It’s always debatable whether you should start out as a full-time or part-time entrepreneur. Starting a company in your spare time significantly reduces your risk and opportunity cost. But it also reduces your chances for success. If the deck wasn’t already stacked against you, succeeding on a part-time basis is a lot more difficult than doing so full-time. When it’s a part-time project, your business will be hard to prioritize consistently, your competition will run circles around you, you’ll miss opportunities, and – most importantly – your back won’t be against the wall. If you have the stability of a full-time job, it’s much harder to get out of your comfort zone and do what it takes to get the job done.
It only makes sense to work on an idea part-time when you want to study its feasibility. When it becomes apparent that you have a winner on your hands, your best bet is to dive in head first. There’s just no way around it – you will have to dedicate everything you’ve got to your startup. This is especially true for investors. If you want to be taken seriously, you have to be serious about your business. And that means quitting your job and building this business full-time.
