career decision move....

[posol]

To make a long story short... I got a business propisition jsut now from my old roomate from college. He's from LI and works in manhattan currently. He majored in marketing, and has been doing event planning for a lot of the big shows/events in the greater nyc metro.

He's decided to make the move to start his own company. He's tired of seeing 200k an event not go to him when he does all the work for it.

With that, comes the need for a killer web-based promotional side as well- something that i'm good at (at least i'd like to think so). Plus, flyers, print media, and so forth... graphic design, all that good stuff.

Well, he offered me a position to work with him.

Now, for the fine print...

like most startups- he's got little to no capital. which means, i'm not going to get paid. Not at first anyway. I have no problem with building the corporate website for him as a favor to a good friend. Hell, i lived with the kid for 3 years of my life. We've had soem great times- and the time i would spend on something of the nature would not even make me think twice about not getting paid for it- its something friends do for each other. Im SURE he'd help me.

Aside from the fine print, he offered once it gets rolling that he would double my salary-- which would bump me to 120k a year. Frankly, that's unheard of in the web industry. 80-ish k tops out for most deisgner/developers who are just stupid good at what they do.
But WHEN? or EVER? its a 50/50 shot.

For starters, I could do this from home in my spare time- and keep my current job.
but as it is, my spare time is limited (hence, no updates here in forever) and there will come a time where i'm going to have to say fuck it and quit, or say its too much of a risk and stay at my current job.

The bad end of the stick- is that it will mean moving to nyc probably by next year. i'm a suburban guy... 50-100k cities and shit... i don't think i could handel living there. its fun to go to for a day/night out, but to live there- i don't know.

At the same time, im in the market for a house... i've been browsing ads pretty seriously, and am about a month away from getting myself a realitor to move forward with it.

so i'm kinda in the position where its now or never... and fucked if i don't, stay the same if i do kinda deal.

what would you do? thoughts? suggestions?

 

[jeffie7]

You could also work for NES =)

Anyways, It sounds like as of right now it would'nt be a good move for you being that you don't have time plus you're trying to find a house and so on. I would hate living in NYC I would love to go for a few days "been there before" but to move there... FUCK NO.

What are the chances of helping him with the site and just kinda laying back and see if it kicks off if so let him know you would be willing to work for him. I get offers all the time for music stuff where I could make big ass bucks but when it comes down to it, not ever often does any of the offers ever produce money and if they do make money it's not much.

Only offers I've had where I could make big bucks is doing stuff I dislike as with moving to places I don't like.

With out knowing the guy and how much I believed in the guy it's too hard to say.

 

[posol]

like i said, at first, its going to be a spare time thing until things get going... and THATS the point where i'm going to have to make this decision. i'm trying to pre-plan it i guess

 

[Battle Pope]

This poll sucks. Ask us again in 6 months.

 

[Airjockie]

if you have a good job...keep it...


risk is not an option....but...for your current situation....you can risk it...since you still live at home, and your still young....there will always be stable jobs in the future....

If you had a curent mortgage, a wife or a kid...or both...then the best thing to do is to shot for the stable job...

your young, and you have no real ties or commitments yet...so give it a shot...

only thing you can lose is your job...but there's always another job around the corner...and you know I'm always showing you a stable job on AIM....


go for it....

 

[preludebuddy]

just try it out, you still have job security in the beginning and you can get a taste of what the new job will be like. if you dont like it or dont feel secure, i'm sure the guy will understand, just offer your services to him in a different way. help him out with graphic design and advertising shit with the spare time you have. it seems to me you have nothing to lose by trying it out...

as for the real estate thing and buying a house soon...get a realtor now. money doesnt talk in real estate. you can look at as many houses as you like for free. it's like shopping. you're always allowed to go look at a house even if you dont have the money. this way you can get a better feel for what you do want, what you dont want and all that crap. its much better than reading some ad and looking at maybe a few pictures of the house. the right realtor will work very hard to try and find the right house for you, and the way you can afford it now.

 

[Bob Vila]

I say no, because anyone whom is doing a startup has NO idea what type of net income they will receive, and truth be told, it takes small business' 3 years to actually start making profit. If he is offering to EMPLOY you for said salary, then this would need to be in contractual form, as you should, consult your self as a consultant. You are not partnering with him (from your descriptions). I just have no clue as to how he can make an offer of 120k without knowing what the monthly income will be, on top of all other expenses. If this was an established and recognized company, I would say go for it, but for it being a startup there is no way that you will ever see that type of money from this business.

And I hope to god brian that this wasn't a conversation over AIM.

 

[Cashizslick]

Originally posted by pissedoffsol@Jan 27 2005, 12:10 AM

At the same time, im in the market for a house... i've been browsing ads pretty seriously, and am about a month away from getting myself a realitor to move forward with it.

so i'm kinda in the position where its now or never... and fucked if i don't, stay the same if i do kinda deal.

what would you do? thoughts? suggestions?

[post=451964]Quoted post[/post]​

Dude, if you get a house NOW, you will become dependant on ur job which you hate. That would suck because then you wouldn't have the ability to make decisions like the one you are contemplating.

I say go for several reasons:

1.) you hate ur current job
2.) this one might work out really well
3.) Although you SAY you hate the city of New York, you have no idea what it is like to live there and you might actually like it.
4.) Mad girls go to NYC . . . . and ur in the market lol.
5.) Think of what happends if you dont do this -> you will still be stuck doing this current job u hate.

 

[CRX-YEM]

Originally posted by Oscar Mayer@Jan 27 2005, 08:16 AM
I say no, because anyone whom is doing a startup has NO idea what type of net income they will receive, and truth be told, it takes small business' 3 years to actually start making profit. If he is offering to EMPLOY you for said salary, then this would need to be in contractual form, as you should, consult your self as a consultant. You are not partnering with him (from your descriptions). I just have no clue as to how he can make an offer of 120k without knowing what the monthly income will be, on top of all other expenses. If this was an established and recognized company, I would say go for it, but for it being a startup there is no way that you will ever see that type of money from this business.

And I hope to god brian that this wasn't a conversation over AIM.

[post=452024]Quoted post[/post]​

Steve has hit the nail on the head with amazing accuracy.

To make a long story short... I got a business propisition jsut now from my old roomate from college. He's from LI and works in manhattan currently. He majored in marketing, and has been doing event planning for a lot of the big shows/events in the greater nyc metro.

He's decided to make the move to start his own company. He's tired of seeing 200k an event not go to him when he does all the work for it.

I can understand his pain we all work for some type of company and some are capable of $4-$20 million in sales a year or more. The company your friend is currently employed with and making a good paycheck as I could imagine is mostly related to the fact the company is established and clients that have cash to spare are the norm. Even if he was able to get himself up and running his new company is nothing compared to the giant he worked for and why would I choose the little guy over the Market leader if cash isn't an issue. It's just not gonna happen in a year. To compete with the big market players you need millions of dollars of start-up money to sustain losses over the next few years.

another example Mcdonalds employes hires cashiers for $5/hr yet brings in millions of profits and the franchise owner makes a killing and none of that gets passed down to the cashier and you don't see anyone saying shit I hate this job I only make $5/hr I'm gonna go build my own company to compete. Only to find out the only reason Mcdonalds makes a shit load of profits is becasue they are a trusted name and have been in business for some 40+ years.

even tho you are in your younger years stability is always a good thing, I know of mnay people who have been laid-off for over a year and still can't find a job that will pay anywhere near their old pay rate. The job market just can't support it. It might be differnt in a year but I doubt it.

At the monent you are making a slightly higher income than the median for CT and a job like that these days is almost impossible to find. You're better off in the position you currently in.

just my .03

 

[Slammed90Lude]

Well B, I honestly have to agree with Steve and Dennis. Granted you don't love the job you're in now, and it's easy to believe that the grass will be greener on the other side, but I really doubt it will be in the this case. THere are too many strikes against working for him as a career move, and from my point of view, the only good outcome of this job is potentially more money. However, guranteeing that type of money before the company is even an infant is more of a pipe dream than a reality.

If you eventually chose to take this job and leave your current one, you'd had to give up looking for a house of your own. You've said it to me, and so have your parents- It's getting time to move out. And if you decided to take this job in NYC but didn't want to move there, you'd be stuck trying to find a house in northern NJ, or in my area. Housing costs in my area are absolutely going through the roof. You think you've had a hard time finding a reasonably priced house in your area, forget about trying to do it here.

In my opinion, I'd keep the job you have, find a house, get settled and forget about this idea for a while. I just don't think the risk is worth the eventual outcome, which is basically just money.

 

[OldEMaltLiQuoR]

I say build him the site tell him your'e partially comitted to helping him out and see what happens from there. You don't have to quite your job for a good amount of time (like another year or so). Nights and weekends would be enough time to help this guy w/ prints and technical help. A year from now, if this guys business is going no where and you no longer feel like giving up your weekends, then you tell him to get someone else... But if the shits starting to pick up and your'e liking what your'e doing, then you might consider moving to/arround NYC to work full time on this.

Think about it this way man... is this an opportunity that if you turned down, you would be kicking yourself in the ass 10 yrs. from now. I've done catering in NYC and LI before and I know first hand how much cash these fockers pull in. As a business I'm sure there's alot of people you'd have to pay out (chefs, servers, etc.) but if this guy has any sort of contacts from his current job, there's a good chance that you can make a lot of money. But even if this business doesn't make millions of dollars, you said you had some good times w/ this guy and this would be a good opportunity to get back to that, if for nothing else.

On another note, NYC is probably the best place to work and once you've worked here you'll never wanna work anywhere else. There are plenty of sub-urbs arround NYC that are similar to CT. I live on LI and take a 40min express train to Penn Station every morning. There is always something to do when your'e in the city. You see some of the hottest girls and the craziest shit. Just this morning on the subway I saw one of those Super Jews w/ the jew hat & the jew curls. I thought it was preety funny but the guy next to me starts point and laffing hysterically @ the guy. I felt kinda bad but it was preety funny.

Anway, I say do it mang.!!!

 

[reckedracing]

go for it for the temporary, see how it goes...

i would advise against NYC, i can't even stand to be there for a couple hours...
commute
30 minutes outside the city and you can find some nice open spaces...

don't quit until you are sure you will get paid by your other job
if you do relocate chances are you'll find a higher paying job near NYC anyway
but cost of living owns you, but from what you say the cost of living where you are now isn;t that great...

 

[formby]

do it.....how many people wish they had taken that one chance...i would do it.......good luck...business is business...make shure you get a contract or something that says how much you will get paid......after the company starts making money

 

[Seany-izzle]

i say do it. you wont necessarily need to live IN nyc, but outside and take the subway in, its really not that bad as it may sound. Why not branch out, why not try something new and exciting, you never know...it could all just go thru the roof and since you are his first employee i bet if things got big he'd offer you a better job and more money. and if things dont work out, its not liek there is no job market for computer people.

 

[B16RacerN2NR]

B, you could always just explain to him that it's too much of a risk in your current situation, since he's a good friend he should understand. don't forget that you could always work for him at a later time when and if the company takes off. you won't be making the 120k a year he offered you in the beginning but you will be making a decent amount of money in a job you love.

As far as being young, i still think it makes no difference. there was a discussion on here a couple months ago about college degrees and you said you didn't have one. you also stated that even though a degree means jack shit, it still looks better on a resume to actually get an interview. you might not get another job like the one you have now if you quit. Better safe than sorry, especially in your situation.

 

[phunky.buddha]

Looking everything over.... I'd say go for it. If it falls through, maybe I could push your resume through to my cousin at Morgan Stanley in Manhattan. She's the VP there, and I'm sure they could use another IT person.

 

[posol]

decisions decisions... looks like the board is split kinda how i am. i'm seeing the exact same sides that everyone is presenting... i just don't know which way to go with it

 

[Cashizslick]

Originally posted by pissedoffsol@Jan 27 2005, 01:45 PM
decisions decisions... looks like the board is split kinda how i am. i'm seeing the exact same sides that everyone is presenting... i just don't know which way to go with it

[post=452128]Quoted post[/post]​

Dude, just go - now is the time since you have nothing holding u back.

Just be partially comitted and do the site and see what happends.

 

[b204dr]

do it - you have nothing to loose - like people are sayign but your job but thats just depending on how much time you invest in your friend - you know your friend and you know what he is capable of - if you think he can follow through why not

 

[phunky.buddha]

Originally posted by pissedoffsol@Jan 27 2005, 12:45 PM
decisions decisions... looks like the board is split kinda how i am. i'm seeing the exact same sides that everyone is presenting... i just don't know which way to go with it

[post=452128]Quoted post[/post]​

Well, seeing how I was in the same position as you for a while- I would go ahead and take the chance. I know what it's like to be in a decent paying job that you don't enjoy, especially where it seems like the people you work for don't appreciate you enough. It really sucks. The paycheck is nice, but it really starts to grate on you. If I had an opportunity like this present itself, I would be very hesitant to leave the steady paycheck too- but after everything I've been through, I would probably have taken the chance if I was able to go back.

For me, it's more important to do something that I enjoy rather than have a really nice paycheck. If you enjoy your work, then you'll be able to spend more time on it and get "more into" it, and everything will explode from there.