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At what point should I quit?
26 year old PPC manager here.
I make $95k + Bonus currently.
I’ve been taking on clients for a nights and weekends side gig because day job clients don’t excite me.
Just closed a client this morning that puts me over $95k in annual retainer fees for the side hustle.
My current workload is only sustainable for a few more months before I’m totally burned out so I’ve gotta start making moves to course correct now.
Should I quit the main job?
Should I risk asking to go part time?
Close more clients first? If so, what should my estimated annual retainer fees be before I quit the main job?
Hire a team member to assist take some of the side hustle workload off?
I want so bad to just focus full time on my thing but I can’t lie stepping away from the security of a paycheck is harder than I thought it would be.
Any helpful advice welcome. Would especially love to hear from anyone who’s made this jump successfully on their own.
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1 Reply
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There is no right answer. Everyone quits at a different time. I did it 6 years ago when I bored of my day job and had a stable set of clients. Are you sure you want to manage people? That is very different then doing your own solo thing. If you are making more then your day job and have been for a while and want to see what working for yourself is life, then go for it.
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These feel like questions we can’t answer for you.
Personally, I’d keep going on both for as long as possible. The freelancing “matching” your full-time job is great, but don’t forget about benefits. Also, the security and stability of a job is priceless.
Additionally, I get that you’re beginning to feel burnout, but if you quit your full-time job you’re not going to magically stop growing your freelance business. That will continue to grow and at the point you’re at 200k there you *may* feel burnout as well.
> because day job clients don’t excite me.
Also I’d change your perspective on that. Regardless of what decision you make, work is typically going to be unexciting and it’s better to train yourself to be okay with that then be unrealistic.
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In all honesty, if it were me, I would hire someone and split the commission 60:40 and keep the money rolling.
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This could be your path to starting your own agency by hiring some trustworthy people and this would be the best opportunity to know what kind of people you would be looking for too.
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So you make $95k+ at your job and $95k on top of that in retainers?
First of all, congrats!
Your job arguably has more security, while your “side hustle” has more scaling potential. The question also is how quickly you are getting clients. If you are acquiring them fast, you might be at $150k reasonably fast. Also, in that case the risk of running out of money or clients anytime soon is low.
However, if you sign a new client every 3 months and its very inconsistent I’d consider staying at your job a bit longer, for now. It all comes down to momentum.
Hiring someone is way more difficult than what it sounds like. I was making good 6-figures before getting the first person on board (that I’m still training). Finding good people is hard. And just hiring a freelancer that takes clients of mine isn’t an option, at least for me. But everyone is different.
Good luck!
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Can you tell us where you live?
Do you have any dependents?
Do you have any debt?
Can you live comfortably on $95K per year?
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Would love to hear your story.
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That was the range I was at when moving to full time and quitting day job. Have a family as well so I had to be sure my client list was stable before considering it. Removing my then day job made the stress a lot more bearable as I was able to open up 50hrs a week, and I could already pay myself the same i was making in my day job.
Insurance is affordable in US even for a family of 3. Just be sure your clients are stable and have been stable for the majority of the year or two, if so you shouldn’t have an issue.
I should also add, plan on downsizing your expenses if you plan to do this and your spouse doesnt work or works from home too. If you’ve been loving at 95k try living at lower to add a cushion, you won’t need multiple cars if both working from home. Make sure the numbers make sense, be frugal the first few months you transition over to gauge how tight money is.
There’s no perfect time but worst case Opening upt he hours can give you more time to grow a bit more and have a stable financial situation.
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You make 95k just from side clients or your job plus side stuff?
Only you know when to quit but the advice I’d give, as someone who’s done what you’re about to do, is make sure you have a lot of savings.
You never know what will happen with clients, and it’s good to have a cushion of 6-12 months living expenses.
Beyond that do you when you can’t stand to be working anymore at your job.
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It sounds similar to the scenario my wife and I found ourselves in around 2017. We started building an agency on the side in March of 2017 while still retaining our 9 to 5 jobs. Before too many months, we were already making more from our agency than we were from our jobs. She quit in June and I quit in October.
Since then, our income has grown by an average of 38% *each year*. That’s not saying it’s easy: it’s actually very stressful at times. Hiring, sales, payroll, accounting, process, all that on top of running Google Ads accounts can be a big chew.
But it’s totally worth it.
Here’s the thing: *people like to say a 9 to 5 is more stable*.
But the company we worked for previously? They’ve gone through mass layoffs. Likely going under soon. We would have *never* made this much working there or anywhere else. The independence and freedom we’ve gotten from this has allowed us to work from anywhere, I’ve now visited 50 countries, and our brand has grown to the point where we get a steady stream of incoming leads so stability is not an issue. Cash flow is good, debt is nil. If a recession hits, we could lose two thirds of our clients and still be fine.
**I say go for it.**
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I had a similar situation. If I were you, I would go as long and as intense as you can until you find it unsustainable. “Burnout” is a semantic concept, not literally a point where your life collapses. Be mindful of your quality of life and how you feel, and quit when you hit a point where you;re like “damn. I’m really NOT enjoying this”.
I maintained a 9-5 making 130k AND a solo PPC side hustle that was bringing in an additional $8,000 a month. I still was able to find time to go and enjoy life, but also REALLLLLLLLY REALLLLLLY benefitted from the large amount of liquidity I was earning. That put me in a position to clear out a huge portion of my mortgage, pay off my car loan, make large investments into crypto and the stock market (this was pre-pandemic, leading into the bull run of 2021) and now I have dramaticially lower living expenses (still bit remaining on the mortgage) and allow myself to be in a secure position.
I stopped the side hustle around a year ago and now just work my normal 9-5 while enjoying my nights and weekends to myself.
My goal in life is not to become “rich”, but instead I just want to be comfortable. I’m super comofrtable now
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Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
Personally I’d go for it but only you can make that decision.
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Hire someone to help you first.
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If I can ask, what do you provide exactly for $8k/month? Is it just Google Ads, or also FB and others? Just curious
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Just to add something different into the mix of comments here: have you considered making your current full time job a part time job? Of course it’ll ultimately depend on how accommodating your boss and your employer is, but food for thought
This can make the transition much smoother in the future when you just work on your own agency full time
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Well hello Mr Fancypants
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