Well time to make serious decision? Got laid off

[Clark Pace]

Well,

where I work they laid off about 6 employees. It was a small company around 20 employees. I was one of the ones let go after 3 years. Now to decide if I should try and take my hobby laser business and make a go of it or find another job! Yikes!!!

[Bert Kemp]

Sorry about your job,Thats a tough question and the answer would depend on a lot of things.
How long can you survive on your savings?
Do you have any customer base for you laser now.?
Do you have a business Plan?
Products you know you can market.
Just a few questions to consider before you decide not to go job hunting, Theres a hundred more questions also , but I would say that if you don't already have an established laser customer base and enough Savings to keep you going for at least 6 months to a year. I'd be hunting hard for a day job.
Theres a lot of info on this forum from people who have business's and do good at it and and twice as many that are having a tough time trying to make it work. I hope you can do it and wish you luck. If you want it you can make it happen.

[Mike Null]

Clark

Sorry to hear of the layoff. I agree with Bert that a day job is all important until such time as you can develop your business into one producing enough volume and profit to make a living. It's very tough to do with just lasers. I began with a laser and quickly found that customers wanted and needed a variety of related services. That entailed buying more equipment and learning new skills.

Perhaps the most important thing you'll have to do is develop and execute a marketing plan that will get you where you want to be.

[Tim Bateson]

Clark, I can speak 1st hand to this. I've been doing this for 7.5 years now and have been downsized three times during that time. As fate would have it, each time were during a slow period for my laser business & each time I got huge orders... after I found another day job.

I do plan to do this full-time one day, but I have learned it can't be forced. Every year my business grows and grows. Mostly it grows if I get out of the way. No amount of cold-calling or advertising has made me a dime. Most comes from word-of mouth. You do a great job for one customer they may tell another. I would say 45% of my business are customers/business that contact me first. The the other 55% is repeat customers. That takes time. Also I have found what Mike said about expanding and diversifying to be very true. Some days my laser never runs, but usually because I'm busy with other related services & products.

FYI - I came to my current day job because so many of the IT personnel had been here 15, 20, even 40 years. Within a year IT was outsourced and only a small hand full of us have hung on. Mostly because the outsource company is too dim to handle what we do. That may not last much longer, but while it does, I'm working hard to expand and build my business.

Good luck to you - any extra money you can make right now is a good thing.

[Scott Shepherd]

I guess only you know the answer to that. I'll take a little different approach than others have in saying that I think it's a lot easier to grow a business when you are available to contact people during normal business hours. A day job with decent pay can hinder your growth if you aren't careful because you don't "need" things to happen. When everything depends on it, I think there is much more incentive to make things happen. Those are just things to consider. Everyone's situation's are different, so I won't offer any advice on what to do, but just rather a couple things to consider in your decision.

It would also depend on what options you have, what customers you have now, what your market is, how you get work. If the answer to most of that is "I'm not really sure", then it's probably going to take a tremendous amount of commitment to make something happen at lightening speeds to get cash rolling in. If you have some repeat, good customers, then you might be able to focus on them and grow them quickly.

Lot's to think about. My only advice would be to plan well, and then realize that about 1/2 of what you plan for will actually happen.

[Melissa Wollenweber]

Hi,
I'm in a very similar situation. I worked for a small company, went on an unpaid maternity leave fro a whole two weeks, and came back to being laid off. I'm balancing two kids and learning to use my epilog as a hobby while on the search for a new job which is hard to come by where I live. Just FYI, if you were laid off and are on unemployment, some states may disqualify you from unemployment if you are starting a new business (depending on the circumstances such as whether or not you are available and willing to work or if your new business interferes with that). On the other hand, a few states (Delaware, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island) actually have self employment assistance programs in which someone that qualifies for unemployment can start their own business and still get the same benefits as if they were under regular unemployment programs. Just something to keep in mind if you are on unemployment.
Best of luck!

[Robert Tepper]

I wish you the best of luck and I have been exactly where you are.

You need to develop a plan on how long you can survive with your savings and whether you are willing to take a chance on depleting your savings. I do not know what kind of work you did. Possibly look for employment on the graveyard shift so you are available to do your engraving work during the day.

One thing to consider is multiple streams of revenue. Rubber stamps, work for electricians, ADA signage, name tags, signage, network with other engraving companies.

I got laid of 38 years ago and I was able to take that and turn it into an opportunity. I have owned my engraving and rubber stamp business for 38 years. It all started when I was laid off from McDonnel Douglas. If you have an IRA, do not touch it. Cut back on all spending that is not absolutely 100% necessary.

Think twice about any spending, purchase only enough supplies to do each job.

You can make this work and I wish you the best of luck.

Robert

[Clark Pace]

I wish you the best of luck and I have been exactly where you are.

You need to develop a plan on how long you can survive with your savings and whether you are willing to take a chance on depleting your savings. I do not know what kind of work you did. Possibly look for employment on the graveyard shift so you are available to do your engraving work during the day.

One thing to consider is multiple streams of revenue. Rubber stamps, work for electricians, ADA signage, name tags, signage, network with other engraving companies.

I got laid of 38 years ago and I was able to take that and turn it into an opportunity. I have owned my engraving and rubber stamp business for 38 years. It all started when I was laid off from McDonnel Douglas. If you have an IRA, do not touch it. Cut back on all spending that is not absolutely 100% necessary.

Think twice about any spending, purchase only enough supplies to do each job.

You can make this work and I wish you the best of luck.

Robert

Yes that fact is they did request my business ledger information to see how much I was bringing in, and I may not get unemployment. But because of how little I made on my side business they may still give it to me. I hate to do unemployment. Never had it before. Well see. I am working on my business as well as pumping out the resumes.

[Scott Marquez]

I'm sorry to hear about your job loss, but between looking for jobs, use your time to grow your business. You may just land a large laser job that you wouldn't have had time for while working full time.
Take it one day at a time and you could land an even better day job that pushes the laser back to a hobby. Remember, you have twice the opportunities as someone with only one trade.
I wish you well.
Scott

[Scott Shepherd]

Clark, tell is about where you are located. Maybe some of us can look at your area and see if it's anything obvious, marketwise, that we might be aware of that you aren't aware of yet.

Tell us the kinds of things you are doing. Is it mostly retail type stuff? Industrial? How are you selling? Do people come to you? Do you go to them? Give us more info and maybe someone, or a group of us, can offer some help in fast tracking you to something.