
"I Quit" 1 Year anniversary - eibrahim
http://www.emadibrahim.com/2009/03/09/i-quit-1-year-anniversary/
======
PonyGumbo
I've just passed my five year anniversary. I would do it again, but the
financial instability is still extremely stressful, particularly as I enter my
mid-thirties. It's always feast or famine.

My observations:

1\. Pay off debt as quickly as you can. When you're broke again, you'll be
grateful you did.

2\. Never put all of your eggs in one basket. When you only have one or two
major sources of revenue (or clients), you're as dependent as an employee, but
considerably less secure.

3\. No matter how unnecessary it may seem, have a real, legally binding
contract for any work you commit to do. I thought I did. I was wrong.

4\. Budget for marketing. You can't depend on viral marketing alone.

5\. Have health insurance. It's expensive and you can't afford it, and I know
you're young and healthy, but when your appendix decides it's time to come
out, you'll be on the hook for about $22,000.

6\. If you're working from home, set boundaries. I won't work past 8pm, and I
try to take one day a week off.

Ideally, you'll have some brilliant idea, already live frugally, have no debt,
and a craft a bulletproof plan. Realistically, nothing can prepare you for the
experience.

~~~
shaunxcode
do you (or anyone) have recommendations regarding health insurance for
"private contractors"/small (2-3 employee) businesses?

~~~
PonyGumbo
I'm currently on a small business HMO plan through Blue Cross/Blue Shield. I'm
in Massachusetts, though, so I can't necessarily recommend it if you live
elsewhere (insurance here is compulsory, rates are partially regulated, etc).
The one advantage of being on a small business plan here is that you're
covered the day your first check clears. In contrast, individual plans
generally have a 6 to 8 month waiting period during which you pay premiums but
receive no coverage.

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Brushfire
_Overall, I am glad I quit my job. Other than the fact that I am broke, I
learned and accomplished a lot and ready to take Yonkly to the next level._

Personally, I think this is awesome, but it also should serve as a warning to
those that are afraid of financial troubles. Most people who go this route
truly do have to risk it all, so if you arent ready for that you should find a
way to transition. For me -- living on the cheap while doing your own thing is
great, and the only way to really motivate.

~~~
eibrahim
I agree. It is very risky. When I made that decision, I basically told myself
"what is the worst that could happen?" The answer was "lose my house and
rental properties, declare bankruptcy, screw up my credit score". Then I
thought "that's not too bad." I graduated in 1999 with zero money and got to
where I am, so I can probably do it again in half the time.

~~~
Brushfire
Right on!. I'm with you. However, probably not recommended with kids or
medical problems.

But for everyone else, as long as you can get over the ego parts -- you will
have to give up going to nice places for dinner, driving nice cars, having big
houses, new toys, vacations etc, all the way to bankruptcy, as you said --
then it is worth it.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
i think a lot of these fears are played up by society in order to induce good
worker bee syndrome. losing your material wealth ain't shit in the face of
freedom. programmers have the most in demand skill in the world right now. if
you go broke you can always come back. as Borat said to the chicken: live your
life!

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floozyspeak
Living on the cheap is one thing, going into huge credit card debt will follow
you forever. :( Sounds like a gleeful story of doing it "your way" but a
massive cost.

I think the blog post is a bit in denial because you haven't really said
anything about any future out comes you see happening next.

What is the credit card debt? How much do you think you'll make on the book
after publisher fees/whatever other costs. The web 2.0 service is cool does it
have any plan for profit?

Congrats on the engagement and doing your own thing, I just wonder if you'd do
it all over again or if you'd try and bootstrap your own efforts more so that
you could avoid the financial black eye ya got here and still make something
your truly passionate about.

~~~
eibrahim
Will I do it all over again? Absolutely :)

I am not sure I can discuss the book fees but it is not substantial. Probably
enough for 2 or 3 months of living expenses.

Credit card debt is huge. Think of a number. Then double it :)

Yonkly is already profitable. It covers its operating cost and more.

Thanks.

~~~
9oliYQjP
Let's say you're carrying $50K of credit card debt. Do you realize how much it
costs just to service that debt? If your revenue is not greater than the
minimum payments (just over the cost of interest) on that debt plus your
living expenses, then you're a dead man walking. Borrowing from Peter to pay
Paul works until you've max'd out your credit lines, and right now from the
sounds of it you're accelerating toward that limit faster than you realize.

Focus on your cash flow. You need to be able to service that debt and pay for
your cost of living. If you don't want to take a salaried job, start focussing
on your consulting gigs. Preferably, find gigs that pay more. If that's not
enough, take more of them (but be sure you can do the work).

I wish you luck. But it sounds to me like you're starting to realize you're in
over your head and you're a bit shell shocked. I've been in your shoes, and I
had to make some tough choices that involved temporarily moving back in with
my parents until I got my finances under control, and working my ass off to
the point where I barely got enough sleep. Thank goodness I didn't have
mortgages to carry though.

------
raffi
Congrats on making it this far. Maybe we should start a meetup or support
group for hackers who quit their jobs to find their entrepreneurial selves.

I just had my one year anniversary six days ago. Oh how time flies. I left the
military to venture out on my own, finish graduate school, and see what
happened.

I'd love to tell the rest of the story but I have to go catch a train. If you
get a chance, consider writing about the ups and downs of the process. I know
in the beginning it really ate me that I wasn't making progress fast enough.
Time, progress, and a sweet spot for pain helped :) but yeah... its an
interesting process.

~~~
msb
I just passed my 7th year of self-employment and have been through many ups
and downs. I have learned a lot but still have a lot of questions. I don't
comment much on HN, but I respect and trust this community quite a bit. I
think a support group is a great idea. Anyone else?

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floozyspeak
Well its still a good inspiration story and it may fly in the face of rising
unemployment and horrific economic playground happening out there right now.

Major props for laying the story down, not enough people do that.

Overall I still feel you need 1 or 2 more bankable deals under the table to
help you pay off the debt and getting back into the green of things.

Luckily you got into the ad model biz when you did because that is a dying
model of profit. Covering operating costs and groceries is good but you should
probably try to weave it into a sale or use it as a spring board to get a
consultancy gig. Meanwhile the book keeps you a bit above water but well..
you're outa ammo.. start working on book 2 asap and get some additional green
in that door or the stress of debt will eat the love of your life.

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veteran
i know it is for all of you to downvote - but no fixed income, 2 houses,
credit card debts, looking for investment , ppl find it inspirational...

i just don't feel like filing taxes this year

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lacker
A bit off topic, but I notice you have both huge credit card debt and rental
properties. Isn't that just a losing arbitrage?

~~~
eibrahim
yes. Did I mention that I am bad at managing my finances. Plus I thought the
houses would go up and I would sell and make a $100k off each. Enough to
finance my startup for 2+ years. It didn't work out that way though.

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jreposa
It's been 1 year and you're broke. Where do you plan on spending your time, on
Yonkly and the book? Do you have any other next steps?

Great story and congrats on your engagement!

~~~
eibrahim
I am doing small consulting jobs here and there that barely pay the bills but
I am mostly focused on Yonkly (the book is almost done). I am also in the
process of talking to investors and if things work out then it will be 110%
Yonkly.

~~~
bprater
How much time are you spending on the marketing aspect of Yonkly? If you
aren't and started spending an hour or two a day -- seriously attacking it,
you might be able to get ramen profitable quickly.

For instance, the site doesn't quickly drive home why I need your service. It
kind of muddles around. If you tightened things up, starting an affiliate
program, did some AdWords, etc. you might be able to focus on the project 100%
once it pays the mortgage.

Google 'yonkly' -- it's strange what it comes up with. That type of thing
needs to be fixed. Just a couple ideas, hope this helps -- I launched my web
service last month and we are already ramen profitable.

~~~
eibrahim
There is just not enough hours in the day. I do need to focus more on
marketing but I am not an expert. Can you recommend anyone that will work for
equity? :)

I googled Yonly and everything looks. What exactly are you referring to that
needs to be fixed?

~~~
dandelany
The google description of the site is:

Yonkly - Create your own network stephp elmagnifico domnanou wmshaxpere yonkly
eibrahim venturedig troygoode eonian ... domain yonkly chinese sbepstein
allenwang allenwang1981 rmarley ...

I'm guessing that these are usernames of your users, but I'm not sure why
they're being used as your Google description. See if you can fix this and
replace it with a description of what Yonkly is, and I'd bet your search
engine traffic will increase dramatically

~~~
eibrahim
thanks for the heads up.

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wannabetechgeek
I just quit a lucrative job in Vietnam and will be moving back to the Bay to
seek a marketing position with a tech company. Obviously not a good time, I
know. But like you, I've found a path I'm excited about pursuing and need to
move on and make it happen. It's only been 2 weeks since I quit - and have
some plans to travel and live in Vietnam while I begin the job search. Not a
bad place to be while you're jobless and seeking! It also works because I'm
single and have no debt. I hope my 1 Year post won't include me being broke,
i.e., I hope I find a job, but sounds like there may be some more payoff
coming to you with Yonkly and the book. Thanks for sharing such a personal
story. Good luck!

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coglethorpe
I think Yonkly is a really cute (as in clever) idea and could get some
traction. Have I wonder if the author has looked getting investors on board.

Maybe if people had revenue sharing or just the ability to monetize their, um,
"yonks" they could have enough incentive to make the service take off.

~~~
coglethorpe
Oh, from the site: "Monetize through Ads"

I like the ability to show a thumbnail in the posts.

~~~
eibrahim
One of our clients is <http://photographersjournal.yonkly.com/home> and they
have a ton of cool photos. Check them out.

------
fraXis
Thanks for sharing this. Very inspirational.

Where are you hosting your site? Are you hosting at Dreamhost (whois data)? I
don't see anything on their site about ASP.Net apps. If not, where are you
hosting it or are you doing it yourself in a data center?

Thanks.

~~~
apgwoz
Dreamhost doesn't support ASP.NET that I know of, but you can create CNAME
records to point elsewhere.

------
jacoblyles
The more I read these stories, the more I appreciate the patio11 approach.

~~~
sofal
I just keep thinking to myself, "here I am working so hard at improving my
programming abilities so that I can create more ambitious applications, and
this guy is making a small fortune selling a freakin' Bingo card maker."

~~~
patio11
Its more of a small fortune cookie than a small fortune. Maybe something along
the lines of "90% of the important stuff happens outside of the IDE."

On the plus side, it proves what you want to do is achievable, right? Make
program, improve lives of customers, get paid for it.

~~~
jacoblyles
I really appreciate your contributions to this site. Your experience is
outside the norm and you put forth the effort to share it. That's valuable.

------
rokhayakebe
Congratulations on becoming "Ramen Profitable". If you decided to email 5
enterprises everyday about "Yonkly For Businesses", I bet you would do even
better. Great work.

------
joubert
Very cute puppy.

