>Hard work doesn't scare me but consulting is off the table due to restriction at my workplace.
What "restrictions"? You have a (most likely verbal) contract with your employer to provide your effort in exchange for money. They don't own you and any clauses they have that restrict what you can do when you're not there or don't even work for them anymore are probably not enforceable. Especially when this dubious claus is holding you back from money you need.
Just because a contract says something, even if you signed it, doesn't mean it can actually be enforced.
The US also goes on at-will employment, so regardless of how legally enfoceable his contract may be (in that they can't sue him for violating it), they can fire him for violating it.
I always lived in an at-will state, but I wouldn't ever go back there to work. I was under the impression that the states were either Union (California?) or "Right to work".
I work in the US and have never had a job where there wasn't some kind of signed contract. I'd feel that a company that didn't put its expectations of its employees in writing was somewhat shady.
I've worked in numerous jobs in the US and have never had to sign a contract. One tried to make me sign one of those 'anything you invent even on your own time is our property' documents and I told them no to which they said don't worry about it then.
The company I work for now was acquired awhile back and the software I work on is one of the main reasons for acquisition. I fully expected them to try and present some contracts, but they didn't. Most likely they correctly thought that I wouldn't sign it without some increase in pay and benefits, and they didn't want to give me any additional money.
Can you, for example, work for a competition in your spare time? I have a contract which forbids me do that (but I respect it since it seems reasonable to ask for this).
Honestly I think it depends on the circumstance. But companies (at least US ones) always try to make these contracts much more restrictive than they could ever actually get away with. I once worked for a company that said I was not allowed to work for a company in a related market segment for 2 years after leaving the company.
But whether the contract should, or could be, broken shouldn't even enter into the conversation. The poster said they cannot do consulting. For the purposes of this discussion, that's all the information given, so it's pointless to make further assumptions.
Consulting would be my suggestion as well; it's far more immediately lucrative than creating a product from scratch.
What "restrictions"? You have a (most likely verbal) contract with your employer to provide your effort in exchange for money. They don't own you and any clauses they have that restrict what you can do when you're not there or don't even work for them anymore are probably not enforceable. Especially when this dubious claus is holding you back from money you need.
Just because a contract says something, even if you signed it, doesn't mean it can actually be enforced.