous! I can't remember the last time I was on a train or in a traffic jam during rush hour.

IM *ROCKS* !!

Jimmy

Yes I definitely remember that day!

My direct boss was on leave and so I went up to my VP to hand in my resignation letter. She didn't want to accept it and kept trying to persuade me not to quit but I told her I had already made up my mind.

That was more than 4 years ago...

I never regretted quitting my job... In fact, it's the best thing that ever happened to me... Been enjoying my IM journey, traveling the world and enjoying my freedom... Life is great!

I can never forget it. Now happy in spending time with family.

Good thread, i've heard another good method to quitting the day job is come up with an online business plan to get you there, taking small steps daily.

In any case, put a date up on your wall on when you want to quit. It's a powerful reminder that your subconscious will take on.

Well my situation is a little unique. I was in the military for a couple of years, got out and am now in a position where the goverment is footing the bill on my education. They provide me a housing allowance and i collect money from unemployment. I make decenet money for just going to schooL.
I have the oppurtunity to invest some time into my business, and am try to lay the foundation now, so when i'm done with school everything is in motion. If i keep at the rate that i'm going there should be no reason that i am not succesful after 4 yrs of work, i'm looking at the long term potenial.
And i do want to do this full time. After working for so hard in the military, 16 hr days, no sleep, taking peoples sh@t. I realized i can't work for someone else any more. If i keep doing what everyone else is doing I'm going to get what everyone else is getting . And most people live a mediocre life, dying slowly in their miserable live's, because they never had the balls to take a chance. I rather kill myself than to go back working a 9-5 B.S job. Knowing i know more than my boss, and i have put up with him to make a couple of measly dollars.
I can not see myself 20 years from now saying, i should have done this, i should have done that. And honestly a 9-5 isn't even guarunteed nowadays. To many people rely on job, which is understandable. Going out on your own, going against the grain is scary. And honestly a lot of people dream of having the lifestyle where they could set their own hours, get paid for what their worth, etc.
But never do anything towards it, because their family, friends look at them like they have 4 heads, if they told them they where trying to run a business online. I know because that's the reaction i get. I have worked plenty of jobs in my life, from managerial positions, sales, fast food, selling speakers out of back of a van. I know i have the drive i just need the right outlet. So right now, i might not have my income coming from IM full time, but you know what, it's just a matter of time before it does. AND NO ONE, CAN TELL ME DIFFRENT.

I used to work a 9-5 until I quit it and fully went heads on into IM - it has been the best decision that I have ever made.

I remember the day. I was excited and nervous at the same time. But now I am at the point where I am confident that the income is taking care of things

I am working towards that. I can't wait for the day where I can generate enough income and I am going to get out of where I am so fast!!!

After 10 years of working entirely online, I got scared by the approaching recession three years ago, and took a real job. I Love my real job, and love the benefits and stability it gives me. Not sure I would ever give it up willingly.

I'm under contract at my job for another 1.5 years.

But once that's over- I'm IM'in it full time, baby!

Beyond doubt it happens that you are being overly exploited at your 9-5 jobs. It sucked big time for me and after 3 long years of sufferings, I quit and now? I am happy!