Hey everyone! 👋
So, I’m at the very beginning of my startup journey and I have a question for all of you: How are you making money before revenue starts rolling in? I have some savings from my sales career, but I’m curious to know what other options are out there.
Here are a few ideas that come to mind:
– Freelancing or consulting in your industry
– Taking on part-time work or gigs
– Creating and selling digital products or courses
– Partnering with other businesses for collaborations or sponsorships
Do you guys have any other creative ways to make money while building your startup? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences! Let’s help each other out. 🚀💡 #StartupJourney #MakingMoney #EntrepreneurLife #HustleHard
Most keep their jobs until they get funding.
There are many ways you can go about it. I’m just at the beginning as well but I’ve been at 6 startups in the past.
Some generic options you can consider:
1. Take contract jobs (same thing as full-time but contract instead of employment)
2. Take part-time gigs (expert or general, online or offline, etc.)
3. Take consulting for the problem you want to build a product for. This is the best thing you can do to both bring money, validate your idea, and start building your reputation
4. Build a smaller, easier, cheaper related product to sell. It can be a start.
5. Go after partnerships, biz dev, etc. to bring some money.
6. Take external money (friends and family, angels, grants, loans, VCs, etc.). This highly varies to what business you are in.
I’m at a point in my life where I don’t need to work anymore but I hear having a deadline (running out of money), is a great motivator for moving forward fast and breaking barriers. Use it as fire in your belly.
Good luck
The only way you’ll feel ok is if you have income settled. Logically, it looks like you’re pretty good about budgeting given you have about 9-12 months of savings. You should tell us more about your idea or at least the type of idea and industry background. For now, I’ll speak more generally.
If you’re really right at the beginning, and it sounds like you are not working, figure out what your total required expenditures for living are. Do not factor in additional savings plans, large purchases that are not necessary or superfluous activities (you won’t have time).
Take that number – the minimum for humble comfortable living – divide it by 12, and that is your target monthly. Look for contract work in your area of expertise that can help refine your skills for your startup idea. The closer you can get to that monthly number in total for no more than 40 hours of real work time per week, the more comfortable you will feel.
To make up whatever the difference is, both now and as you find contract work, utilize your savings. It will motivate you to find work that pays enough to get by, watching the income go up and the savings reliance go down.
Now, work. To be successful in your initial stages in your scenario, you may be working 60-80 hours per week between the contract work and creating your startup. Every hour you’re not working on a contract or finding another one, you should be spending time researching/networking/creating your product/business planning. Every contract you interview for, take it as an opportunity to connect on LinkedIn/build your network. Every client you work for, build a lasting relationship. Take the feedback and pain points you encounter and find ways to address them with your solution.
If you spend time working on contracts that grow your monetizable skill sets, you will gain the breadth of experience you will need to solve macro problems instead of micro ones.
I didn’t. I made nothing the first year and about 1/3 of my normal salary the second year. I think by the fourth year it got to around my normal former day job salary.