techiedude:
My question to all of you is this if you have a shop would you keep it if you could have a good job 8-5 with benies and vacation?
That’s a tough question, because people’s attitudes will change depending on where their business is at.
I’ve been open 4 1/2 years now. I didn’t start making serious money until about my 4th year anniversary, so that’s only been six months now. My first two years I lost money. The second two years we made some money but had to dig out of the debt hole created by the first two years. I had a modest income during that time.
For me, the answer to your question varied through those years. During the first two years, when we were losing money every month, I was just fine with the business and wouldn’t have traded it for a steady job. I knew I would lose money for at least two years so I knew I was working for the payday coming.
Years 3 and 4 I regretted the business. I would have easily traded it for a steady job with a decent income. We were running well above break-even, but every month the money disappeared to pay off debt. I felt like I had succeeded but wasn’t seeing any fruits of my labor.
Based on what I heard from a lot of people, it would take two years to start making a profit and I that was my motivation for those first two years. That’s exactly what happened, but I didn’t have any cash coming in. I had to pay off credit lines, credit cards and vendors I was behind with. I constantly felt like I was robbing Peter to pay Paul even though the business was turning a good profit.
Despite seeing a nice net income on the P&L I had to liquidate some investments to keep the cash flowing. I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel anymore and days were starting to feel like a grind. My GM was making more than I was. I felt like I was wasting my life because I was losing time I could have been building a “career”. I was always restless.
My attitude changed again around that 4 year anniversary. I still had a few debts to pay off, but my sales finally went “over the top”. There’s enough coming in now to cover my debt service and make pretty good money. If my growth rate stays steady I’ll take home far more money in 2009 than I could make at a job. At the same time, I’ve built an asset that will be worth much more money than I put into it. That’s something that a job can’t offer.
Sitting from where I’m at now, I feel like it was all worth it. But you would have never convinced me that it would have all been worth it during years 3 and 4. I wanted out.
Read up carefully, do your homework, and get as much as you can out of this board. I would do anything to go back 5 years and know what I know now.
