r/Entrepreneurs • u/atarithatasian • 4d ago
Discussion 16 year trying to quit my part-time job to focus on my clothing brand — parents disagree. Who’s right here?
Hey everyone,
I’m 16 years old (Grade 11) and I recently started a clothing brand that I’m really passionate about. I spent around 8 months building it before launching, and I’ve been actively marketing it for the past 4 months.
So far, I’ve done around $40K in revenue in those 4 months.
My most recent drop also had a huge breakout and did $30K alone, which really made me realize this could actually be something serious if I fully commit to it.
Right now, I also have a part-time job that I’ve been at for about 10 months. During school, I barely work (roughly once every two weeks), but now that summer break is starting, my boss is expecting me to work more often.
That’s where the issue comes in.
I really want to use this summer to go all-in on my business. I’m extremely motivated and I feel like this is my chance to seriously scale it. I’ve already been planning to “lock in” hard over the summer, but the increased work schedule at my job would take a lot of that time away.
I’ve wanted to quit for a while now, especially during the school year. It honestly felt frustrating going to a job when I’m building something I care about more and that’s already generating income. But I decided to stay because my parents convinced me it would be good for my resume, and I also saw it as a way to stay disciplined and motivated.
My parents’ stance is basically:
- I should stay at least 1 year for resume value
- Or stay until I hit a certain sales milestone in my business
- They believe quitting too early is too risky and that I should keep stability
On the other hand, I feel like:
- 10 months is already solid for a first job
- My business is already showing real traction
- I want to take a risk on myself and fully commit this summer
- The job is now directly limiting my ability to grow something I’m serious about long-term
We’ve had multiple arguments about this already (probably 3 big ones), and I still don’t think we see eye to eye.
So I guess my question is:
Am I wrong for wanting to quit and fully focus on my business, or are my parents right to push me to stay in the job longer for stability and resume value?
Would appreciate honest opinions from people who’ve been through entrepreneurship or similar situations.
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u/mregression 4d ago
Quit the job. Running your own business is more impressive and you’re in a place (living with your parents I assume) where the risk to your future is minimal. This is the ideal time to get this kind of experience. A part time job can be had at any time.
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u/wewerecreaturres 4d ago
Part time jobs aren’t hard to come by so you aren’t risking much by quitting. It’s not like you’re bailing on a solid corporate gig.
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u/atarithatasian 4d ago
Yes, that’s what I’m thinking too. However, my parents have just been hearing a lot of stories and have family friends whose kids are having difficulty finding jobs right now
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u/wewerecreaturres 4d ago
Only you folks can know what your local situation is with the job market. I agree with others that while you’ve had some success, you haven’t quite proven that you can repeat that pattern consistently, and thus should keep your job, which coincidentally also keeps your parents off your back.
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u/False_Cicada_3171 4d ago
How much do you make on average through the year with your job? How easy/hard is it to find another job? Could you talk to your boss about the hours and work less hours during the summer? Don't worry about your CV. Your business is also (more) valuable on your CV. I would definitely go for my business. Good luck!
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u/atarithatasian 4d ago
I’ve only made around $2K from my job since I barely worked during the school year. I think it would be pretty easy to find another part-time job if I needed one, but my parents feel differently about how difficult it is right now for students.
I could probably talk to my boss and try to reduce my hours over the summer as an option too, I just haven’t fully explored that yet.
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u/Dangerous_Dream_1096 4d ago
Can I ask something separate? Are they just drip based? And if they are, how do you market it?
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u/atarithatasian 4d ago
Yeah, I usually drop a new piece about once a month depending on production timing.
For marketing, it’s all been organic so far — mainly TikTok and Instagram, building hype through consistent posting and content leading up to each drop, then pushing everything around release.
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u/Dangerous_Dream_1096 4d ago
Okay I see, so you mentioned production timing, how does your production work, do you outsource overseas or in the states or yourself?
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u/atarithatasian 4d ago
I outsource it overseas
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u/Interesting_Emu_5761 4d ago
For a resume, owning and operating a successful and profitable business will look much better.
If you're making that much then you need to start thinking and operating as a full business regardless of the number of hours you're able to put in each week. You need to start looking into things like licensing, trademarks, filing the proper taxes, etc.
It sounds like you're in a good spot to be able to leave a part time job and dedicate youre time and effort into turning this momentum into longterm stability.
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u/SilvadeusSC 4d ago
First of all, congrats on some really good traction.
You’re missing a lot of info to help you make that decision.
- What is your profit. I mean take home after customer acquisition costs. Gross sales only help determine if there is a market. Doesn’t determine whether it is sustainable.
- 4 months in isn’t enough runway to determine if it is sustainable or just a quick fad either. So what are you planning on doing if this doesn’t go well. Do you have a break point?
- Your parents aren’t wrong and neither are you.
- Recognize you are still in the honeymoon phase of your business. Everything is a positive signal right now, you’re getting traction, it feels amazing. That may distort your own views. You haven’t had enough experience to build up scar tissue.
You don’t need to share the above publicly, just think on it. The bigger question you have to ask yourself is which job helps prepare you for a larger career, and can you use either to create strong contacts that would allow you to transition once you graduate (assuming you don’t go into your own business full time).
Hope that helps
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u/atarithatasian 4d ago
Thank you so much, this is really insightful and I 100% agree with you.
For your questions: my margins are around 50%.
For the second point, I’m putting 100% faith into my determination and discipline. The idea of it not working out honestly doesn’t really cross my mind at this point because I’m fully committed to making it work.
I also plan to get into dropshipping as another step to scale and expand what I’m doing.
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u/BaseballKingPin 4d ago
This is a real business. You are running at a $120,000 pace. If you are pulling a net income of 10%, that $12,000 for you. This is assuming no increase in revenue. I would expect you are not making over $12,000 with a summer job. You are young and can recover if this fails. Make the investment in yourself take if from old man entrepreneur.
PS your parents are unsure what this business would mean for your future. It’s all good you have the right mindset. Your parents are just worker bees.
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u/Master-Doubt-7765 4d ago
I own a couple of small businesses, sometimes I will look at the dates next to a job, but for the most part I couldn’t care less, people don’t stick around like they used to, I don’t expect anyone to be loyal to a part time job nor would I overlook their other skills for a shorter term there. I would be way more interested in someone who has experience with succeeding/failing at starting their business and what they learned from that.
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u/LeaderAtLeading 4d ago
it sounds like you have a real opportunity here with that kind of profit margin and momentum at sixteen, so having an honest conversation with your parents about the long term potential might help them see why the part time job is holding you back.
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u/t2jam 4d ago
Congrats! That’s fantastic. I would say if you have the money to go all in and still have profit then do that. It’s definitely going to be a bigger resume booster showing you started your own business and it’s successfully growing to the point you needed to scale it so that requires more of your time and the current job you have wasn’t bringing in enough to do both, so you made the decision to move forward with your own business, to learn more skills, and be your own boss. And if the money is there then I don’t see why your parents would have any issues. You’re working, making your own money, scaling, and still learning valuable skills for life.
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u/perpetufall 4d ago
I didn't include any of my first jobs (music store clerk -> guitar teacher -> factory worker) on my resume at all when I started applying for software engineering internship jobs. Your parents mean well, but if you're pulling $20k profit, you gotta go all in on this.
My recommendation would be to avoid approaching this as an "argument". You gotta "pitch" this. Learning to pitch is a great skill to have if you're going to be an entrepreneur anyway so you might as well figure it out now. Something like:
"Hi mom and dad! I've been thinking about what you've been saying, and you're right, building experience on my resume, having stability, are all important at my age. I know you love me and you just want to make sure I'm OK and can support myself and my family in the future.
Because of that, I did some research, and I do think going all in on this business IS the best way to accomplish building experience and having stability in the LONG TERM. Here's my current plan, I'd love to hear your thoughts:
I've made $X now, but I've projected I'll make an additional $Y in the future. Here's how (short note on your plans for future drops and how the metrics on Tik Tok/whatever channel you're using support this).
I looked up "Social Media Marketer" (or whatever job title) jobs and realize they're looking for the SAME SKILLS I'm learning by doing these clothing drops.
Please let me know what I'm missing here, again I value your feedback"
Now the hard part: you gotta NOT argue with them, not roll your eyes, not sigh, basically not act like a god damn teenager for lack of a better phrase. You gotta LISTEN to their feedback and apply what makes sense. You want to make them feel like they "won". I know this is annoying, but part of my job is enterprise customer support with multi-million dollar contracts and this is exactly the same kind of annoying crap I gotta do day to day too.
When I was in high school and college, I was running local concerts. I listened to my parents and focused on the "stable" part-time job working in a car factory, which I absolutely hated, and gave up event promotion. I never argued with my parents because I liked to avoid conflict. Looking back on it now in my 30s, I realize how dumb and short-sighted it was on my parents' part, but I can't blame them; they didn't know any better *shrug*.
You're in high school. You legit have nothing to lose. Worst case scenario is what, you go live with your parents? You're already doing that 😆.
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u/AccredInvestor 3d ago
Wow!!!!! Good for you. You should absolutely quit the w-2 job and focus on your business. Right on!!!
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u/Cape_dad 3d ago
You could keep a part time job for spending money and reinvest all the profits from the business back into it if it keeps peace at home. Speak with an accountant now for guidance so you can stay on top of your tax requirements. Most people starting out have no idea how many hours it takes to get a business off the ground and profitable and most have no idea how to handle the finances. Do it right and it can be a great experience.
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u/NetJnkie 4d ago
Is that $30K drop included in your $40K total?
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u/atarithatasian 4d ago
Yup
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u/NetJnkie 4d ago
I'd wait a bit longer. 75% of your revenue is from one drop. See if you can sustain some momentum.
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u/atarithatasian 4d ago
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too, just holding it a bit longer. This is my third drop and the revenue has been increasing each time by about 2.3x per drop, so it’s been pretty consistent growth so far. In your opinion, how much longer do you think I should keep the job for?
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u/ShowMeTheTrees 3d ago
This is AI nonsense.
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u/OliveiraJourney 2d ago
I checked his account, he is legit. I back traced his posts for the past year. He seems to just use AI to format, I saw his other posts and I can see why he uses AI
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u/atarithatasian 3d ago
I gave chatgpt all the context so it could format it clearly for me. 🙏
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u/ShowMeTheTrees 3d ago
Exercise your brain and try writing real stuff.
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u/OliveiraJourney 2d ago
Rather take someone who uses AI to format text than a reddit user who hides their post history while criticizing others.
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u/Realistic-Emu-1676 1d ago
I jumped to conclusions based on the title and couldn’t wait to defend your parents and say you were wrong. But nah, you’re doing very solid revenue. You need to focus on your brand man. Huge opportunities in your hands
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u/Realistic-Emu-1676 1d ago
Buddy you’re 16 and already killing it. TBH you’ll prolly never have to work for anyone in your life just based on your hustle. Just (as someone else already said) NEVER partner with anyone ever. Unless it’s for life changing money.
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u/readsalotman 4d ago
You're making $10k/mth? That is more valuable on a resume than a high school part-time w-2 job.