Should I Quit My Job?
Thinking about quitting your job? You’re not alone. In fact, 4.3 million people quit their jobs in August and many more in September. The number rises every month.
People have had enough of being treated like their personal life doesn’t matter, like their job is their top priority, and their kids can take care of themselves because their boss needs them to work 50 hours this week.
You may be wondering if it’s worth quitting or what you would even do if you did quit.
Is there no better option? Are most other jobs going to get you back in the same situation of not having the flexibility you want in your life? Most will.
Some companies are offering better options than others, but overall you’ll struggle to find the freedom you’re looking for if you just go back to another employee job. That’s why 10 million people are considering freelancing per a recent study.
Freelancing is the only way to truly be FREE in your work when it comes to:
How you work
When you work
Where you work
How much you earn
How many hours you work
Maybe you’ve thought about freelancing but aren’t sure what you would do as a freelancer.
Well, I have a video all about how to convert your employee resume into a freelance portfolio.
And I have another video from my podcast called “What can I do as a Freelancer if I’m currently an employee?”
I encourage you to check those out to discover just how many ways you can convert your experience into a thriving freelance business.
Here are some things to analyze when deciding whether it’s time to quit your job or not:
1. Does your employer respect your personal and family needs and are they flexible when you need to adjust your work schedule to address those needs?
If not, quit. This is especially important as a parent, because your family needs you and you have to have enough flexibility to be able to give them the time they deserve.
2. Do you have money in savings? Lot’s of debt?
If you’re in a crappy financial situation and have debt and no money in savings, don’t quit right away.
There is much you can do to start building up your side hustle while keeping your full-time job. Then at a certain point, when you’re financially stable, you can make the leap full-time into your freelance business.
But if you have no money to live off of, you may need to be patient and get yourself into a better financial situation first because starting a freelance business does have risks.
You don’t know exactly how long it will take for you to earn enough money to replace your previous job. It might only take you 3 months if you have the right skills and education and are great at selling. It may take a year or more.
I recommend getting educated on what freelancing entails before quitting your job. At least start getting educated. If you have plenty of money savings you can live off of for a few months and feel confident that you’ll commit full-time to building up your business, you might be able to pull it off. But if not, just start getting educated like you are right now by watching this video, and wait to quit your job.
3. Do you have the right skill set? Are you prepared for being an entrepreneur?
The biggest learning curve isn’t in the skills you’ll be selling as a service.
It’s the skill OF selling, being able to enroll clients into your services.
That was the hardest part for me, and I think it tends to surprise most beginner freelancers. They think they are ready to go because they have pristine writing skills but they don’t know how to convince a client to hire them so they don’t succeed. I have a whole podcast episode on how to sell your services to clients. Go Back to Bed Episode 17, you can find it on arrowlight.tv.
So as you can see, I’ve mentioned a lot of other videos to watch, that’s a great starting point to advance your education.
4. Do you want to have more control over your time, life, and money?
Another thing to consider when deciding whether to quit is what kind of life you want to live.
Do you want to spend 40 hours per week working away from home having to cater to the schedule someone else dictates to you? Do you want to spend more time with your spouse and kids? Do you want to keep getting incremental raises of 3% per year or 50% per year? I’ve been able to increase my income by 50% every year since I started freelancing. That’s how you beat inflation and get your family ahead when everything is becoming unaffordable.
If you prefer to have someone else hand you work to do in exchange for a paycheck, and you’re okay to have little say in how, where, when and how much you work then don’t quit, freelancing isn’t for you.
If you stop trying to grow your business and don’t look for clients, your business starts to fall, so you have to be willing to keep up the momentum. That doesn’t mean you are working 60 hour weeks. I only work 25 hours per week and I take several weeks off per year and that’s enough to keep growing my business.
5. Do you need to leave your job for other reasons like more career opportunities?
Now maybe you’re not meant for freelancing but you really are in a crappy job and you could do better. That’s something to consider but I’m not the one to help you with that. I’m here to help you quit your job confidently so you can start freelancing from home and never have to give up your freedoms to your employer again. You get to decide.
If you’re experiencing abuse at work, then just leave, regardless of your financial situation and have faith you’ll figure it out. Just know you’re worth more than you think. You have skills you can offer for way more than you’re currently getting paid.
The short answer to “should I quit my job?” is:
if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you need to quit.
As far as when, that depends on where you’re at in figuring out the next step and what kind of cushion you’re sitting on financially. Get educated, keep building your financial cushion, but ultimately, trust yourself and your ability to figure it out. Don’t let fear hold you back from taking the leap and making a better life for you and your family.
If you have any questions and need some additional help in deciding whether to quit, comment below, go to arrowlight.tv and shoot us an email. Glad to have you here.