Should I quit my job to focus on my 54,000 subscribers YouTube channel full time?

2.5 years, I started a claw machine Youtube channel and published 1 video a week. So far the channel has made about $31,000 in ad revenue and has close to 54,000 subscribers. I'm thinking of quitting my full-time job ($70K annual) to focus full time on growing the channel but I can't seem to find the courage to do so. What are the important questions I should ask myself before making the jump?

Discussion (6)

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Rachel Yeo

22 Jul 2019

Content Strategist at Seedly

Hello!

Being a YouTube influencer is a great and fulfilling journey, and if it is something you love, then it isn't something you should give up on!

Here are some practical questions you can ask yourself regarding your financial position, and whether or not you are financially ready to make the jump:

1. What’s your earning potential on YouTube?

As we only know you have 54k subscribers, there’s little we can tell about your earning potential on Youtube as that is more dependent on your video viewership!
For SG, Youtubers earn around $5 per 1000 effective ad- assuming all your subscribers were to watch the advertisements embedded with your video fully, that will total to only about $270 per video. Your $31,000 in ad revenue was for a 2.5 year stint: that means you get around $1033 a month for the past 2.5 years via video making. Are you comfortable with that amount every month?
You can calculate your exact earning potential here: https://influencermarketinghub.com/youtube-money-calculator/

2. Is this a revenue you can upkeep for the long run?

The nature of your channel is focused on a claw machine. If you’re not featured in the video, you may or may not be able to expand your outreach to other influencer marketing opportunities. Ask yourself how can you position your brand and videos, so that you are able to exploit other forms of collaborations and partnerships to earn more income.

Your current monthly income: ~$5.8K/mth. This is your opportunity cost if you were to switch careers!

3. How much savings do you have currently? Are you able to live comfortably with your savings for the next 1 year?

Building a YouTube channel takes time, so you have to be in a comfortable and have enough finances for you to finance your own living expenses for at least a year!

If you are hesitant to make the switch, it may be due to a lack of planning and research on your part! Overall, I feel that if you’re in a financially secure place, and if you’re able to afford to take time off starting your YouTube channel- go for it!

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Gabriel Tham

22 Jul 2019

Tag Team Member at Kenichi Tag Team

A few questions you might want to consider before taking that plunge:

Channel subscription growth: As time goes by, subscribers are lost or become dormant. Is you channel growing fast every month? More real subscribers coming in every month?
Can you increase the ad revenue? You create 1 video a week and generate that amount. What if you create 2 a week? Does it increase revenue? Or will the revenue be the same?
Does creating more video = more revenue?
Perhaps you can try 2 videos a week while holding your full time job and see the revenue and growth. Then slowly increase the video per week to chart the trend again.
What if you created a new channel and did a different style of videos? For most of the big influencers, they usually have multiple different channels, with different genre or style of videos to capture different audiences.
Do you have a blog to accompany the channel?

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