How do you keep your personal financials afloat when you’re at $0 revenue?

[justinslife]

@cbrooks624 If you need money don't turn down any part-time trust me. Take what you can get to pay the bills. Also, if you can make 200k definitely take that. You can always work on your dream after work but nothing beats a stable income.

 

[lettuce]

@cbrooks624 Plan for things to take a lot longer than you think and more money than you think.

If that means working a job to keep yourself afloat, that’s what you have to do.

I built my first business working evenings and weekends and only quit when I could replace my income.

My second business I was living off the sale of my first business.

 

[giboradonai]

@lettuce Congrats, what type of businesses if you don’t mind me asking?

 

[lettuce]

@giboradonai

1. Property rental business
2. Proptech business

 

[tigermoose]

@cbrooks624 This is another reason why there is the concept of an mvp. It is help to prove the market quickly, or move onto the next thing. You do it while you work on other things.

Good luck. I know it is rough.

 

[taylo1h]

@cbrooks624 In the past, I often referred to this story when faced with defeat or when I considered giving up on my business.

While the destruction of the Aztec Empire at the hands of the Spanish Conquistadors is a brutal example of Mexican history, it certainly helps inspire people to succeed at all costs.

In 1519, after landing in Veracruz, Mexico, to begin his conquest of the Aztec Empire, Cortés reportedly ordered his own fleet of ships to be burned or scuttled. This drastic action was taken to eliminate the possibility of retreat, thereby forcing his men to commit to the conquest of Mexico. The message was clear: there was no turning back, and the only way out was to succeed in their mission.

If you truly want to succeed at your business, the answer is simple.

Burn the boats.

 

[velour100]

@cbrooks624 Personally I liquidated everything, investment accounts, 401k's, sold my real estate, basically wiped out everything so that I could go without income and feed the business

 

[cbrooks624]

@velour100 401k is an option. I just don’t see the reason to keep going if don’t even have a problem to solve

 

[nalyna]

@cbrooks624 Yeah there is nothing wrong with giving up. You shouldnt quit your job until you have at least a validated problem.

 

[nyanmaru]

@nalyna Its probably not even giving up but taking a creative pause, put the ear to the pulse while on the job, within your field of expertise and potentially your field to go on your own.

Took me 10 years to build relationships, funds and ideas to make a change, and with that revenue.

Plus, relationships to potential customers are for free while getting paid.

 

[nancyfromsc]

@cbrooks624 The first thing I see is that this appears to primarily be a marketing problem. One thing I'm noticing in your comment is that you seem to be blurring the lines between consulting and contracting. There is a big difference, and consulting rates are much higher because they are focused on solving valuable problems for clients, whereas contracting is more about doing work and executing on a plan. Reframe your offerings to be about consulting so that you can set your rates, and then negotiate on scope not price. What is the market rate for a consultant (not a contractor) in that industry? No way it's only $10-15/hr. Consultants are usually hundreds of dollars an hour. If you don't know that, find that out first. Look at how other consultants in that field are marketing and positioning their services. What kinds of problems are they helping to solve? How can you reframe your background and experience to showcase your value as a consultant? Are there specific problems that you can help your clients solve better than anyone else? Remember, your solutions need to be strategic and tied to the value of the business outcomes that you can help them achieve, not an hourly rate to do the work.

 

[cbrooks624]

@nancyfromsc To be honest, I’m basing that on what I found on upwork. I’m completely clueless on how part time consulting works, where to find work, and etc

 

[nancyfromsc]

@cbrooks624 Sites like Upwork are great to find inexpensive freelancers to do quick projects. The people on there are generally competing with folks in low cost of living countries these days. It’s not really a great place to find work if you live in the US.

 

[mrdj204]

@cbrooks624 There are hundreds (thousands) of things called staffing companies that cater to any industry. Get 7-8 recruiters from different companies.

 

[laurele]

@cbrooks624 You gotta be willing to go Down with the ship

 

[gingerberry]

@cbrooks624 4 months isn't adequate runway for anything. TIme to head back to the workforce. Work on your ideas like a non paying (at the moment ) side hustle. When I left we had raised 24 month runway for the team and that felt like not enough.

 

[cranberries]

@cbrooks624 Take a couple weeks off the startup grinder and enjoy your life a little bit.

Get a job.

Do this stuff in your downtime/weekends.

You're not going to do anything useful in a desperate 1.5 months, so go live a little so you're sane for the next idea.

 

[gettinwork]

@cbrooks624 Work a full time until your ready to quit

 

[a_bit_of_reason]

@cbrooks624 Take the $200k job, work 9-5, then hire out as much as you can on your side business

 

[helena1]

@cbrooks624 I am in no way or shape fit to 'advice' you on this.

Take this grain of salt, first.

Here's what I have learned in my years of work as both an employee and a [broke] founder:

1. Have absolute clarity of trade offs. If you think you do, you don't. Talking to ANYONE will not help. Because...
2. Building startups, much like life itself, is nonlinear. Advices shift with context. No single decision or solution works all the time. No one knows your life's whole story. A tiny omission (for example, your mental health at this very point of time) could throw the so called advisor wayyyy off.
3. Be ok with getting no usable answer from anyone. Every answer will derail you.
4. Be ok with loneliness. Be ok with absence of answers. Be ok with the sound of crickets at the question of 'what needs to be done now?'.
5. Do whatever. Go wherever. Whatever you do, that you do. That's it. Take a consulting work, do part time, local gigs, tutoring, blue collar, whatever... you choose the extent and the intensity. None of us are qualified here to do it for you.

If there is a problem in front of you

.

and I mean right in front of you, staring like it's going to swallow you,

that's not a good time for other people's words.

I MAY BE WRONG. REMEMBER THE GRAIN OF SALT. USE YOUR DISCRETION.

Like I said, perspectives fit the moment only in specific moments.

You

decide

the trade off.

you decide

the intensity or misery of your life

you decide.

Final word: Don't listen to anyone else, not your parents, not your friends, not anyone.

For any serious founder, even truth is a distraction if it does not serve the destination.