Your Own Business/Working for Yourself

[VaSteve]

Thank you all for being so frank and honest here. Please more data points!!


(Oh and this makes my first 5 star thread )

[Christien]

Janus, if you don't mind my asking, what approximately is the annual percentage return from the rental properties? That's one of the areas I'm considering investigating for my company, but only if the return is high enough. We work in very high returns (>24%), coupled with a high risk factor, so I'd be looking in that area.

PM if you'd rather keep it private, and it's cool if you'd rather not discuss it.

Thanks,
Chris

[gaijindabe]

Originally posted by JanusCole
I'm saving to buy more real estate when the market collapses.

Chris - you might want to wait! See above.


This is very interesting thread. I was at a PCA DE event not long ago and realized most of the participants were not getting a pay-check from a Fortune 1000 company. Doctors, lawyers, Indian Chiefs - and mostly business owners. Lets hear it. Successes, failures and eveything in between..

[Chuck Moreland]

Starting your own business - a subject that can fill volumes (and has, your first assignment is to do lot's of reading).

As a veteran of two start-up companies, I'll share a few selected tidbits.

You seem really focused on monetary rewards. If that's the only reason you want to start your own business, you might want to rethink it.

Most successful entrepreneurs are motivated by something else; personal freedom, passion about the product/service, desire to run the show, a need to make a difference in the world... something more than just money. It's hard to run a business, real hard. If you are not having fun, the money won't be enough to keep you going. And that's if you make money....

Reality check - with most new businesses, you will lose money for the first 1-2 years. You need to plan for and be in a financial position to weather this storm.

Reality check - Most start-up companies fail within 3 years. ie. you may never make money.

An entrepreneurial veteran once gave me the following advice "the reason you start your first business is so the second one might succeed". Yes, most first businesses fail. The knowledge gained will help you in your 2nd (or 3rd) attempt.

You will work hard, very hard. Long hours. Be prepared to give it your full effort, you'll need to.

Boy, that sure sounds dire!

But it ain't all bad. Building a successful company is a very satisfying experience. You get to call the shots in your corner of the universe. Even if it's just a little peice - it's your little peice. Do with it what you want. Live or die - it's by your own wits.

And maybe, just maybe, you'll make a good income to boot.

[VaSteve]

Originally posted by Chuck Moreland




You seem really focused on monetary rewards. If that's the only reason you want to start your own business, you might want to rethink it.

Thanks. FWIW, I do pretty well now so I need to get a guage for what would be worth me leaving my comfort zone. Hence, the money questions and time questions (especially with the new baby).

I'm a CPA (not in public practice), with an additional MBA degree in Finance, so I can figure the numbers. However, I have done work for a small biz on the side who's barely making it. I wanted some honest opinions about whether those out there are really making it or just making it look like they are.

Anything I do will not be changing the world, well at least not globally....

[juan ruiz]

personal freedom, passion about the product/service, desire to run the show, a need to make a difference in the world

Thats what I am talking about

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Bad story, started in 99, ended in 2001. Of course all in past tense

- Where you live?
New York

- What your/your business does?
FirstTime Dad magazine, dadsworld.com. FTD was distributed via childbirth education classes (Lamaze) and various midwives, pediatricians, etc. Reached 600K annual circ (print one mag and ship quarterly in bulk to classes). Philanthropic Goal: get dads involved right from the start, get them engaged in the parenting of their kids, help them define their role. Monetization: push dads to dadsworld.com (infant to teen content) where they would register for a free subscription (catalogue in the home), also tell us their kids names, birthdays, wedding anniversary, etc. Site content and products were dynamically generated against your profile. 2 weeks before each important date (birthday for kids, development for babies), you got an email telling you the top 5 things your baby needs, your 8-year-daughter would like. We had a local family event "going's on" that also played off your profile.

- How long you have been doing it?
2 years

- Do you have a family and/or kids?
no

- How old are you?
32-33

- How much do you work?
90 hour weeks

- Do you like it (seriously!)?
I was really passionate about this. The letters from CBE's and dads and moms thanking us for FTD were amazing.

- What was the defining moment that made you strike out on your own?
Previous venture, Modern Dad mag (newstand, paid, Popular Mechanics, Science, Men's Health all rolled into one with a dad slant) failed, but it taught us that FTD would be a winner.

- Are you accumulating wealth or just sustaining life?
Not too much debt, easily recoverable, but no salary either.

- Do you have a comfortable lifestyle (buy whatever you want? within reason? unlimted?)
No. At the end, there was a week I didn't have enough for food. It was rough! Stole food at local supermarket.

- How much you make? (If you choose to answer, it can be any form: sales, net, X times what an exmployee would make doing the same job, etc.)
Made $0.

After the market crashed in April, we ran out of money in June. 3 staffers stayed on through August. Partner with family obligations left on good terms. Reinvented the company to be a publishing (FTD wasn't meant to carry advertising, just get parents-to-be to the web site) company, picked up some serious advertisers and thought we were saved. Made BoD presentation on August 17, 2 members/investors asked how much we needed and that a check would be on its way. Old partner (also at the meeting), driven by greed and wife, made the most preposterous demands in exchange for his sig on converting the company from LLC to C-corp. No reasoning with him, I had to create a new company and buy out the old at half share percentage value to get control, but by then the money was gone.

My sophistication level then was low and made many mistakes. Also had some really bad legal advice.

In the end, if a partner can't share the same passion as you do, they should be a minority iwht no decision-making power. Jay just wanted to make a $ in the bubble, when it was clear that wasn't going to happen, he tried making a buck off the company. it was UGLY!

[MotoSook]

Originally posted by VaSteve
Thanks. FWIW, I do pretty well now so I need to get a guage for what would be worth me leaving my comfort zone. Hence, the money questions and time questions (especially with the new baby).

I'm a CPA (not in public practice), with an additional MBA degree in Finance, so I can figure the numbers. However, I have done work for a small biz on the side who's barely making it. I wanted some honest opinions about whether those out there are really making it or just making it look like they are.

Anything I do will not be changing the world, well at least not globally....

As a CPA, you should be able to take on accounting work to supplement or feed the other business.

As a engineering consultant, I can always fall back on contract work...consulting...if I should one day walk away from the salary job to concentrating on making 911s go faster . For now, it's 40+ hrs at the engineering company working for pimps, and then another 40+ hrs working for myself. All our profits are tossed right back into development so there is no immediate payout. My stress level is at the highest it's ever been. I sleep 4-6 hours a night, and my lady warns me I'm going to have a heart attack if I don't slow down.

Why do I do it? Passion...goals.... Good read Terry's thread...



When the kids asked.....(this is long so if you don’t like my ramblings…go to the next post)



I was watching TV with the boys (8 and 11 yrs old) one morning while mom was out, and we saw a car commercial with a cool car. I made the comment to the younger boy about how cool that car looked, so he asked me “why don’t we go buy it?”

I told him I couldn’t afford it. He then said, “Why don’t you sell one of the Porsches (HA!)”.

I said, nope…besides the money from the Porsche wouldn’t pay for that other car….not even if I sold both Porsches! Then he asked about the money I was making through engineering for 911s…nope! “We don’t make any money,” I told him.

“So why are you in business?” he asked.

So I made the following analogy for him:

A business is like a fruit tree. You plant it, but you don’t expect fruits the next day. So you water it and fertilize the soil around it. Are you done? Nope! You keep doing it, because what happens if you stop watering and feeding it?….”It’ll die.” Righhhht.

So we keep tending to it, and eventually the fruit tree will grow big and tall and require less care. But! You aren’t going to have any fruit even after the first year…”so do you give up and not tend to it? Let it die?” “No.” Righhhhht.

So you keep working to grow the fruit tree. Eventually the tree may provide you with fruit. “Do you give up then, or will you still need to water and feed it?”

“You keep working,” they said. (He and his brother were starting to get the idea by now, and they were starting to get ahead of me).

I keep on. So now there are fruit on the tree, and you may have enough to give members of your family some fruit, but do you stop? Nope! You keep tending to the fruit tree until eventually; you may have enough fruit for your family and friends. Do you stop? Nope! You keep tending to it so that one day you will have enough fruit left over after you share with you family and friends, then you can sell the left over fruit! Righhhht!

So the boys got idea.

The next day, I get a call at the office and mom is giggling on the other end.

“Guess what Timmy is doing?” (nothing unusual about that question, as Timmy is always providing amusement)

“What?”

“He started his own business!”

The little guy started a company to sell drawings he was making with a plastic protractor he got as a party favor from a friend’s B-day party. And he was passionate about it!

I got home that night to a dinner table covered with drawings and such. He “was working” as he put it. I smiled as we started to clear the table for dinner. He took all the crap out of his bag, including the kick ball that he takes to school everyday (we struggled with that one as he absolutely needed to take the ball to school everyday. He won out and had been taking the ball to school for weeks!).

“What are you doing,” I asked. Cleaning my backpack so I can make room for my business folder (and he had created a nice clean folder!). Mom and I smiled and let it go.

Over dinner we had a discussion of supply and demand, marketing, pricing (he wanted to sell at $5/drawing…LOL..we got him to come down on that one) and word of mouth. The little guy soaked it all up like a sponge!

After dinner he went upstairs to take a bath…we never heard from him again that night (it was strange since he usually comes storming downstairs after his bath).

The big brother came down to the family room after we sent him up to bed. “Our little business man worked himself to sleep.” LOL…after his bath Timmy went to his room and started working on his drawings….then fell asleep with everything still on his bed and with the lights on.

The next morning, he came running down from his room to go to the bus stop. Mom stopped him in his tracks. (jean pockets budging) “What do you have in your pockets, Timmy?”

“Nothing.”

“Timmy!”

The little guy had his pockets filled with pennies from his piggy bank. He had to make “change for his customers!” It was a good show of a stubborn mom and child. I tried to contain my amusement…eventually mom gave up and told ME to handle it. So I reasoned with him and told him he can take 10-20 pennies.

Later that day, I get a call at the office. It was mom on the other end. I could hear Timmy sobbing in the background. Mom was trying not to laugh and be sympathetic. Apparently, he was out of business! He came home and started to cry his eyes out, because he was “out of business.”

One of the kids at school fell or stepped on his backpack and broke the plastic protractor. His hook! He was so disappointed. When I got home that night, mom had settled him down a bit, but when I walked in the house, I could see tears welling up in his big blue eyes. We heard about his failed business for over a week! Mom and I still giggle over that one.

So I think Timmy got his first business out of his system.

[Wrecked944]

Originally posted by Christien
Janus, if you don't mind my asking, what approximately is the annual percentage return from the rental properties?

Well, the two properties differ widely. The condo operates at about a 12% annual return on investment. That does not include appreciation based on the rising value of real estate because I don't feel the current market values are rational. So I just don't count them. Anyway, even without capital gains, I am very happy with the condo rental. It requires almost no attention from me and even if the value rises a small amount over the long term, I am still very happy.

The 2-family house operated at a slight profit for the first two years and may well show a substantial loss this year - so I am not sure how it will all average out. Maintenance items like exterior painting, replacing the front lawn (killed by grubs), and replacing some ancient and crumbling cement steps and such are gonna hit me hard financially. Of course, much of this is tax deductible. But the painting in particular is still gonna hurt.

The main benefit of the house is that I also live there. So I get a discounted place to live. That said, I live in a tiny apartment - easily the smallest unit I own of the three. My tenants live larger than I do.

But still, my net worth hovered around zero until I became a landlord. I just never managed to get ahead on just my income - despite making six figures. Maybe it is a combination of the rental income and the fiscal discipline required by making two mortgage payments every month. But regardless, it works for me.

Oh yeah, I pay both mortgages from my regular income. All rental money goes into a savings account and does not get spent - except for repairs etc. So it imposes a level of fiscal discipline which I find very helpful.

[Racerbvd]

Originally posted by VaSteve


I wanted to take an informal poll of what you do. Those of you that work for yourself either alone or have employees please respond. I want to know (only answer what you feel comfortable):

- Where you live? Jacksonville, FL.

- What your/your business does? 1) Manage entertainers, book bands, promote shows.
2)custom aftermaket car accesseries.

- How long you have been doing it? 1)19 years
2) Just starting it up.

- Do you have a family and/or kids? No.

- How old are you? I'll be 40 in Aug.

- How much do you work? All the time

- Do you like it (seriously!)? Yes.

- What was the defining moment that made you strike out on your own? Things just worked out that way.

- Are you accumulating wealth or just sustaining life? I have my toys and am planning ahead.

- Do you have a comfortable lifestyle (buy whatever you want? within reason? unlimted?) You could say that.

- How much you make? My CPA advised me never to answer that type of question, and since we are heading to Vegas end of next month, I'm doing as he says (If you choose to answer, it can be any form: sales, net, X times what an exmployee would make doing the same job, etc.)

PM me with anything you don't want to post. I will NOT use it for anything other than personal research.

[928ram]

I'm a CPA (not in public practice), with an additional

Kinda funny, I've been self-employed all my life but I'm pretty much retired now so I didn't feel I had as much to add as the guys who are still slugging it out.

What I was going to add to the thread was, "Don't play accountant, find a good one and stick with him."... I see you have that covered...

[gaijindabe]

Originally posted by Souk


So I think Timmy got his first business out of his system

Cute, very cute.

[esther]

- Where you live?
Chicago suburb

- What your/your business does?
Porsche service for race cars and street cars
Trackside support
Fabrication


- How long you have been doing it?
MotoDelta began 40 years ago
We took over in 2003


- Do you have a family and/or kids?
Married with an 8 mth old

- How old are you?
Chris 36 me 35

- How much do you work?
Chris 70+
me 24/7 (mom/paralegal/motodelta/yarn store/ebay)


- Do you like it (seriously!)?
Chris does not much like his "real" job but he's very enthusiastic about MotoDelta
I am too and we're working on it together.
I don't like my paralegal job but that's soon to end.
Being parents however, is the most rewarding job.


- What was the defining moment that made you strike out on your own?

Previous owner of MotoDelta gave us his business when he retired in 2003. Became really active when Chris' position was eliminated 2/2005 and when he took voluntary severance 4/2005


- Are you accumulating wealth or just sustaining life?
Both - i'm very anal about saving money BUT Chris helps me out by "living life" - memories/experiences are worth more than money.


- Do you have a comfortable lifestyle (buy whatever you want? within reason? unlimted?)
Yes - not unlimited. BUT, outside of racing, we have a very low-key lifestyle.


- How much you make? (If you choose to answer, it can be any form: sales, net, X times what an exmployee would make doing the same job, etc.)

enough to afford racing with MWSCC, VSCDA, SVRA, NASA and someday SCCA
not enough to afford racing at a professional level

[Dantilla]

I skimmed some of the critizism of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", and what it amounts to is simply attacking the messenger, while ignoring the message.

[motion]

Great thread... interesting to see other's formulas for success. I could see this thread becoming a sort of database for those of us that find our situation changing and therefore looking for other opportunities.

- Where you live?
Laguna Niguel, CA... deep inside the Orange Curtain.

- What your/your business does?
Interactive multimedia presentations for the corporate world. Mostly multimedia CDROMs, with a few websites thrown in when the right opportunity comes along. I'm freelance... one man band. Lately, have been phasing out the normal biz and spending more and more time with real estate investing.

- How long you have been doing it?
16 years

- Do you have a family and/or kids?
2 ex wives and a 15 year old son that I've raised since birth pretty much on my own

- How old are you?
42, going on 19

- How much do you work?
Around 10-12 hours. Ashamed to say, but its true. Let's just say I have lots of time to pursue my hobbies.

- Do you like it (seriously!)?
Love it! Although, after all this time, I've come to realize that no matter how much I make, my job will only pay the bills. No matter if I'm making 50k a year or 200k, I always manage to spend most of it on stuff. So, in the end, its really all the same. The more you make, though, the bigger your worries are... usually.

- What was the defining moment that made you strike out on your own?
Got laid off of my first job out of college. Decided to strike out on my own and haven't looked back.

- Are you accumulating wealth or just sustaining life?
Up until 6 years ago, was basically just treading water. Once I entered the real estate game, have been accumulating wealth exponentially each year.

- Do you have a comfortable lifestyle (buy whatever you want? within reason? unlimted?)
Pretty much get whatever I want.

- How much you make? (If you choose to answer, it can be any form: sales, net, X times what an exmployee would make doing the same job, etc.)
Hovered around $150k for several years, then has shot up into the high 6 figures for the last few years due to real estate investments.

[LeeH]

Get inspired! If you're young you have little to lose. Get some education on how business works and then go for it. If you fall flat on your face you can recover. But do get the education. Just because you can cook does not mean you should own a restaurant. Business management is a skill like any other. It's harder than it looks. Here's my story:

The company that hired me out of college went bankrupt. The second company that hired me started heading in the same direction. I tripped across a very small business for sale. They sold and installed window screens and window grills. I think the purchase price was $90K total. Net to owner was claimed to be around $75K.

After a year, my biggest competitor casually asked, "Ever consider a merger?" With frighteningly little consideration/due diligence we put the two companies together. We sold the whole thing three years later for >7 figures.

- Where did you live?
Atlanta

- What did your/your business do?
Made and installed window screens. Also installed closet shelving, door locks, window grills in new construction.

- How long did you do it?
Early 1995- Late 1998

- Do you have a family and/or kids?
One wife, one child, one dog, one cat, one bird. The child wasn't an option until the business was sold.

- How old are you?
41 now... you can do the math for "then."

- How much do you work?
Too much at first. 60-70 hours/week. Not very much in the end. 25-30/hours or so.

- Do you like it (seriously!)?
I liked running a business. Our business had its ups and downs. What I really liked was seeing my ideas transform the business.

- What was the defining moment that made you strike out on your own?
I was tired of busting my a$$ at my first two jobs. I knew that if I worked as hard for myself as I did for a paycheck things would work out. The biggest "Aha!" moment came when I figured out that owning a business was more important than running my dream business. It hit me that good management should work in any field and I was confident I would be a good manager. Yes, a Porsche parts company would have been nice, but window screens were very, very good to me!

- Are you accumulating wealth or just sustaining life?
Accumulated a bit of wealth at COE of the sale.

- Do you have a comfortable lifestyle (buy whatever you want? within reason? unlimted?)
Thanks to the sale of the business we're debt free with a healthy nest egg. I took six year off to raise our daughter and have just recently started working part time. We pretty much buy what we want while living below our means.... Millionaire Next Door approach to life.

- How much you make?
Our final year's sales were $1.8 Mil. My partner and I took salaries of $35K/year and let the rest build up in the company. I don't remember the exact take, but after careful tax planning I still wrote a check for >$90K to the IRS for 1998.

[Racerbvd]

Lee has offered some very good advise on taking the courses. When I first got the idea to get into the car parts, accessory business, I started with a local parts distributor as a driver, worked up to counter sales, then route, finished as 2nd only to the owner, who still is a close friend, (10 years after his ex-wive forced him to close the business, I was the very last employee)
So if you have the chance, work your way through what your interested in. BTW, I was still working at our family business.

[VaSteve]

Originally posted by JanusCole
I also read those two books and found them, inspiring. True, the author of RichDad/Poor Dad could not write his way out of a wet paper bag. And I actually found the book painfully ineloquent at times. But the underlying message that "income producing assets beat a day job" is, in my experience, correct and sound. The advice from "Millionaire Next Door" also taught me about frugality which has done a lot to help me acquire those assets.

OK finished these books. Good common sense (MND) and some basic financial management tips (RDPD). MND provided a bleak look on life (so and so is a millionaire and never left the US, etc. etc.) Lots of railing on luxury cars. Can't figure that one out. Lots of useless analysis ($ per pound of car - only a pelican could love that analysis

I read RDPD and then looked at the link posted in this thread. Interesting comments from other readers (I haven't read the whole analysis yet) and a lot of good comments. RDPD provides way oversimplification of some things - I can see why those readers would comment as they do. I will give the book to my son as a lesson on how not to think of things like cars and non-income producing "assets" as investments.

[campbellcj]

Much great advice is expressed in the prior posts. We sure have a diverse and impressive group here.

My experience is as follows. I am going to mention two different businesses as my wife (Elizabeth) and I have had somewhat intertwined careers and joint finances for 15 years now. (In a nutshell I manage a business originally started years ago by her family, and we also just started a new business last year, which she runs.)

- Where you live?

Agoura Hills, CA. We are both life-long L.A. area residents.

- What your/your business does?

My company is closely held, with 6 shareholders, and is a niche enterprise software provider. In a nutshell we provide solutions to track the physical infrastructures of large, high-tech manufacturers, i.e., all of their special tooling, test equipment, computers, facilities, tool cribs, spare parts, etc. Our current customer base is pretty aerospace oriented but the product is cross-vertical. We've averaged around 10 employees and are hiring again. The office is in Santa Monica.

Elizabeth's company was started last year and she is 100% shareholder with me as a creditor/director/co-signer/cheerleader/etc. (this stuff gets complicated). It is an aesthetic skin-care "medi-spa" that performs various treatments including botox, spot removal, hair removal, fillers, photofacials, mesotherapy, massage, etc. There are 3 employees plus a couple of tenant/partners. The office is in Pacific Palisades.

- How long you have been doing it?

Me, 16 years. Elizabeth, 1 year in present business; she worked for others in various healthcare jobs prior to that.

- Do you have a family and/or kids?

One child, Logan, will be 4 in a couple weeks.

- How old are you?

38.

- How much do you work?

Every minute of every day, to some degree.

Seriously, at some level, I have even worked in my sleep on many occasions, coming up with new ideas or solutions to difficult issues in dreams, in the shower, on the crapper, etc. I have not been physically away from work for more than 4 consecutive days, IIRC, in the last 15 years. (OK, that part sucks).

Both of us lately have been working 6-7 days a week, 9+ hours a day. I typically head out around 8, get home around 8, inhale some food, and keep on working till sometimes 10 or 11. Travel as well, too. That does SUCK. But it tends to go in spurts and in other periods schedules can be more relaxed even to the level if 25-35 hours/week if you throttle-back deliberately. One big plus of small business is that you have quite a bit of freedom to take time off, roll into work late, nap on the couch, etc....but the tinge of "guilt trip" will always be there whenever you do so!

- Do you like it (seriously!)?

98% of the time, hell yes! Can't imagine working for a big corporation or a bunch of VC's or any other complete stranger! Like any job, tedium, frustration, or despair sets in sometimes, especially when cash flow dries up. I have had to lay-off employees several times, and that sucks, big-time.

- What was the defining moment that made you strike out on your own?

Never had any intention to join the "Borg", I guess. My Dad, father in law, and other early influencers were all entrepeneur types and it rubbed-off at an early age. I first started working professionally at age 15 (software development and technical document writing/editing, mostly. I was doing about the same work as the old guys making $50K+ a year, for $5-7/hr or maybe less, which as you can imagine did not make me universally popular).

- Are you accumulating wealth or just sustaining life?

Kind of in-between. We are still in transition, having purchased our first home and rebalancing our debt/equity position just in the last couple of years. We do have positive net worth although it is not terribly impressive at this point. A lot of cash and "potential upside" is locked-up in the companies. We are paying down debts, and saving a little for ourselves and a little for our son, each month. The biggest challenges have been Elizabeth's medical school costs/debts plus the hellish SoCal cost of living (we didn't pull off our first home purchase until we were 35, and then just barely!)

- Do you have a comfortable lifestyle (buy whatever you want? within reason? unlimted?)

This is pretty subjective but I guess we don't want for a whole lot, and expenditures under a grand or twodon't generally get a whole lot of thought. We have more toys than time to play with them. We don't scrub toilets, mow lawns, and that kind of stuff ourselves any more. The garage is full and the cupboards are stocked. However, we don't exactly go out buying vacation homes, old masters' artwork, boats, cars etc. on a whim either, that's for sure.

- How much you make? (If you choose to answer, it can be any form: sales, net, X times what an exmployee would make doing the same job, etc.)

It goes up and down, but on average I think has been well above what would be expected from other corporate/government career alternatives. At full potential, each of our jobs could realistically net in the $350K+/year range. Plus of course with that kind of cash flow (and some sane fiscal discipline) there would be significant other investment income potential over time. We are not nearly there yet but have been in the 6 figures for 10 years now and steadily ramping up. This year should be a very good one from what I can tell.

[alf]

- Where you live?
Seattle Area

- What your/your business does?
Internet based selling antique Japanese Swords. www.japanesesword.com It is more of a hobby business.


- How long you have been doing it?
Since 1998

- Do you have a family and/or kids?
Wife and 2 boys

- How old are you?
Just turned 35

- How much do you work?
I do biz dev at Microsoft in the day that is 50 to 80 hrs/week. The sword biz takes about 5 to 10 hrs per week.


- Do you like it (seriously!)?
Absolutely. I love both my jobs.


- What was the defining moment that made you strike out on your own?
Always knew i would own my own biz since i was 3.

My grandparents and parents are business owners. My 67 year old mother actively runs 2 critically acclaimed resturants in Seattle, my late father owned an Ad/PR company . My late grandfather owned a resturant in Singapore. My in laws are retired resturanters, as were her grandparents. I guess it is in the blood.

The sword site was a class project while i was in grad school.

I also had a tech start up before grad school during the .com boom. Raised over $1 mil and shut it down after 2 years.

- Are you accumulating wealth or just sustaining life?
Does not really matter, i am having fun and am happy.


- Do you have a comfortable lifestyle (buy whatever you want? within reason? unlimted?)

If i want something material, i will eventually get it if i work for it, so i suppose it is limited only by my desire and enterprise.


- How much you make? (If you choose to answer, it can be any form: sales, net, X times what an exmployee would make doing the same job, etc.)

My little sword biz makes more than i did after 5 years out of undergrad working as a management consultant in the 90s.

When the kids get into school and my wife has more time, we will most likely start another small biz. I get a real kick out of starting businesses and making them grow and flourish.