Comments on: Nows a good time for moonlighting as an entrepreneur

By: babu

babu — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:55:42 +0000

(3) Keep small, daily goals for yourself. For example, I’ll implement the site registration / login module today. Accomplishing such small goals will work wonders towards keeping you motivated
These lines are very true in my experience. Now, I am doing this, spending my weekends and weekday nights. Leaving my job is the best idea, I think. But, I make up my mind everyday, that I am going office daily, to earn for my initial start up fund. I think my break even point lies in the next few months.

By: Ayushman Dash

Ayushman Dash — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 08:06:25 +0000

I completely agree with you considering the current job scenario. Sticking to your job is important at least for the next 6 months. Obviously then, moonlighting remains the only option. I have been doing it for quite some time. But then, you might have to consider working full time on your start up in the near future as you get involved more and more.

By: Gaurav

Gaurav — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:42:26 +0000

I can’t agree with Ashwin anymore. This is the time when you actually get lesser competition as others (including giants) will go into their cocoons.

Check this out if you haven’t already read this out. http://www.paulgraham.com/badeconomy.html

By: pranav

pranav — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:58:08 +0000

@ankur,

I’d bother about GAE or AWS later — to get off the ground, a simple shared hosting account should suffice

@ashwin,

jumping in full time is always a good idea, because you can contribute a 100% energy and focus on your efforts. however, considering the current market conditions, several folks might just be apprehensive to take the plunge full time. in that case, it wouldnt be a bad idea to test the waters by moonlighting a prototype

By: Ashwin

Ashwin — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:01:53 +0000

To add to the above point, assuming the salary hikes next year aren’t going to be anything like in the past – this is the best time period to experiment ’cause the opportunity cost hasn’t been so attractive for a while.

By: Ashwin

Ashwin — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:58:57 +0000

I beg to differ. I hold a contrarian view. I feel this is the best time to jump full time, if one has done his/her homework right.
> Evaluate if the market opportunity is real
> Find out how the target market is effected or going to be effected by the slowdown in the economy
> Does the product or service give immediate benefits, either tangible or monetary to the end users/customers
> Are they willing to pay for the product / service

If the answers to all the above is in affirmative, then this is the best time to go entrepreneurial.

Agreed, times are tough, a few jobs may be lost, funding will be tough – but if one were serious he/she would already have planed and set aside a significant amount of personal savings to stay afloat for atleast a year or two before real revenue from the product begins to flow in. These times test ones conviction, cause once he/she takes the plunge there’s no looking back. One can’t chicken out at the end of 6 months and go back to 9-5 job, it might be a hard find.

That leaves only one way to success, to excel through the product/service offering and build something that the market really wants and is willing to pay for.

By: Anand

Anand — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:43:48 +0000

While moonlighting, it is a good idea to implement in phases. Execute phase one while you are developing phase 2 and so on.

Some of the problems in moonlighting with your day job are disclosing founders’ identity openly, networking on sites like linkedin, participating in contests where founder details are required to be disclosed, registering a legal entity etc. It could also become a roadblock when you are looking for tie-ups with established players.

Can anybody please share how are you managing these issues while in day job?

By: Sushrut

Sushrut — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:22:36 +0000

There are few other ways to increase chances of success. Essentially increasing the cash flows without shifting your focus is the key.
Many entrepreneurs believe that only way to reduce outflow is doing everything in-house. Which cant be more incorrect. Generally advice is value your time. Calculate how much you can earn in a given hour as a freelancer. Now decide which tasks takes up entire hour and gives you lesser money. Delegate, outsource these tasks. your productivity is more, focus is there. If required use these hours to actually freelance

By: Ankur

Ankur — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:21:20 +0000

Adding to point 4). One can use Google App Engine to significantly bring down cost. (One cannot run a background process on appengine and there are few drawback, and the only runtime language supported as of today is python).