7thStranger

Is'nt weird how me can sniff other wm suffers out?

Legoland951

Both being self-employed or business owner has its advantages and disadvantages. You are your own boss and sometimes the business is your boss. You can reap rich rewards or crash and burn. I was one of those people who decided while in college I was never going to work a 9 to 5 for someone else. I have not worked at a "job" since 1987. I ran my own businesses since 1990 and this is my 4th. You have to be self motivated and love what you do or else you have a very slim chance of succeeding. I started with my college degrees, 2 hands, no knowledge in the field of business I chose, and $600. My first business was in building and selling motorcycles and parts that started at my residence until I had enough money to get a shop. It worked well for a few years until it went down hill since they passed the helmet law in California and popularity and demand decreased tremendously. I expanded to automotive (second business) and had a bad partner who bailed out on a 2 year lease and the property management came after me for the entire 2 year lease immediately which equates to more than $30k. I found out that in a general partnership you can be held accountable for 100 percent another partner's debts and liabilities. I convinced them to lease me an unit for 1/2 the size and go after him for the 100 percent (they come out with 150 percent - $45k total). Then I found another partner and started a dealership and was doing well until the new partner decided to get a crystal meth habit with his money. I found myself staring down the wrong end of the barrel of a baretta 92FS when he was delirious and hallucinating all kinds of strange stuff. I resolved the partnership needless to say and still have a piece of paper stating he owes me $18k which I will never see. I took my money, learned everything I could about how money can make money, invested in everything from real estate, equities, magazines, tools, parts, etc and I work as an independent contractor in financial services showing the wealthy how to legally avoid taxes and even though I am not wealthy yet but I have control of my time for now and plan to retire by the time I am 55, which is less than 20 years away.

To sum it up, expect to work 12-16 hours a day 7 days a week for the first 6 month to a year and if your business survives after a few years you can possibly make more money than you ever will working for someone and still have control of your time. You will have to pay for your lessons in business with blood, tears, sweat and money up front and maybe reap the rewards later. Sometimes you end up with nothing and have to start over unlike studying and earning grades in school. Life is not fair and you will find that out in business. If I start over again, I would still choose to run a business, which is different from being self-employed. Do your homework. I recommend you to read these books: The millionair next door, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and Cashflow quadrant. I believe these books will help you.

JJ951

You can work less and do more side work. My girlfriends father has worked for the gass company his whole life. He knows a lot about the field. He retested and became a certified gas fitter. He put buissness cards up all over the place. It started slow like 3-5 jobs a week. but now he does like 3-5 jobs a dya at least. He gets a minimum $125 a job. he works full time still. But an extra 400-600 a day is a big help, especially since it only takes him 30 mins to an hour per job. He has insurance for what he is doing. It cost him around $1000 dollars a year.

-John

Dan Gallagher

I wouldnt mind buying the abandoned 3 garage + showroom former gas station down the road and turning it into a detailing shop for high end cars some day.... just need some sucker to invest the cash for me <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

Devia

I have been pretty much self employed since I was a teenager. I went to community college, learned a few things, and proceeded to become a freelance artist.

Now I have co-owned a few computer companies, been in corporations, etc.

But those lost me time and money, and were not fun. So I have come back full circle to writing and drawing comic books, which I love. And the merchandising is where you make the money.

You have to be smart, and stay on top of your taxes, quarterly.

But I've gone through enough hell that I'm back on my way back up again. Not only do I have a book coming out, but I also doing what I enjoy.

And just to make sure that I can continue doing what I love, I also am working a part time artistic job, to keep my plans in place.

And to make things more fun, I was approached by a small art studio to do paid work for them every month!

So, there are always pros and cons to everything. Just pick what you love, but plan it out well. I think Legoland did pretty well for himself.

And be prepared to fail a few times; it can happen, but if you survive the two year mark, then you will be fine!

Good luck!

- Julie

User 41221

If I really wanted to get rich, I would write a book on the pitfalls of going into business for yourself. My business partner and I met at a small telcom compnay up in Minneapolis that we were both working at. After doing the torch dance with the owner of that company and getting burned, we decided, "heck, it can't be that hard" and took a shot at it ourselves. What an education. lol

We have been incorporated since 1990, with employees running all over the country these days, still going strong in the telecom world, despite the fall out over the last several years. My partner and I have also managed to not kill each other in that time, which is somewhat of a miracle in itself. I personally believe that your chances of success are much higher if you can team up with someone else that you can trust (the "two heads" theory). No matter how you go, be prepared, its a long, hard road, and the grass will ALWAYS be greener on the other side of the fence. I look at folks with 8-5 type jobs with a certain amount of envy, as I know that they go home and can forget about work for a while. I haven't had a decent vacation in years, have destroyed one marriage, and have endured a bit of a finincial rollercoaster ride over the last 14 years. I'm not saying its been a bad life, and it has certainly had its share of rewards, but its not for everyone.

Best of luck to you!

Regards,

Blue S2

Self employment huh... Go into the music industry! Home sutdios are sprouting up everywhere! Good gear is becoming super affordable, and if you know your stuff well enough, and have good marketing skills, you could easily start scoring some work. The only problem with recording is the competition. It does lessen a bit once you have built your name. <img border="0" alt="[jumper]" title="" src="graemlins/jumper.gif" />

Patricia

My husband & I have our own business, he's a financial consultant - I call him a "rent a CFO", and technically I'm his administrative assistant. Mostly, it's feast or famine. He'll work 80 hour weeks for a couple of months at a time, then nothing for a couple. We've learned to enjoy the time off, travel, etc., He's burned out after an engagement, then after a while he's bored and ready to go back to work. It works for us.

Quite frankly, though, it's tough financially, never knowing how much or when the income will come in. Luckily we have a pretty good cushion from a sucessful IPO a few years ago, which we were smart/lucky enough to put into municipal bonds rather than stocks. Without that, I don't think I could take the uncertainty. It takes a certain kind of person to handle that, if you can handle that, you should be able to make a go of it. Good luck,

Pat

Jamie944

Thanks for all the replies, answered some questions and gave me some idea's. Sounds like a home business is out of the question. I do have an employee that works for me that has owned two businesses in the past. He is someone I trust. Has anyone ever got a government grant to start their business? I may two or three avenues from the responses so far and see which one goes the farthest then put all my effort into it. Anymore ideas are welcome. Yes, I am still looking for a Pcar I have driven several lately mostly junk. I may just pick one up to have a project on the side. I still have access to the three junkers. That could be some extra money there to part them out.

Jamie944

I know all to well about the stock market. I lost nearly two thirds of my savings before cashing out. They said hang on to it it will come back. Well maybe their right. But I couldn't take that chance. My wifes family is dealing with lawyers right now over some money that a distant relative left to a friend not blood relatives. Her mom and aunt are the only living blood relatives to a $250,000,000 fortune. They were only getting $350,000 a piece and decided to fight for the rest. Hopefully things will go well and in a year or two I can just retire. That would be great at 32 years old. I doubt we will get that lucky though.

Mledbetter

Someone should also mention what could be the hardest part of running your own business. Getting people to pay.... Expect to have a minimum of 120 days worth of operating cash in whatever venture you choose.

I ran an IT consulting "business" for 18 months and eventually went back to a normal job.

Good luck in whatever you choose.

Legoland951

I would not count the stock market out. It has historically averaged 10 to 12 percent over the last 75 years through the up and downs including the great depression, world war II, Kennedy assasination, black monday, and times worse than the last 5 years. I diversity into about 400 companies across the globe (not buying only the "hot" stocks for the day) and I dollar cost average, thus loving the low market right now. There is always someone making money in the market. I did very well with a small portion of my money by shorting stocks when the market was dropping and yes you can make money with a down market. The idea is to know how to invest for your preference and risk tolerance including age and investment experience just like driving a high performance car. I love the low market right now and am putting my money in it because I believe that well run companies will continue to make money over the next 10+ years regardless of recessions, wars, etc. It is not the only thing I would invest in but I definitely would not rule it out just because its a bear market. If I remember right, the DJIA was at around 3000 circa 1990 so if someone had their money in the market for that duration, they still have almost triple their money since its about 8850 now. I don't think in most areas the hot real estate market tripled its value from 1990 until now or a house costing $200k would be worth $600k right now. Just like a business, I believe in long term working hard and not fast easy money which turns out to be a pipe dream most of the time.

Type_LT

Jamie 350k out of 250mil doesn't sound like a proper split!, although 350k is still sweet!

I myself am just finishing school and am not sure I like the 8-5 thing, it might be too "comfy" for me as well. Regardless you are able to pursue other facets of life after work and on weekend so in that regard I like it. My major concern is that progression might be too slow for me, which makes me want to strike out on my own at some point.

BartW

I am 28 years old so I have not as much experience as some of the other people that have responded but since the age of 18 I have only held jobs if I really could not find something to do on my own. I can not stand not being my own boss so I always look for something to do. I have done everything from being a backyard mechanic to owning semi trucks and even a car dealership. Some of the businesses I am still in or dwell in them a little when the money is there. My main motto is to always go with the money and never get emotionally attached to what you are doing, if the money is slow I get out and do something else instead of letting a venture drag me down with it. Currently I act as a buying agent for some car dealerships (purchasing cars for them or selling sometimes) I also deal with buying and selling machinery and welding equipment, basically anything that I can make a buck on. I am not a person who requires a steady paycheck, there are weeks that I make $20k and then I make nothing for 3 weeks but the average is substantial enough for me to lead a comfortable lifestyle. The main thing is to be sure that you can be your own boss, will you push yourself, will you get up in the middle of the night to make it somewhere by the morning, or will you stay up for 60hrs straight to make a deadline with no one but yourself to push you??? The next consideration would be are you organized well enough?? ( I can show you receipts for a candy bar I bought 2 years ago) Of course once you know those things you have to find what you are most talented in and how to put it to make money for you. The last word of advice is that since you will have to sell either your products or services, make sure your clients think they need you more than you need them, it sounds self-important but it keeps them coming to you instead of going with every other boso who sends baseball tickets to their office, make them want to do you some favors

Brian McCoy

Since this hasn't been said (but it is felt)... gotta love Rennlist for all the wealth of info. I've been doing the 'make other people rich with my hard work' thing for a decade and fed up with it for the past couple of years. I know that you basically just have to jump in and start, doing something... anything ~ but my fiance is less than a year from graduating college and I don't want to jeapordize HER future. Once she's out and working (PharmD), then I'll start looking at what can be done to work for myself. A lot easier to handle the risk when you aren't concerned about making rent or having money to eat. I want to get into the contract financial planner area... people pay for good advice, and it gives me the experience to take the money I'm being paid and making it work for me. I also have technical ideas.. like PC104/appliance video recording systems (how would you like to have up to 6 cameras dumping stright to divx in a 4"x4"x6" cube?) that I'd like to make happen ~ but that requires some capital, and I'm not in a position to make that happen currently.

the IT industry is a flop - I wouldn't recomend ANYONE trying to get in to this field.. unless you REALLY like answering phones with irate clueless people on the other end. The market's so thin that hiring managers can get more experience/training for less money. People get into literal fights over good leads and those who have jobs, no matter how crappy, are deathly afraid to leave because lead-time on finding another job is like 7 months. I'm about a month away from being unemployed, have been looking for 5 months without a serious lead and have a good 6 years of industry experience. Back when I had 1 year of experience, I landed a job that paid better than what I make now, had MUCH better benefits, and I did it in under a week.