Have you ever dreamed of starting a small business, but you don’t want to quit your regular job? The risk and uncertainties involved in quitting your job to run a start-up may not be for everyone. Despite this, it is not impossible to start that small business you have always dreamed of and keep your regular job.

The key is to be passionate about your small business enough to devote your free time to it, and enjoy it. It can become a source of extra income, but not take away from your steady salary.

An Example: Online Retail

One of my fellow accounting students runs his own online retail company, Nexus Racing, which sells parts for model racing cars. He has run this all throughout college, while doing well in a demanding major and working a part-time job.

In addition to earning money, by running his own company he probably gets more experience with programs like MS Excel which are used extensively by accountants, but not taught very well in our university. He also gets to fill interview time talking about the impressive fact that he runs a successful small business.

Smart Decisions

I think the key to his success is that this is a project that he enjoys devoting his free time to. Thanks to the internet, you can start your own online business that you can modify at night and on weekends, but will basically run itself when you aren’t around.

When it got to be too large for them to handle without cutting into their other obligations, he and his partner hired an employee instead of quitting school or skipping out on homework. If you want to start a small business without quitting your job, don’t be afraid to hire someone to do some work! It is probably a smarter investment for him to continue on his track to be a successful accountant than to give up on his education to work a job that he can pay someone minimum wage to do.

I have no idea how much money he makes from the website, and I might guess that a steady job as an accountant would pay more, but this guy is a great example of owning a company without giving up on working for someone else as well.

Another example:

• This 18-year-old started a business raising diary goats and selling shares in the herd to local people who want raw goat milk. He’s still going to high school, and plans to use the money he earns to pay for college.