For those of you self employed/ busniess owners . How many years before you made $?

[juanbenae]

The food is pretty good, so is the service...

[911 Rod]

Going without a profit at the beginning is why people buy franchises.
Then the franchise sucks the profit out of them for the rest of the agreement.

[gacook]

Originally Posted by Jeff Alton

General population of employed people completely underestimate the costs and RISK associated with starting a business, especially if it is a brick and mortar location, not home based or small office lease based. The cash flow required where employees, lease, taxes, benefits etc are involved can be immense.

Turn3 started from a dream. Opened with 2000sq/ft, 3 hoists. Everything dialed and pretty in terms of physical plant. Grew to 4000sq/ft and then 6000sq/ft in the same location. Then needed more space and we moved 8 years ago to our 11000sq/ft facility, that is dialed and pretty. The cost associated with acquiring new equipment, training, marketing, updating software for tools, heat, AC, electrical, taxes, strata, upgraded lighting and security, insurance, WCB, taxes blah blah blah are amazing.... It cost us over 150K just to move- (at 8 years ago rates) but we planned that so we were only closed for one day over a long weekend as we can't stomach a loss of income for 3-4 weeks to do a more gentle move.

SO in a business like this, where you want to grow, a lot of profit money gets reinvested in the business to support that expansion and growth. Yet, many people look at owners of nice looking facilities and think we must not have time to count all the money we make. Nothing is funnier....

Then the time commitment.... If you want to grow your business and make a "brand" out of it, be prepared to spend 1.5 or 2 times the number hours you think it will take. And be prepared for the stress that comes along with HAVING to make payroll every 2 weeks, and lease payments/utilities/taxes/etc at the end of every month. You can't miss these payments.

It is all different if you are a "one man band" or "two man band" where you are setting up something small so you can work for yourself and earn good income as opposed to being an employee. The scale of expense is completely different. But at the end the day, if you want to build a Brand that is an Asset, fasten your seatbelt...

Cheers

Some of us "wage earners" absolutely understand the risk of starting our own business...and that's WHY we don't do it I give major kudos to those of you who do...but i am extremely risk adverse when it comes to my finances. My body, not so much...I've done some wild things in my life but I don't have the balls to start my own business. I like the security of knowing someone else is putting money in my bank account every 2 weeks as long as I'm doing my job.

[SpyderMike]

Until you are let go by them!

That is what prompted me to start my business I was VP of Operations for a company, we went IPO, got bought up be an investment group soon thereafter, and most of mid-level management was let go.

Working for others, your future is somewhat out of your control. Working for yourself, you have no one else to blame...

That was my motivation, and it worked. Wish I had done it sooner.

[Jeff Alton]

Originally Posted by gacook

Some of us "wage earners" absolutely understand the risk of starting our own business...and that's WHY we don't do it I give major kudos to those of you who do...but i am extremely risk adverse when it comes to my finances. My body, not so much...I've done some wild things in my life but I don't have the balls to start my own business. I like the security of knowing someone else is putting money in my bank account every 2 weeks as long as I'm doing my job.

My choice of terms sure was pretty poor, my aplogies.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

10yrs this Oct since I decided to set up my own business as a freelance motorsport design engineer

Didn't do it to make more money but did it to chase interesting, difficult, challenging projects

Must be doing something right, never had to look for work, only ever had more work opportunities than have time for

My business doesn't have a web site, I don't advertise, don't even have a work email address or work phone

Only a LinkedIn profile that is never kept up to date ie which team/companies I'm currently helping until after I've finished. Reason being, I've brought in to do a job my client can't do, no one needs to know this and I don't need to use their name to help find my next job

Race teams/companies that need my help, know of me or worked with me before or I've been asked back as my client needs my help again or head hunted me

Normally my contracts start as a year minimum but all have been extended and I'm fully booked up at least a year in advance, with clients waiting for my availability

Money has come but more important to me is I've worked on some very cool projects and helped all of my clients win a race and even multiple European or world championships

Should be slowing down my work commitments but later this year I'll have two completely different world championship motorsport projects on the go that are so interesting I couldn't say no

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Jeff Alton

My choice of terms sure was pretty poor, my aplogies.

Perfect: Both your posts and Guy's are the embodiment of choice and well written.

I stopped active investing for two reasons: The Market advanced and changed faster than I could adapt...then, because I had to adhere to regulations governing the companies I was contracted with as a COS then PM, I turned everything over to a a guy that knew a guy.

I kid. I was at that point in my life where I was more interested in growing a company than actively trading...I turned it all over to a trust and we have done well with them.

I sleep a lot better

[Skillet83]

Facility service companies, mostly janitorial services. I do other facility services such as remodels and repairs, lawn, painting, etc...Over the years, have built companies in new markets then sold after about 10 years. Private equity loves companies that have high cash flow. Have used that cash to buy very nice rental properties. If I knew how well those would turn out, would have doubled down on them.
Typically, break even after 120 days. 5 year mark, 500K net. 10 year is amazing. Not for the faint of heart. If you are not selling, you are dying!