Always have backup plans when starting a business

"I told my dad I wanted to start a business and he got so angry. How did your family react, and if it was negative how did you deal with it?"

On the value of being financially smart and always having backup options.
AKA "Don't just quit your job to start a business."

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This is a really good question.

And the answer is kind of complicated

So, I don't have a good relationship with my parents, haven't really talked to them in many years. But it has nothing to do with the business at all, started way before that. So I didn't consult their opinion at all and they had no influence on what I did.

 Now, that also meant that if I screwed up I couldn't rely on their help in any way (and hadn't relied on it for many years so I was used to it)

But I did have the opinions of friends of all stripes-- from people very close to me to distant friends to acquaintances to even old coworkers who heard about it and wanted to express their opinion :P

 And I think the way I started the business factors into all of those opinions

 So, if I ran of money I pretty much was homeless. The person closest to me at the time, my boyfriend, was disabled and depending on me. And I didn't know anyone else well enough to go live with them or anything. And at the same time, I was extremely burnt out. I was getting to the point where I couldn't even function in a job. All the stress I was under and the burnout made it so I basically wasn't producing code anymore and kind of left my last job before they could fire me

So working full time jobs was out of the question, and that was a huge swath of employment opportunities that were out of the question! So I kind of HAD to think about software contract work. I could work in another industry... or I could just do bursts of software work when I could.

 Even with that, before I quit I talked to a LOT of people and did a lot of networking to make sure this kind of work was out there

 And then I gave myself a time limit-- 2 months to find contract gigs or else I need to look for full time work again. Because that's all the savings I could afford to sit on my butt not working. After 6 weeks, I landed a great contract gig.

 Having that time limit really helped comfort the people close to me, and they were actually extremely supportive. Wary, but given my health situation and how I was being extremely careful financially, understanding that this was pretty much the best path forward I could take.

 The people not close to me thought I was out of my mind until I started making money and then they all wanted to be my best friend

As the business progressed, the people close to me had moments of doubt even after the "first paycheck" phase because they had a view into the ups and downs involved in getting a business going, which can be very stressful and unlike full time jobs.

 But comforting them remained being about having solid backup plans in place and knowing that I had nowhere to go to if I ran out of cash so I HAD to have those backup options

 So I always recommend people have these backup plans. Never launch a product without paying customers giving you money to do it. Never quit a job for consulting unless you 1) have savings like I did, and then set a time limit or 2) you have that consulting client already lined up

I know a guy working a full time job and successfully starting a business on the side because he's got a family to feed and no backup plans, just like me, but his full time job isn't stressful like mine was

Sorry for the long message-- I write all these details to convey all the nuance that went into this decision and to explain why I don't think it's good to start a business without backup plans and solid financial plans

 (And that, in turn, is probably what concerns your family)