Who Left Good Jobs To Start Own Business?(NF)

[TJQ]

I did it in 1994.... we starved for the first 3 years.. and the only reason I don't have a real job now is that there were none at home to get.

 

Monique and I were making a really good upper-middle income and were on the verge of buying our first new home. But I was misreable living in New York. So like the beverly hillbillys we moved home to Sturgeon and I hung out my shingle... it fell down... The first three years were absoultly misreable, and it took us another 4 years to dig ourselves outta the hole we dug. I'm glad Avery and Jaden were babies when we did it.. cause they weren't too expensive, and didn't know any better.

 

However that being said... I wouldn't change anything at this point... being broke is a great experiance builder and makes me thankfull for any success... also i learned that making more dough won't neccesarily make you more happy.. ya just have better toys and more responsibility.

 

The one thing about being self employed that bugs me is the lack of benefits you get, mainly a decent pension plan. If I worked 20 years for a company with a decent pension plan... well then that would be another story. The way its going.. im still gonna have to work for a long, long time

[huey graphite]

Express168

 

You and I are in similar shoes. I too live in Stoney Creek and leave the house early to beat the traffic into the GTA. Been doing it for 16 years and am sick of it. The thought of starting my own service based business weighed on my mind heavily.

 

I'm a follower of the Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad) series of books and have learned a great deal. He recommends if at all possible, start a business on a part time basis. That will give you the experience without jumping in with both feet. Don't know if that is an option for you. I did this back in 2002 (electronic repair-barcode scanners) and it provides a little extra cash flow each month but I have not dedicated the time needed to grow it. The commute and long work days does not leave much time.

 

The problem with a paycheck is that your earnings are limited to the number of hours in a day. With your own business, your earnings are limited only by your effort.

 

As you can see by the number of responses. You will get several examples of both success and failure. The important part is to understand you only fail if you give-up.

 

Having a business plan is crucial. You have to be able to offer potential customers something the competition can't. Quite often that something is a better price.

The competition already have the advantage.

 

I say go for it!

 

Good luck

[POLLIWOGG]

DON'T do IT!

 

Now I'll tell you why

 

I take it you will be selling a service provided by yourself, I would assume in a trade, if self gets broke the &^& hits the fan.

 

This brings insurence into the picture for you and the business, how many weeks do you want to work for those guys.

 

 

Starting a business 30 years ago is not the same as it is today. The days of hopping into the truck and getting at er are gone with the insurence and GST driving the trades underground.

 

If you go legit you will be competing with a huge underground market, if you go underground consider selling dope, it pays better with less risk.

 

When your buddies get close to retirement and whine about not being able to live on the big pension they will get from a job where compared to you they get paid good $ for doing almost nothing will you be able to resist telling them to shut the (* up.

 

I don't know if you get sick days or hollidays where you are but you will nver get payed for doing nothing again.

 

But your going to do it anyway so

 

1 always pay yourself a wage and don't dump all your cash back into the business.

 

2 Do not get behind in GST or PST Those (*& will skin you alive.

 

3 Provide a sourse of some kind of pension or what you get will be all that your going to get.

 

4 Do not burn any bridges behind you, let your present employer know that you have a plan evan if it will be competing with him. If he's swamped he might send you some work, if he's that kind of guy.

 

5 Don't loose sight of the family life after all thats why you work in the first place.

 

6 Those who have money have it because they don't pay thier bills.

 

7 Some guys know that there is no real reason to pay you for working for them.

[Uncle Buck]

It's hard work bud, not as glorius as everyone says it is...

 

Long hours, lots of sacrifice, (most being family time) to put roof over their heads and food on the table

 

I work for my Dad and he started the business 25+years ago. I can tell you Dad wasn't around too much. Even though our shop was 100 feet behind the house, he was there most of the time. I now work next to him and can tell you it's no picnic. Weekends, Holidays, etc always come last. Work comes first... Record for me was 37 hours straight and 124 hours in a week. It's a lot more sacrifice then a regular job. Plus when you're starting off it's truely the hardest because you're new, you need to find customers, suppliers etc...

It's not all Bad, the Benefits are there though, when times are good, they're good, when times are bad, they're bad. Be Smart, and Work Hard.

 

Good Luck to you

[Harrison]

I did it.

 

But, started PT, thank God.

 

IF it has anything to do with fishing... RUN. lol.

 

Seriously, I was 25.. had a good job, started a biz part time to see where it could go, well, it went as far as it could. Very sucessful, booked and subbing out work but the overhead and some other "issues" made it not very fruitful.

 

Thankfully I kept my day job.

 

Now with a wife, baby girl, and a mortgage I am quite happy to have the security, good wages, full benefits and a pension plan of my day job.

 

But, I stil have that itch to do something.

 

I always said, if I put the effort into a Lawn Care biz that I put into the fishing biz I'd be laughing.

 

So I started a small PT Lawn care biz with a couple family members. No pressure, see where it goes.

 

Dip in your toes and get an idea where it might go before going in head first is my point I guess.

 

Good Luck with it.

Edited January 31, 2007 by Harrison

[mattyk]

i left a pretty good job with great pay and amazing benifits to go back to school to get my phd. Now im a poor student and i get to consult on the side and fish in the summers which is pretty sweet.

[bassfighter]

The grass is never greener on the other side.

 

Be contented is the key to happines.

 

Many small businesses in Canada do not make enough considering the risk and anxiety we all take.

 

Go to the Government, and get tested if you have what it takes to be an entrenreneur.

 

Here are some more additional pointer not mentioned by others:

 

1. When you start a business, you must also consider how to get out of it or you will be stuck for good.

 

2. Try to get into a business that you do not need a lot of inventory, a more service oriented business.

 

3. Are you a good manager, Hard to find the right type of worker and also equally harder to maintain them.

 

4. You work even longer hours on your own business, and when you go on vacation, you might even worry more .

 

5. How good are you in handling failures?

 

6. Are you competitive? What were you doing and who influence you when you were young will roughly give you some indication if you can be an entrepreneur.

 

7. Are you passionate about your ideas, even if others are not too keen on it?

 

8. How desperate and hungry are you will determine your success in the business.

 

9. Some foreigners who do not speak english tends to make it in small business for they cannot get higher paying job that relys on good spoken english skill.

 

10. Are you good in negotiation? Buying and selling?

 

11. Does you wife work? or do you have a supplementary income in the mean time?

 

12. Is your business Calamity, burgler, etc.... prone?

 

13. What is more important to you money or integrity? You might not necessarily make it if you are honest.

 

14. Work for similar industry if you can before you start your own to gain experience in the field.

 

15. If is not only how hard you must work, but also who you know can help your business.

 

16. Will you still work if you do not get paid? How long?

 

17. Can your business survive through a recession?

 

18. Whoever said that sitting on a desk job is more profitable than doing manual service job? A starting salary for an MBA is $27,000. In Alberta, McDonald pay $18 per hour, almost $35,000 a year.

 

19. If you fail , Do you have the time, energy and courage to get up and start all over?

 

 

Many who already have a decent income and hope to get into a more profitable venture usually fail, for they always have their previous income to compare it with.

[The Urban Fisherman]

well I'm only 25 but i'm going through the same thing right now....my answer was to KEEP my full time job for now, and start my company as a part time gig. Now i'm doing so much work on the side it's hard to keep up, but it might not always be this way, so for now I'm keeping both....if my side work dies down, I still have my full time job to back me up. BUT if in 6 months to a year from now the workload increases and my company seems to have staying power, I might just take the leap.

 

If I wasn't only 1 year out of school with a three month old daughter, a gilfriend in university and a HEAVY student loan, I'd have dropped my full time job weeks ago! hehehe

 

Good Luck and keep us posted!

 

UF

[express168]

WOW! You people are AWESOME!!!!!

 

First I would like to thank all of you for replying to this post and giving me your honest replies both PRO and CON.

 

I know I was pretty vague about the type of business and my business background earlier so I will elaborate. This is the second business that I am going to start. Before I had kids I ran a part time DJ service for many years and made very good part time money at it. I eventually closed things down and sold the gear as I never intended it to go fulltime. This new business has been in the planning for 2 years with the assistance of my brother in law who has owned and operated his own successful business for 15 years now and my sister who has had her own business as well for 12 years now( no they will not be partners with me), involving market research , meetings with my accountant, lawyer and insurance agent, additional training and certifications, and meeting with people running a similar business in other market areas. This business is to be started part time and is service oriented with a very low overhead and still in the housing and real estate industry ( And no I am not jumping on the house flipping bandwagon). I however know that there is a very good posibility that this could lead to me moving into this fulltime and unlike the DJ service it is something I would like to do fulltime and was interested in the experiences that others had when they did something similar.

 

All of you were very kind with offers of assistance and I may PM some of you to talk further, Thank you all for your frank and straightforward replies and I will keep you all posted on how things go. I just hope I still manage to squeeze in some fishing.

[Gary George]

Look at it this way;

 

When you work for someone else your future security is in thier hands.

 

When you work for yourself you make your own security.

 

I have been self employed since the late eighties, my business is small. Primarily just me and a helper occasionally. I carry no debt on the business so have no exposure in that way. I earn a fair living that supports my lifestyle.

 

I don't expect to become wealthy however I don't work outrageous hours either.

 

The level of stress is also in your control, if you over promise there will be stress.

 

If you remain objective and keep your personal well being as a goal as opposed to wealth you'll be good. In other words you run your business, don't let it run you!!!

Edited February 1, 2007 by RivrRat

[Guest Trophymuskie]

Wow a lot of good information. I started my service oriented business in '93 and I'm still operating it today. But let me tell you it's been nothing but extremely hard work all the way.

 

Be ready for the following:

 

Plan on barely making a small profit for the first 3-5 years.

Plan on working 7 days a week for the first 5 years. If you want to make ends meet.

Forget vacations as you won't be getting paid for them. At least for a long while.

Bidding on jobs take a lot of time and you will be lucky to get one out of 3.

And if you have employees you will be taking on some jobs for little to no profit just to keep them busy during the slow season.

 

If you are going to need employees:

Know that you will have to interview 20 guys for everyone you will hire. This means hours on the phone.

Know that only one of 4 that you hire will actually be worth it.

Know that you will have to borrow money to pay the government.

All departments of government will rob you blind and treat you like dirt. They will try their best to make you fail.

Payroll deductions have to be paid on the 15th of the following month, 10% fines and 2% interest ( that's what it was back when I was forced to forgo payroll ) charged the first day you're late.

You have to pay for their pensions as well as unemployment deductions

Compensation is another nightmare be prepared to paid through the nose and then some. And pray no one gets hurt.

GST has to be tabulated and paid every three months ( hours of work ) and again if you are late big $$$ but if the government owes you money be ready to not only wait forever for it but they won't even acknowledge it most times.

Now you won't be able to find an employee you can trust for years and then they will turn on you in a minute and steal you biggest contract to start their own business.

Be ready that once you have more then 3-4 employees you won't be working anymore but will be babysitting and making sure the employees are not only working when they are supposed to but that they are doing it right and correctly as well as doing what you asked of them.

I didn't mention that you will learn 101 excuses for not making it in to work that first year.

 

Now you mentioned it may be in the construction industry:

Be forewarned that if someone decides he's not going to pay you well it's tough luck. As most of the bigger contractors have lawyers on their payroll and your lawyer will cost you more then you will be getting from taking it to court. I've be taken for just a grand here and there to 17 K in one pop. I tried to chase a guy down who wanted to pay me 1/3 of the 5k he owed me. After a few months and before we made it to court we settled for 2/3's and the lawyer got the difference. So yes it cost him and extra 1/3 but I didn't get an extra dime.

 

In the late 90's I had 10 employees ( Oops I mean subcontractors ) I had a revenue of 300K and my receivables were over 100K ( big mistake but that's construction ). I had a guy take me for 17K and another go bankrupt and take me for 33K. That same year my 6 year head sub contractor got convinced as well as my second guy in command by a 6 month sub to steal my big contract. My head guy called me 2 months later looking for work, my second guy in command almost got killed in a car accident months later and the other jerk still has that contract ( hard to believe as the only bad job we did for them was done buy him so he wasn't that good ) but I'm sure he will be getting his sooner or later. I almost went bankrupted in 2000 and that's where I started my guiding business where I'm now full time in the summer and only work at my other business in the winter. No more bidding, no more advertising, do very little in the summer as I can't be there. I only keep my good clients that pay good and fast.

 

Now there are some advantages to been self employed but there is no way I can come even close to that list of disadvantages. Naturally the big one is that the business is supplying you with a vehicle/insurance and anything else used for the business. You are in charge and if you are successfully it can be rewarding down the road.

 

Would I do it again? Well I did real well with my guiding business ( no receivables ) but if it was construction orientated I would not unless it was in the big money jobs like pluming, electrical, cabinets ect ect.

 

The good thing about your situation is that you mentioned been able to go back to your good job if you failed. But if you are like me you will fight to make it happen.

[fatdaddy]

I left my job on the assembly line at Honda to sell real estate, the first year was a little tight with cash flow.... But it was worth the effort and I am VERY happy with my decision, although my wife wasn't thrilled about losing the $80K salary!

[lunkerbasshunter]

i say do it man! If your wife is working full time wiht benefits then that is a huge security factor. Make sure you have a profitable buiness plan and do your best to make it work!

 

Good Luck!

 

Cheers!