How To Become Entrepreneur? From Engineer to Freelance Writing Business.

The Story By Dennis Ryan Lynch. 

Starting a business.

Hello, my name is Dennis, I am a civil engineer and freelance writer from the Jersey Shore in New Jersey. My only real wealth comes from my brain. Yet, here I am, two years out of college with tens of thousands of dollars in not only student loan debt, but car debt, writing. Not as an engineer.


Why would I give up something so safe? Something that’s sometimes impossible for people? Something that would have secured me a decent life if I just sat and did what I was told?


Maybe it’s just not for me. Maybe I’m a homeless couch surfer bum in the making. Maybe I will turn this gamble into a life I will be satisfied with. But none of that is where I am, right now. I’m only a few steps out of the womb of beginning a business.

The leap of faith.

As of writing this, I quit my comfortable job about three months ago. A job that some would kill for. Plenty of money, reasonable deadlines, a great boss, okay coworkers, paid overtime, and a reasonable amount of time off. But it just all shook me to my core. Is this…it? Yes, I could bounce from engineering firm to engineering firm. But is this my life? Four gray walls, two computer screens, dim lighting, and people I cannot connect with?

It was a job for someone. But it wasn’t for me.

In the quiet of late December 2021, I was pulled to look up some things I haven’t looked up in a while in my quiet coffin. Personal Finance. Who knows what I searched exactly, but I stumbled across Mister Money Mustache.

I was curious, but it only simmered in my brain for the next few weeks, as it was the holiday season. Then, I was hit with the pandemic’s sickness and I was new at work so I didn’t have enough time to chain together enough days off to cover the mandatory amount of time I must stay out of the office. There also weren’t enough company holidays through the end of the year to get paid normally.

Then, in January 2022, after glazing over while staring at my screen, it hit me to search for podcasts about what Mister Money Mustache wrote so much about – Financial Independence. I quickly found the MadFientist and in my monotonous daze, I just as quickly burned through his library. So, then what next? This ChooseFI thing seemed like the next step.

It was during the Fenrir-like engulfing of this exorbitant amount of information did I notice one Alan Donegan of the Pop-Up Business School appear more and more to speak on something so many of these FI-ers seem to forget about – entrepreneurship.

Alan’s message was reasonable; why not do something you love now, without debt, instead of wailing away at a job for ten years straight cutting back as much as you can?

The idea was planted. So, I then saved as much money as I can.

The plan was to pay off my student loans, then have something reasonable saved to last about ten months to a year if I made exactly zero money, as is the conventional wisdom when starting a business, which I mostly learned about thanks to the Rebel Entrepreneurship Podcast.

Perhaps I was coming at it from too much of an engineering point-of-view, trying to find the absolute worst possible outcome. So, I found it unlikely that I would not make any money in a year. If it seemed I had to, I’d find a part-time job. I don’t spend too much per month anyway, I’m basically living the same financial life I did as a college student, except the reaper had returned for his debts.

The inciting incident.

My beautiful Camry’s engine imploded one Friday afternoon drive home on the parkway. At the time I was working two jobs, my engineering one and one on the weekend at the beach I’ve held every summer for a few years now. If you know America, you need to have a car to get around outside of exceptions like New York City. So, I was more or less coerced to get a car by the infrastructure I know intimately and by everyone around me.

So, I got a car. I was uncomfortable about it, as I never had an auto loan prior, and by doubling my total debts, there was absolutely no way to fulfill my original plan to leave my job in my planned time frame. It basically meant I have to stay in a place I loathed for another year or two. Sure, maybe that’s chump change when it comes to time for some people. But I was tired of waiting to get my life started.

Then, it became clear whatever choice I made didn’t matter. If I stayed at my job longer, I could save money and manage debt payments better, but I’d exist for months in a state of psychological self-torture. Or – I could quit my job, work through the end of the summer and just take a stab at the business anyway. I had the approximate amount of money saved, and I didn’t plan on burning through it before I had the opportunity to work in the summer again.

So, I left.

The young entrepreneur.

I also spoke with Alan on his podcast months ago in May. While he recommended I don’t jump in right away, here I am, currently using up my savings as I try to sell my skills to produce work to get more and better jobs to repeat the process ad infinitum. I try to scrounge and dig for digital marketing agencies, pitch ideas, find magazines and journals, and apply to jobs on job boards to pull together a few clients. I have had a website I blogged on since February of 2022, and I’ve modified it to more or less act as my freelance writing website with pitches, my portfolio, and testimonials. I have two current clients that provide me with consistent work, and I’m digging around looking for more.

It was, and still is, a very slow start, but I chose freelance writing for a few reasons.

     1. I have always wanted to write, but becoming an author is a much bigger bear to wrestle. I have a manuscript, but it’s not polished and would take a lot of time to become polished. So, it seems that trading my time for potential book sales right now is too much of a gamble, with too many factors out of my control.

    2. Once it’s up and running, it will provide location independence. I haven’t truly gone out of town to try it yet, but I have been all over my county at different libraries to work. One day, I will be able to type this from the top of the Rocky Mountains in the Alpine Visitor center after a good hike.

    3. Freelance writing (or freelancing another in-demand, location-independent skill like video editing, social media management, or digital assistant) is relatively fast to get going and inexpensive to break into and maintain. For comparison, it doesn’t take at least 4 years of higher education, a potential license, and multiple internships to get started. Also, it is possible to email someone and have them turn around and ask for work from you in a day. It is also possible to just work from a computer in your local library or from a laptop that you probably already own.

The next steps for the business.

Now that I’ve gotten a few successful and decent clients, I am mostly awaiting payments or work to be published. Once I have those, I will be posting them to my portfolio, in fact, I already have my first few live links. I also am looking for more clients to provide writing services for either online or by going to a business networking event at the suggestion of some close friends. The amount of money I make is not entirely in my control, but taking the steps to find new people to sell to and maintain relationships is. Then, the hope is to break even on my current expenses in a few months and replace my engineering job’s income in the not-too-distant future!

Dennis Ryan Lynch

Dennis is a civil engineer turned freelance writer, beginning his journey in Fall 2022 at the age of 24.

He’s spent hours listening to the MadFientist, Mister Money Mustache, ChooseFI and of course, our own Alan Donegan, learning about Financial Independence and Entrepreneurship. He’s in the beginning stages of his experiment and he writes over at colossicus.com about the same topics, and it’s where you can find his portfolio.