Thinking about quitting my job.

I have been debating whether or not to quit my job to become fully self employed, but I'm a bit scared.

I have verbal commitments from two small slot manufacturers that they will hire me to do their math. I know that they both have current work to be done, but no guarantees for the future. One of the manufacturers has told me that they would commit to about $25K worth of work right away and the other would be lower, but they also want me to subcontract for QA work and SAS (slot accounting system) testing which would be more long term. Ideally, I would just want to do math, but I will also do what it takes to pay the bills. There's a chance that I could also subcontract for the company I currently work for, but that's unknown; I don't want to ask them because that could catapult me into being self employed if they decide it's good for their bottom line (which I suspect it is).

Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated.

Also, if I become self employed, please give me your thoughts on a business name. I like Crystal Math Consulting, but I wonder how many people would be off put. I could get Crystal-Math.com or CrystalMath.biz if I wanted to stick with that name.

I would ask someone who deals specifically with branding about it. I love "CrystalMath", and adding "consulting" has a nice flow to it, but I'd be lying if I said it never reminded me of crystal meth (obviously).

Although we "know you" as a straight shooter, would you take the chance of that reference being your first impression with potential clients?

Quote: CrystalMath

but no guarantees for the future..

Do the proverbial list. Make a list of the pro's and con's
of working your present job, and a list for self employed.
Don't forget to include the peace of mind that comes
from having a steady job with a good company. You'll
have none of that when you're self employed. Whoever
uses your services can dump you whenever they like,
and they know it. You'll also be scrutinized by the IRS,
have to file taxes quarterly, and pay twice as much for
FICA as you do now.

"Crystal Math" may be cute for a ng, but would be the kiss of death in the real world.

Maybe something like "Dude the Math" or "Math Metrics."

Set up an LLC if you go out on your own.

Crystal Clear Math.

Quote: thecesspit

Crystal Clear Math.

I'll second this one, CrystralMath a bit too edgy for the unimaginative casino industry, better for a band name.

It's like I said when I met you in Vegas - How do you use that name with a straight face?

It's good / cute for a nickname, particularly considering your age, but terrible for a business that wants to be taken seriously.


Also, who is gonna pay for your benefits? You may be young and healthy, but shit happens.

Quote: AZDuffman

I'll second this one, CrystralMath a bit too edgy for the unimaginative casino industry, better for a band name.

Ditto.

And if there's plenty of QA work in the gaming industry that pays well for freelancers..., let me know :)

Dare I suggest Mathemagician ? You have a magic way with numbers!

Is it possible to do both and make freelance pull you away from a secure paycheck ??

Quote: thecesspit

Crystal Clear Math.

That might be good. Crystal Math to me always reads more like Crystal Meth. And a few potential customers might throw him out if they misread his business card or else they might try to buy something from him he doesn't sell.

Promise him 25 ... give him 5. ? Who knows.
If you take the plunge... its a plunge. You take the good with the bad. The liars with the major accounts. Don't look for guarantees... because the only ones you find, won't be worth anything.

In this volatile economy I would never give up a good
secure job, for self employment. I've been self employed
for 30 years and its not a bed of roses. Its a lot of stress
and you actually work longer days than you do in a real job.

The only reason to trade a full time position for self-employment is being sure you can comfortably make significantly more money that way.
And "significantly more" means that after you subtract about 35-40% of your projected income, what's left is still a good deal more than what you are currently making before tax. What's "a good deal"? That depends ... Imagine, that you were offered a full time position with a new company, with half the benefits, twice the commute, asshole for a boss, and unfriendly co-workers ... how much more would they have to offer to pay, to make you accept the offer?
That's about how much (plus 40%) you need to expect to be making on self employment.

Quote: weaselman

The only reason to trade a full time position for self-employment is being sure you can comfortably make significantly more money that way.

I agree. I'm unsure of that as well. I would need to build a client base of about 6 small manufacturers to make significantly more.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

...straight face...

I am very fond of my name on the forums, but I know it's too much like "meth" and I have never had anything to do with meth.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Also, who is gonna pay for your benefits? You may be young and healthy, but shit happens.

I second this thought. Working in the insurance business, I see what it costs for health, dental, life, vision, LTD, STD, and other coverages. If you're getting those coverages now through your employer and suddenly have to pay for all of them yourself, instead of just a smaller portion of them, it makes a big impact. Don't forget about your 401k too. You'll lose any employer matching if you have it, so you need to make that much more to cover that lost amount.

I get an annual statement from my employer showing the total value of my salary and benefits. It's always 30-40% over my actual income.

As far as the name goes, I like Math Hysteria!

Being self employed means being your own boss. This
is fine, as far as it goes. For me, most years I worked
all 365 days, even Christmas day. I never took time off
because I always felt like I wasn't doing enough. I look
back with nostalgia at when I worked for somebody
else. When the shift was over, I went home and never
thought about it till the next shift. Being self employed,
the shift never ends.

Quote: CrystalMath

I agree. I'm unsure of that as well. I would need to build a client base of about 6 small manufacturers to make significantly more.

What's the point then? Are you unhappy with your current job? Is it not challenging enough? Or too boring? Or is the boss a jerk?

Can't you pick some of those contracts on the side while still working your full time job to get a flavor of it?

Having been on both sides of the fence, I offer this.

(1) What is your market size? How many potential customers can you possibly have with your work?
(2) What is the limit on your income?
(3) Are there other consultants in your field? How are they doing? How are your peers doing? How does your skill set compare to theirs?
(4) What is your minimum income required to get by and for you to be happy? Can you accomplish this? Keep in mind that employee benefits add up to 30% - 35% of your income (more if you are covered for health insurance with a decent plan)
(5) What about training opportunities through your workplace, and networking within your workplace with customers? How do you replicate that if you're self-employed.
(6) Consultants regularly get treated worse than employees. Customers have very high expectations and work conditions can vary wildly from place to place.
(7) You are responsible for your own invoicing, accounting, tax preparation, salary, health insurance. This adds a significant amount of workload to your life.
(8) You will not be able to build communities of friends as you will be a short-term consultant where-ever you go.
(9) You are always required to sell yourself.

For me, I chose employment (as a consultant) at about 50% of the income that I could make self-employed. The reasons I choose to remain employed is:
(1) My field is always changing, and my employer provides and encourages training, free of cost to me.
(2) When I am not billable, I still get paid and am encouraged to train and improve myself.
(3) My benefits are worth about 30% of my pay.
(4) I have a manager and a community of workers who help me and encourage me in my career growth.
(5) My customer base is worldwide, and as an employee of a multi-national, I can work anywhere in the world, whereas I would be limited to Canada if I was self-employed.

Quote: boymimbo

(7) You are responsible for your own invoicing, accounting, tax preparation, salary, health insurance. This adds a significant amount of workload to your life.
(8) You will not be able to build communities of friends

Very good points. I had lots of friends when I was employed,
now I have none. Work friends, that is. I'm constantly amazed
at all the perks my wife gets in her job. Health insurance, paid
sick days, paid holidays, raises, bonuses, company dinners,
incentive gift cards, 3 weeks paid vacation. If she needs something,
like a new ergonomic chair, or thick expensive pads to stand on,
they provide them. When you're self employed, you pay for
everything, right off the top.

You should be a lot scared, not just a bit. I made a similar decision just over three years ago. However, my situation was different:
a) I had been operating a math consultancy on the side for the previous 7 years while I worked non-gaming technology jobs, and
b) I had over 100k worth of work lined up when I finally made the plunge, plus 6 months of living expenses set aside.

Even then, it was a huge gamble. I gave up guaranteed health coverage, for one, and getting qualified for individual/family coverage turned out to be a problem. I'd make sure you had that squared away. I'd also consult with a financial adviser about your family situation, your expenses, your required income, and your realistic prospects for income generation as a freelancer. This includes hourly rates and/or other billing structures (projects, retainers, etc). For example, the NGCB technology division charges $150/hour to do game evaluations (http://gaming.nv.gov/forms/frm182.pdf). Considering their cost structure and your cost structure, are your services priced properly?

What I might do is take a non-gaming job and consult on the side, just to see if you can pull it off. When I was at the end of my full-time + moonlighting phase, I was easily working 12-14 hours/day, so it's rough, but worth it in my opinion. And if you can't drum up enough business then you'll have the non-gaming job to fall back on, but if it works you'll get practice running your business in a mostly risk-free situation. It sounds like you have QA skills so I'd start there. QA is always good for moonlighting anyway; the hours tend to be more predictable than dev or IT ops jobs.

For my part, I don't see doing math by itself being a path to long-term financial success. My business was originally built around parlaying math revenues into IP and then licensing, and I've been open to a few strategic shifts along the way. If your goals are different (i.e. just doing math) then you really need to be sure that there's enough work, not just now, but in the future.

Ultimately, being good at gaming math doesn't necessarily translate to being good at small business finance or general business management. If you're open to the possibility that you may not be good at running a math business even though you're good at math, and you're willing to act appropriately as the facts unfold, you'll be okay. It's a lot of fun running your own business, but it's also a lot of hard work and stress. You have to accept that you're really taking on two jobs: doing math for people, and CEO and head rainmaker of a consulting firm that has you doing math for people. Because between gigs, that's the only job you'll have. Sales is mandatory: if the thought of selling your knowledge and your time is distasteful, you may not be a good fit for going solo.

As to naming, I was going to suggest Crystal Clear Consulting but someone's already taken that. You could pick a crystal lattice structure and use that as part of your name, but that would be a total geek-out as well as a mouthful ("Isometric Math, at your service"). Regardless of how or whether you incorporate anything crystal-related into your name, definitely stay away from anything that could even be remotely construed as drug-related or otherwise negative. I use "MathExtremist" as a forum handle but I would never do business as something with "extremist" in the title. Too many negative religious overtones.

Anyway, PM me or ping me on my site if you want to have a more substantive conversation or a phone call. I'm happy to help.

Quote: MathExtremist

You should be a lot scared, not just a bit. .

I do it because I don't know how to do anything else.
If you asked me what I really felt, I'd say stick with
what you're doing.

I am happy with my job, in that it pays a paycheck and is relatively stable. Although I don't think I could make significantly more right away, the goal would be to make significantly more in the next few years. I don't imagine getting more than a total of 4% in raises in the next two years if I stay where I'm at.

I have been convinced to find a much more conservative name, should I take the plunge. But... what? "Math Hysteria" is funny, but I think that might be flippant.

Quote: MathExtremist

..parlaying math revenues into IP and then licensing

I agree. This is my long term goal and my way to get there is doing math. I just don't feel like I will ever get there working for the man.

I have a hard time seeing myself in a non-gaming job after being in the business for about 10 years, but taking a non-gaming job and moonlighting seems the safest way to build my business.

Quote: CrystalMath

"Math Hysteria" is funny, but I think that might be flippant.

Dude. I'm compelled to ask, exactly how old are you?

'Math Hysteria' is a great name if you're still in college. In the real
world of business, it screams insincerity. You want a name that
immediately instills a sense of professionalism. That you're a serious
person, and take what you do seriously. People will be giving you
money for your expertise, this is a big deal to them. They don't
want to invest in somebody thats obviously a smart aleck.

Example. I have a septic system. Would I trust a company named
'Williams Septic Service' more than I would trust a company named
'Poop Stinks Septic'? Guess who I would call.

Quote: EvenBob

Dude. I'm compelled to ask, exactly how old are you?

'Math Hysteria' is a great name if you're still in college. In the real
world of business, it screams insincerity. You want a name that
immediately instills a sense of professionalism. That you're a serious
person, and take what you do seriously. People will be giving you
money for your expertise, this is a big deal to them. They don't
want to invest in somebody thats obviously a smart aleck.

Example. I have a septic system. Would I trust a company named
'Williams Septic Service' more than I would trust a company named
'Poop Stinks Septic'? Guess who I would call.

I completely agree. I was saying that it wasn't serious enough. I'm 36.

Quote: CrystalMath

I completely agree. I was saying that it wasn't serious enough. I'm 36.

I would say, wait a year. Think about it, investigate it for
a year. At 36 everything has to be done in a hurry. It
doesn't. A year is nothing. Explore all avenues. Be alert.
You'll make the right decision because you were patient
and did the due diligence.

Quote: EvenBob

Example. I have a septic system. Would I trust a company named
'Williams Septic Service' more than I would trust a company named
'Poop Stinks Septic'? Guess who I would call.

We have a company here that for the first 10 years of it's existance was 'Pooper Pumper People' and thrived although it didn't have a lot of competition. When it was sold the new owner toned it down to 'Triple P Sanitation'

Quote: EvenBob

I would say, wait a year. Think about it, investigate it for
a year. At 36 everything has to be done in a hurry. It
doesn't. A year is nothing. Explore all avenues. Be alert.
You'll make the right decision because you were patient
and did the due diligence.

I have to agree with Wise Bob. Don't be in a hurry. You are still young. Every time I have made a quick decision it has not been the wisest and then I wonder why I did such a thing, not to say that that would happen to you. Do you have good intuition? If so, listen to that; it NEVER lies, believe me. Women usually have better intuition than men, but I can name numerous occassions where I have gone against my "gut instinct" and I have regretted it each and every time. So sit back, relax and I would go with my gut instinct.
Another great saying: "If it ain't broken, don't try to fix it." Food for thought! But you also have to take risks to be successful. Just do so diligently.

Quote: CrystalMath

[Licensing IP] is my long term goal and my way to get there is doing math. I just don't feel like I will ever get there working for the man.

No you won't. But consider:
a) There are probably fewer than two dozen freelance gaming mathematicians in the business.
b) Of those, I believe fewer than four have done any licensing. That includes me.
Point is, it's not a very big market. And I'm not just saying that because I don't want competition: in fact, I think new successful games tend to lift all boats, as it were. Rather, I believe the market for new games may be oversaturated compared to maybe 5 or 10 years ago. It's also a lot harder to obtain patents on games than it used to be. The PTO seems to be operating under the illusion that game methods are non-statutory subject matter.

Quote:

I have a hard time seeing myself in a non-gaming job after being in the business for about 10 years, but taking a non-gaming job and moonlighting seems the safest way to build my business.

I think it's the only way. It's hard work working two jobs, especially when you have to use lunch for client phone calls or emails, and then go home, eat dinner, and work another 4-5 hours -- but what are your alternatives? You're ethically (and probably contractually) precluded from freelancing in the gaming industry if you currently work for a gaming company, and if you just quit without building up a book of clients then you're looking at massive revenue uncertainty.

Just make sure you don't take a job at a huge corporation with an all-inclusive IP assignment requirement. IBM for instance. One of my prior companies was acquired by IBM and I had to quit in order to preserve ownership of my pending patents.

I am contractuallly barred from doing work that is "direct and competitive," which includes the two companies I mentioned before. It's not too difficult to find companies that are not competitors because we serve a niche jurisdiction.

I like work the most when I'm challenged and working my ass off. I like finding time to squeeze in more work because I'm under the gun.

I am thinking you need to properly market your new venture, and Zimbo is here to help. I suggest you take on the persona of a professional wrestler, with a cape and mask. Depending on where you want people to think you are from, feel free to use any of these, no charge

The Parallelogram from Bellingham

The Euclidean Floridian (aka The Tan Gent)

The Pythagorean Korean

The Exponential with Potential

The Denominator Dominator

and if you go into business with one colleague....

The Co-Efficients

Quote: Johnzimbo

I am thinking you need to properly market your new venture, and Zimbo is here to help. I suggest you take on the persona of a professional wrestler, with a cape and mask. Depending on where you want people to think you are from, feel free to use any of these, no charge

The Parallelogram from Bellingham

The Euclidean Floridian (aka The Tan Gent)

The Pythagorean Korean

The Exponential with Potential

The Denominator Dominator

and if you go into business with one colleague....

The Co-Efficients

:)

I look at everything as a risk/benefit analysis. If you are single without kids the risk of failure and the resulting changes to you are manageable. If you are married with 2 kids then the repercussions would be far greater. As others have stated, do not underestimate the value of benefits. These include specifically the second side of FICA (about $7500 if you make 100k), the second side of Medicare (about $1500 if you make 100k), health insurance (anywhere from 10 -25 k depending upon family size and where you reside, no legal costs, no accounting costs, no liability insurance costs, etc... That all being said, if you are not happy, and will not be so in the future, then NOT going out on your own might be something that will gnaw on you till you go to that great casino in the sky... How about Crystal Lattice Consulting? Good luck in whatever path you opt for....

I like something simple, like Math Inc.

Personally, I wouldn't go self-employed given the market conditions that MathExtremists describes. It seems like the work would be incredibly variable given the size of the market. I think that you shouldn't quit your job until you know that you could sustainably bill at 250% of your salaried rate. That is, if you're making $40/hour at your job, you should be able to bill $100 as a consultant and have a goal of being 50% billable. That takes your 80K job and turns it into 100K of income. Count on spending about 20% of that to pay for health insurance, FICA tax, and accounting costs. You should also buy some good disability insurance. You should also have a nest egg of about 6 months salary saved up for lean times and as a transition.

Always think about your competitions, day in and day out. Why would someone choose you, instead of the other popular math guys? In any business, if you have no advantages over your competitors (as seen by the potential clients), don't do it, period.

Don't worry about your age. If you are a single 36 year old with some nest egg and a decent resume, you can at least try it. Nothing is gained by sitting and waiting. Plenty gained by taking a good approach. The younger you are as an entrepreneur, the more times you can fail.

Personally, I wouldn't freelance if I wasn't building up a sustainable business or making 30-40% more take home. I'm a professional QA, I love what I do, but wouldn't go into short term contracts without some major perks... there's no gain from going from a salaried work to a the same work but contract.

Now, if you are in an area where you can grow a business, do it. If contract is lucrative enough to work 9 months a year, and that suits your life, do it. If the contract gives you travel to work in a lot of places and that's appealing do it.

I would go it alone, but not doing my current line of work.

In the perks I listed I forgot the matching 401K my
wifes company gives, the 50k life insurance on both
of us, and her pension plan. Self employed people
have none of these for free. I have a friend who's
75 and was self employed for 40 years. His wife
died and he lost more than half his income because
she had a pension, free medical for both of them,
and social security. Now he lives totally on SS. His
401k is long gone.