Is it financial suicide for me to start a business during this pandemic?

Question

I need advice. I have a 10K emergency fund and nothing to my name besides that. I live with my parents, both of which recently got laid off and are using their emergency fund to pay for bills such as food and rent. I've been wanting to make a biz for myself (web dev and programming for other biz small and big; I'll know how to market and sell my services with the books I've read). I'd be the only employee in my company and my total costs would be roughly $600~ to start the business. Been wanting to start it since Jan but some things came up that impacted my life. Now with this pandemic of an illness, I'm scared and also feel I shouldn't take any money from my emergency fund. Am I insane for wanting to do this? Should I take the plunge and do it before this illness gets worse or should I completely forget it and save my money? The pandemic has me worried but supporting my family so their emergency doesn't run out also has me worried

elviejo · Accepted Answer

Don't do it. Things are going to get worst, before they get better. Your potential customers are seeing their current customers canceling orders, canceling projects, etc. As you said both your parents were recently laid off... And under this climate it's going to be at least 6 months before they find a new job.Being an adult means having the capability to delay what we desire... In order to fulfill our responsibilities.

deerIRL · Answer

Does that $600 make a large difference in your budget?
Realistically, a one man operation shouldn't be too affected by this pandemic, depending on the market you are going for. Obviously industries such as hospitality are getting hit a lot harder than others.
Outside of you personally getting sick and causing it to halt development, I don't think it should be much of a concern.

greenyoda · Answer

> Should I take the plunge and do it before this illness gets worseIt seems to be getting worse every hour. The companies you want to sell your services to may currently be in panic mode and, if so, the last thing they'd want to do is spend money on new projects. I'd sit tight and wait for the pandemic to abate.

ThrowawayR2 · Answer

Not suicide perhaps but you should take care to evaluate the likelihood of getting paying customers in the current environment if things turn out as bad as they seem to be shaping up to become. I expect both consumers and businesses to be curtailing spending sharply for quite some time.

gshdg · Answer

The 6 month outlook for a new business is pretty poor. The 5 year outlook is probably not much worse than at any other time.