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

[fastfredracing]

I ran into my good freind Tod ( now deceased ) s, widow last weekend .
He ran a little hippie store on Main Street of a trendy little town for probably 15 + years.
I mentioned him in Vash's not paying taxes thread .
He never made any money at his store per se. He just liked to hang out , collect trinkets, and talk shop with people.
His widow took it over , and to my surprise , has kind of turned it around .
I mentioned to her that I was proud , and amazed at what she had accomplished with the store . Her repy to me , was, yeah, its doing great, but in the 3 years she has had it , she has still to take any money out of it . It makes just enough to pay the bills and re invest for inventory.
Ive been at it for 30+ years, and bet I struggled for 15 of those years . Friends are all driving new cars, living in big nice houses, going on vacations, and here I am driving a $300 2wd s10 and struggling to pay my mortgage, and epuipment bills, and rehab a crappy old building in the middle of nowhere .
I almost quit so many times and got a job at the post office, or somethign like that, but I stayed at , mostly because I am a stubborn German .
Its payed off now, but there were a lot of lean years getting there .
I have another client who has been floating his daughters bakery for 10 + years now . He just confided in me , that he has given her 20+k every year for the last 5 to keep her floating .
I'd personally cut my losses on that one, and go get a job, but one never knows how things will turn out .
How many years did you eat ramen, and pb&j before you finally got up on plane ?

[varmint]

Graphic artist. wildly erratic income over the years. But had a good broker and some self control. Hit the magic number a couple times over. But am so conditioned that I still am happy eating ramen tuna and tang. The huge difference is I don’t have to take the really ****ty jobs anymore.

[berettafan]

it's a lie that you just have to work hard at small business to make it.

Nobody will ever know the full extent of financial destruction that has been wrought by women standing in a kitchen going on about 'oh your cakes are soooo good!'. Enron would be a footnote to a story like that.

[jhynesrockmtn]

My side business has been rental real estate. It never really pays off until you sell, or pay off the mortgage. I'm trying to figure out a plan now that I'm 62 and have a 6 unit apartment building with a mortgage at about half of what I could sell it for. My son may step in at some point, which would work great.

My oldest daughter has owned a restaurant she bought 15 years ago as a going concern. It is one of the longest continually operating restaurants in our mid sized town. She is either going to sell or just walk away in 2-3 years. She's in school now to do a complete career pivot. She's made a good living up until COVID, but it took her 10 years to pay off the owner loan she took. She was taking a salary during that time. Work from home is killing our downtown and the small business owners that have been there forever.

Long winded way of saying, it depends on the business.

[unclebilly]

I got a PO for over $300k… it made it pretty easy to quit my day job.

[Seahawk]

Very interesting thread. Timing is crucial.

Like most here, I worked at a number of jobs tied to the clock in HS and college, even before.

Some really horrific efforts: My 50th HS Reunion in SC is coming up in May, my first reunion. The event will take place at a golf course in SC that I helped build as a laborer between my junior and senor years of HS.

Our "job" was to follow a flat bed truck down the freshly plowed fairways, the course was under construction, take a peach basket, fill it full of roots, return to truck, dump: Lather, rinse...

In the summer, in SC. As the old saying goes, I sweated more than Rosanne Barr on Jeopardy.

One of the many menial jobs but I did...nobody rode for free in my orbit as a kid.

My first taste of entrepreneurship started as a white water rafting guide in college...I started with a group out of Sacramento after the drought years in the '70's (if it is yellow, let it mellow, etc...).

I would not have gotten the job if there was not a drought...all the older boatmen and women had moved on.

So, I sold trips in the Bay Area for a percentage, did well at it and then started a company at 19 with two guys, school teachers, I worked with at the first place.

We did very well because, unlike a lot of other rafting companies in the late '70's, we knew we were in the entertainment business and acted accordingly.

Timing.

Many more adventures, but what I have learned over the years is don't fall in love with your efforts in your business: Plan, baseline, measure and react, change is good: there is no zero defect effort ever.

[jyl]

I basically quit, set up shop, and waited to see if any of my former clients would call me. Enough did that the business was breakeven in 3 months, my household was breakeven in 5, and before the year was up I was making more than at the old W2 job. Not a ton more, but also none of the BS. I think if I hadn't launched on February 4, 2020 (yup) my ramp would have been faster.

[SpyderMike]

Made money year 1. Left a company I managed and two customers followed me. Then I got a huge contract year two and it changed my life. Hundred of millions have used my products...it's surreal

[look 171]

Started as a cabinet maker right after high school working for a shop. I had to learn to survive and pay for college. After a year, I was taking side jobs and anything thing else I can get my hands on home repairs to make extra money. My handy dandy business grew and I was working at the cabinet shop less and less due to getting pay only min. wage.

By my forth year of college, I outgrew my parent's garage and rented a small shop and started making cabinets, did general home related type work. I sunk every penny I earned into equip and my business. Upon finishing college 7 years after high school, I was making ends meet, no loans and even paid for some of my sister's college. Slow down in the economy kicked my butt and had to down size, sold off some equip. Things picked back up and eventually, we were busy again doing custom woodwork, and general contracting. Those were long and lean 15 years as I learned a tremendous amount on my own as well as talking to old folks and my father.

At about 40, I decided, running a small business was only going to make us so much and decided to sink our savings into real estate and see if we get further ahead. Started flipping houses and eventually bought and held some rentals. We rode the housing wave in LA jsut the right time.

My plan was to retire at 50-53 but I love what I do too much and suddenly 60 is nearby. Couple more years, my workman gets my company, no questions asked. I hope he does well with it and keep my clients happy like we always have.

[cabmandone]

Oddly enough, from year one forward with my HVAC business, my manufactured home business and my used construction equipment business. At a point, prior to 2009, I was doing all three. When the recession hit I focused on used equipment and never really looked back. I've never had a losing year in business.

[LWJ]

Re-careered in 2004 after manufacturing decided to let me go.

Took a commission sales job and it was 2.5 years until I broke even. Increased each year after except for a car wreck and a big recession!

Sold to a co-worker and am coasting now...

The benefit of owning your own gig is you can sell a multiple of earnings.

That is where the money is. The key? Have a business that stands on its own that is worth buying.

[Cajundaddy]

My dad started a swimming pool biz in 1971. He only worked weekends while holding down an aerospace engineering job during the week. After 1 year he went full time and never looked back. No lenders, just a lot of sweat equity and networking clients.

[GH85Carrera]

We started our aerial business when the great boss of the company we worked at died. His moron idiot son took over. He was driving the company into the ground, and we could see that company was going extinct.

We bought a new digital camera system, and rented Cessna 172s at the local airport. We both worked out of our houses, so no real office to keep overhead low. The first year we made almost nothing in profit, but all the costs were paid by the company. By year two we had some big jobs, and that allowed us to buy some more expensive software, and start taking draws on the company.

Now we own a Cessna 182T and a much better digital camera, and lots of computers and software, and still have fun doing the projects.

So the real answer, about 24 months to see any real profit and get the startup costs paid.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by LWJ

Re-careered in 2004 after manufacturing decided to let me go.

Took a commission sales job and it was 2.5 years until I broke even. Increased each year after except for a car wreck and a big recession!

Sold to a co-worker and am coasting now...

The benefit of owning your own gig is you can sell a multiple of earnings.

That is where the money is. The key? Have a business that stands on its own that is worth buying.

I get multiple emails a week from RIA rollups wanting to buy my business. I love what I do, have no interest in retiring, and don't respect most RIA's process and don't want to sell my clients into an inferior process. Maybe in ten years I'll be ready to step aside, but would prefer to pass the business on to a partner - that I don't currently have.

[911 Rod]

Lived off of my LOC for 3 or 4 years.
Small printing business.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Companies I've started with life goal of creating a philanthropically focused for-profit company that changed culture

Modern Dad magazine, 3 years, loss every year, 67K circulation, never got the millions needed to get it to the next level, for good reasons. It was extremely fun and rewarding.

FirstTime Dad magazine, 2 years, 1.1 million circulation, poised for profitability in year 3, we sold it instead, that was a mistake

G9Girl, tween girls clothing with magazine and attempt at social media when it was in its infancy, main thrust of clothing and media was building girls self-esteem, 2.5 years, not profitable, partner quit, Bloomingdales said I should do boys

Traveler Kids boys clothing, 10 years, on and off profitability due to constant production problems with Indian manufacturing, sold it to start a women's couture line

Started Tru6, now 9.5 years, as a cash flow vehicle for a 2 year development cycle of the couture line, immediately profitable, took 4 years to develop critical attributes of the couture line resulting in 2 patents, might start that in 2026 depending on what happens with some special projects this year.

[berettafan]

You’re not a wuss. You’re probably smarter than most folks who start their own business and almost certainly smarter than most who borrow heavily to follow a dream.

[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

[Arizona_928]

One of the local distilleries was pulling a respectable profit and was abruptly closed. His investors realized it would have been a quicker roi to sell the building.

[juanbenae]

My buddy up here decided to get into the restaurant business, decent location away from town, but was at least 2x failed in the last 10 years. He spent a ton of money, really fixed the place up, has a wide variety of breakfast, lunch/dinner menu offerings, plus a beer and wine license.

2.5 years in he's leveraged everything, his wife is filing for divorce after 30+ years, and it is a money hole. He at least has hired a bunch of 20-something waitresses and as mountain gossip goes, he has one of them staying in his rented apartment while his wife continues to live in their very nice mountain home.

He is failing, but too stubborn to notice and cut his losses. He is a 62 yo man getting it on with a 25 y/o sweet thing so maybe he's going broke in style?