• 4.4 million American workers resigned from their jobs in September.
• Chicken entrepreneurship is a great first option.
• Todays technology makes that more accessible than ever.

U.S. workers left 20 million jobs between May and September this year, according to the latest federal data, a number more than 50% higher than the resignations handed in during the same period last year. That figure was also 15% above the level from spring and summer 2019, when the job market was the hottest it had been in almost 50 years.

The Qualtrics survey found even higher rates of people considering leaving their jobs than Mercers research did. Some 62% of workers planned to stay in their current jobs next year, the survey found, down from 65% in 2021.

Lets talk about that, along with the dos and donts of leaving.

Passion or Profit?

In 2006, I saw an ad online that read, Retire This Year.

I was hooked. Its a famous headline Paul Hollingshead, the renowned copywriter, wrote for American Writers and Artists, Inc.

Its also a steaming pile of horseshit.

Nevertheless, I was at my wits end being a futures broker for Credit Suisse and decided to quit anyway. I hated my boss and my job, though my work colleagues were like family.

I was recently promoted to Vice President - when a bank starts to care about you - but I found the increased demands werent worth the title or the pay.

Had my boss not been such a prick, I probably wouldve stuck it out for another year.

But I left, thinking I could be a writer. Though I learned a lot, I couldnt make a business out of it.

I attended AWAIs bootcamp that year and met Mark Ford. You may recognize his nom de plume, Michael Masterson. Author of numerous bestselling books, he is also one of the heads of Agora and a co-founder of AWAI.

I got five minutes on the side with Mark, and he advised me to get into financial copywriting.

I hated the idea, as I just left banking, but it was solid advice.

This leads me to this generalization of Marks advice: stick with what you know when youre first breaking out.

Sure, you may want to do something different, and thats fine, but you need to keep the cash flowing first.

Tap into your network to see where the demand is. Then, execute for them. And remember to invoice!

Chicken Entrepreneurship

This is critical. Dont quit your job right away.

Its much better to keep that cash flow coming and build your dream business at night and on the weekends.

I know that sounds exhausting, but exhausting is better than broke.

Mark Ford wrote an article in 2006 - right around the time I attended the bootcamp - about chicken entrepreneurship. Ill let Mark take it from here:

A chicken entrepreneur is somebody who keeps his day job while he gets his ideal job going at home in the evenings and on weekends. He is an entrepreneur, because he is taking the initiative to start his own business. He is chicken, because hes not willing to quit his current job and lose the income. The compromise he accepts is that he will have to work 60 to 90 hours a week for several years before he can either abandon his great idea or fire his boss.

The term chicken entrepreneur, by the way, was not my coinage. I heard it many years ago. I didnt like it, but I recognized that it applied to me.

...start a business you know something about a business that is based on some interest you have. And if you want to do something different, take the time to learn about that business from the inside out. That means getting yourself some part-time work in the industry in which you intend to compete.

A Few Helpful Sites to Get You Started

Google Skillshop

Google Digital Garage

freeCodeCamp

Can freeCodeCamp help me get a job as a software developer?

Yes. Every year, thousands of people who join the freeCodeCamp community get their first software developer job.

My advice is to learn on freeCodeCamp if you want a job as a developer. If you have expertise in one area and want to build an app for it, hire someone to do it for you.

Mises University

One of the biggest issues entrepreneurs face is their lack of economics knowledge.

Remedy that for free by watching Mises University.

The great gift Austrian Economics gave the world was an explanation of entrepreneurship and its importance to an economy.

By learning about time preference, subjective value, capital, interest, competition, and markets, youll have a nearly unassailable advantage over your competitors.

Wrap Up

And there you have it. Four free sites thatll help you increase your skills for your online business.

Youve got something special inside of you. The trick is getting it out and offering it to the world in a way that the buyer and you, the seller, profit.

Once you master these skills, you find it easier to succeed.

Heck, after I learned digital marketing, our Finlingo (my app company) downloads increased 254% quarter-on-quarter in the App Store.

It didnt take too much, and it wasnt expensive.

The knowledge and skills are on offer. You just have to learn them.

All the best,

Sean