Making less money after starting a business
Building a startup often leaves founders going years without a steady salary or barely scraping by on one or two daily sales. This severe drop in income makes it difficult to cover basic monthly expenses, leading many to feel discouraged and question whether to abandon the business to find a stable job.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1considering doing freelance work to match the previous salary
- 2Running Meta ads at $40 a day
- 3Searching for a full-time role
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
r/smallbusiness2 people · September 2026
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 3What to do when your business spends more than it makes
- 4How should a new shop owner pay themselves?
- 6How to quit a corporate job to start your own business
- 20Why are clients suddenly ghosting contracts and sales slowing down?
- 2How to find a new business idea after shutting down a company
- 8Funding my business out of my own pocket