Infographic: Should You Quit Your Day Job?

Should-you-quit-your-day-job

There are countless stories about creative entrepreneurs who quit their day jobs, in order to pursue their dream careers. There’s even a class here that can help you do exactly that.

Held up as the answer to decades of cubicle-dwelling in a miserable, “Office Space”-esque existence, the advice to “just quit” is thrown around with perhaps too much ease.


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After all, to actually quit your job and pursue a life as an artist, a photographer, a freelancer, or another sort of self-employed creative entrepreneur isn’t always the most responsible choice.

Sometimes, you need to keep gritting it out at your day job for a while in order to save the money or acquire the skills you’ll need to really succeed in your solo pursuits. Only once you’ve grown a side business up to a sustainable level of recurring income while keeping your day job, should you consider severing ties with your sole source of income.

Being Realistic

Though rarely discussed in the ultra-positive “quit your day job and become an artist” narrative, real-life factors — debt, housing costs, the need to save for your kids’ college — do matter when making the decision to quit. There’s also the question of whether or not you’re really prepared for a full-time job working for yourself.

Business plans, P&R reporting, marketing materials — the elements of successfully running a business are many, and don’t always come naturally to creatives. Unless you’ve spent time figuring out how to make money from your trade, times could be excessively lean after quitting your day job.

But sometimes, quitting is the right move.

The Decision: Should You Quit Your Day Job?

In the end, how do you really know if you’re ready to jump into the world of self-employment?

To help you make that call, we’ve designed this infographic to walk you through the process of deciding whether you should, in fact, quit your job. Of course, this process may not hold true for everyone, but it’ll be extremely helpful as you weigh your options and consider all of the potential outcomes heading your way.

Quit_Your_Job_Flow_Chart_revised

So, what’s it going to be?


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Hanna Brooks Olsen is a writer and editor for CreativeLive, longtime reporter, and the co-founder of Seattlish. Follow her on Twitter at @mshannabrooks or go to her website for more stuff.