What should I do next? Earn money or double down?
Hi all - I largely stopped contracting a while ago to focus on online product work. Marketing has always eluded me, so I'm now doing a 3 month apprenticeship via GenM. I also work a mini contract to earn a little income. I just heard that this contract will end in February.
What is your opinion I should do now?
Double down on product work in those 3 months, in the hope of having some income by then?
Or only do the marketing apprenticeship, and find contract work alongside it, so that I have more income.
I have savings so could go 3 months without extra contracting but I would need to start earning in Feb.
Opinions welcome to help me make a decision. Thanks!
Get the income! You'll make better decisions if you aren't 3 months from running out of money.
Fair point!
Very well said!!
This will obviously depend on a number of factors which I don't have any visibility into, but generally speaking, I think people underestimate how valuable an infinite runway is. There are many ways to gradually build an income stream over time. There are significantly fewer ways to build an income stream in just three months. So not only do you add additional stress and risk to your life by giving up the contract work, but you're actually removing a large set of possible paths to success.
Of course being able to focus more time on your business is appealing and in some cases that might make sense. But I bet most people would be better off taking a slower, more sustainable approach.
I understand what you mean - and you're right that a 3 month runway is so artificial. It's made me realise if I do go down that path I need to look at my expectations and budgets. Replacing full contract income seems highly unlikely in that time span!
Hi.
It really depends and you should not take this question easily. I can give you an argument for both: Go work on your product and money will come, or don't risk it and go for the apprenticeship and contract work, and find some time to work on your product as a side-gig. It mostly depends on where you are with your product, what your product is, do you already have some pre-sales done(so you have some guaranteed income once it's complete) or are you building it blind etc.
More info would definitely improve the quality of the answers to this question.
Thanks! A really thoughtful response. My product is non-existent at the moment. I want to do something small first, like an educational product (Amy Hoy style). More info is that I've struggled in the past to do product work alongside contract work because a) I earn good money with contracting so why bother and b) I don't want to spend the day + night in front of a computer. Also c) I like the feeling of success with contracting so tend to take on more work than necessary :) It's the area I'm most comfortable in and have had the most success in. I stopped contracting to allow myself to focus on product, try to shift my mindset around earning money and validation from work.
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