Comments on: So You Want to Keep Your Day Job?

By: Ralph Brown

Ralph Brown — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:00:01 +0000

Bradley, Things are working, yet, they are far from finished or completely taken care of. But there is definately some interest. I grew up in Cocoa Beach Florida. We used to watch Rockets take off from our back yard. Often we would go up the Bananna River to the Indial River then up the Lagoon to watch them leave the Pad. We always had trouble getting boats that would be able to run the shallows and still be safe on a rough day. Now I live in the Tampa area, know what we have the same problem here. So I developed shallow water boats that are also safe on rough days. here are some links http://www.FreeBoatList.Com http://www.CrossTheAtlantic.com,http://www.DreamBoats.net These web sites only show two of our products. The best are not publicized yet.

By: Bradley Joyce

Bradley Joyce — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:39:45 +0000

Jason, great comment! I think the risk is part of the thrill of entrepreneurship, but like anything else it must be managed effectively. There are definitely many ways you can make progress on your ideas and keep your day job, but in the end you have to go all-in! Look forward to seeing/hearing more about SwarmForce in the near future!

By: Bradley Joyce

Bradley Joyce — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:35:47 +0000

Wow! that is a ton of hours! Glad to hear things are working out! Can you provide some links to what you do?

By: Ralph Brown

Ralph Brown — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:03:53 +0000

I kept my day job full time (60 hrs) for a year then I went part time. Ha Ha, I worked one job about 35 hours a week and the other about 60 hours for four years, then I felt like it was time to take the plunge. At this time I wonder if I did it too late. But by God's grace we have survived. I believe we are poised to take off. We have two patents issued, two more pending, two world records, and one National television show showing our products three times a week starting next January. On top of that there has been more than 70 news articles about me. It is still hard to find investors, imagine that.

By: Jason Jones

Jason Jones — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:28:14 +0000

Hey Bradley, good post. For what it's worth, I personally think of the day-job-quitting-scenario as a continuum of risk. At one end is way too conservative (fear, disbelief, frozen, no risk-no reward), while at the other end is way too reckless and impatient, not waiting for the right timing and damaging yourself and your opportunity unnecessarily . In the end, as you said, it's a formula …where a balanced equation is different for everyone. For me personally, I kept the day job almost a year after my "Eureka!" moment, but worked my butt off every night till 2AM to get to the point I could have enough runway as not to starve my wife and three kids. I worked on the initial prototype, recruited cofounders, got feedback from critical people I respected, wrote the business plan, and took care of overhead crap …like incorporating, setting up bank accounts and provisional patents (all of which feel like a waste of time) . These things gave me the ability to raise seed funding from friends who also believed in what I was doing, which gave me and my cofounders enough runway to finish a working prototype, earn some revenue and move to the next round of funding. Still, it was a major risk quitting my safe, six-figure day job. But at some point every serious entrepreneur must take some significant risk if they want the reward. If you truly believe in the opportunity, then the biggest "risk" is in not to taking the risk.