Entrpeneurs

"BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather" (bugeyedacura) 07/26/2017 at 11:09 • Filed to: None

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Has anyone on Oppo started their own business? How did you do it? Did you already have a mortgage and other responsibilities to keep up while doing so? I’m getting increasingly more tired of busing my ass for someone else’s success.

Aaron M - MasoFiST > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather 07/26/2017 at 11:13

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I have a friend that started a moving company in Pittsburgh. Pretty successful, they’ve gotten large enough to get common carrier status and have a full office staff. He works 70-90 hour weeks and is kind of able to pay himself above minimum wage some of the time. When you consider that 90% of small businesses fail, he’s doing incredibly well.

Cash Rewards > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather 07/26/2017 at 11:15

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I took an entrepreneur class in grad school, and they had some very successful ones come in to talk (the guy whose name is on the biomedical engineering building sold his first company for over a billion, so very successful). The vast majority of these guys had at least one instance of going broke. Half the class finished and thought “sounds cool!” while the other half, myself included, said “no way”. The reality of it can be frightening.

Tekamul > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather 07/26/2017 at 11:20

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I started a business three years ago, while having the other mountain of responsibilities.

I cashed out a chunk of my 401k to cover expenses (on both sides) for about a 4 month period. It worked out (so far) but there were a lot of places it could’ve gone terribly wrong. I’ve learned an awful lot about laws, taxes and regulations that I’d rather not know.

My X-type is too a real Jaguar > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather 07/26/2017 at 11:28

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Started my own business 3 times now I work for someone else. I couldn’t do it, drum up new business and do the work. YMMV

TheRealBicycleBuck > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather 07/26/2017 at 11:32

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My wife loves to watch “The Profit”, a show about small businesses which are failing and are rescued by a cash infusion and guidance from someone who has been really successful. It’s probably worth your time to watch a few of these and see what *not* to do.

My master’s degree program had a strong entrepreneurial bent to it. The things I learned are what others have said - you will need to be risk tolerant; you will have to be willing to fail and pick yourself up afterward; you will have to work LONG hours with little pay for several years and then LONG hours with a decent salary for many more years; and you will need plenty of money to get started.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather 07/26/2017 at 11:37

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My dad has been an entrepreneur for the majority of his career and still is. It’s tough. He’s an independent mechanic and works his ASS off. Things like no vacation time, no sick time, and no corporate benefit package led me far away from that life. It’s freeing but also a prison all at the same time.

He looks at me and is jealous as hell when I fly down to see him and I’m getting paid to sit on my ass by the pool. His (and for a large portion of my life, mine) health insurance has been a huge burden/cost.

In the corporate world I work for a company who the CEO started out of his parents house because he quit working for the big name and decided he could do the work better himself. We’re now about a 250 million dollar a year business with over 200 people. He gets benefits and plenty of time off. When he’s here he works his ass off too though.

My goals in life are different than his and plenty of other people. I want to provide for my family, and have a nice life. That nice life doesn’t have to be in a 5,000 sq ft mansion. I’m completely cool with my 2200 sq ft.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather 07/26/2017 at 11:54

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Yes, but I didn’t have much in the way of responsibilities at the time.

I’ve considered going back to it, but steady paychecks are quite addictive and sales is hard. I basically outsourced sales at every opportunity when I did it - early-on, I worked closely with a tech salesperson that worked his contacts and pounded pavement in exchange for half of the profits, which worked well until he got tired of inconsistent income as he did have a mortgage and more responsibilities to worry about. Later, I started working with recruiters that worked for companies with well-known names in the marketplace. It paid a little less, but projects were more consistent and ultimately lucrative, so I kept that up until I found a job that matched me well and mostly dropped out of consulting.

Surprisingly, once you start, it becomes very hard to stop. It’s the worst drug I’ve ever done. I still have clients today that date back to 2000 and added another about 6 months ago...

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather 07/26/2017 at 12:02

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I started a business, it’s just a side business. It had a relatively low risk to start but required my specific knowledge gained in my day job to be successful, but it in no way competes with the company I work for.

It’s hard! I constantly have to keep up with inventory, but after I year I’m at about $10k in profit, and if I can maintain or increase business, that should almost at least $20k by the end of the year.

But again, it’s hard to commit the time after coming home from a 9 hour day at my day job. I’m also remodeling my kitchen, so the business has gone a little bit to the back burner.

I’ve often toyed with the idea of going full time with this business, but I’d first need to marry someone that can provide me fucking health care. That’s a dangerous segue into a political rant... The TLDR of which is: our government is killing the willingness to start a small business due to the massive uncertainty surrounding healthcare.

Textured Soy Protein > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather 07/26/2017 at 12:14

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I’m in the planning stages for doing this at some point. When exactly it happens depends on life circumstances. Right now I’m in a very lucrative job so it’s a little tough to leave.

(To be honest it’s more than a little weird to find myself with a big window office and 6-figure salary where I work with VPs, and people think I’m somehow important, and things happen like this morning I had a meeting with a senior VP who had a bunch of technical managers in his office going over a techie thing and he just waved me in to sit in on the end of the meeting and everybody looked at me like I belonged there. Then when it comes to doing certain things this guy who is one of the most senior people in the company asks my input and then says “ok I like that we’ll do it your way.” Very weird. Don’t ask me how this happened. Apparently I’m a competent individual.)

Anyway, the very basics to keep in mind are:

Take on as little debt as possible to cover your startup costs. The #1 reason new small businesses fail is they don’t ramp up their earnings quickly enough to service the debt they took on to cover their startup costs.

Set aside enough money that you can pay all your personal bills for at least 6 months. Even if the business starts earning money, it may be a while before it’s in the black enough that you can pay yourself anything.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Textured Soy Protein 07/26/2017 at 12:37

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Is there any way for you to start your new business without completely closing the door on the old one (sabbatical, part-time)?

DipodomysDeserti > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather 07/26/2017 at 12:39

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My wife does photography, makes clothing, and does henna for people. She started with close friends and family and branches off from there. She started the clothing company as a creative outlet in college. The other endeavors were started once we had a house and kids. If you can hustle you can make it work.

My dad started his print shop in his early twenties. He had two kids and had just been fired. He expanded into mailing and envelopes and kept it going for over twenty years. Lots of hard work and stress, but nothing beats being your own boss.

Quadradeuce > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather 07/26/2017 at 12:40

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I started my own company after the company I was working for closed. I decided to take the product that I enjoyed selling the most, strike a deal with a factory to make it to my specs, trademarked a brand, took over the lease on the building we were in, and went from there. Seed money was about $15K, and I decided if I made money by the time unemployment ran out I would keep going. 11 years later...

I did have a mortgage, etc, but no kids at the time. My wife works, so she could provide health insurance. I was 25, dumb, and hungry for a challenge. It worked out because I kept my overhead absurdly low.

I hired a good accountant and use a payroll service (two areas where small business owners tend to struggle and have big legal consequences).

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 07/26/2017 at 12:40

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Priorities are where it’s at, for sure. If building your own company, working your ass off and making great wealth are what you aspire to, that’s great. For me, I’m thinking about how I can spend more quality time with my wife & kids and rest of my family and more time in nature. I’m planning to work no longer than I need to to set myself and my family up for the long term. Work to live, not the other way around.

My bird IS the word > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather 07/26/2017 at 12:40

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Be prepared to not turn a profit your first year, maybe two.

That is what kills most small businesses.

Textured Soy Protein > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 07/26/2017 at 13:18

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In my case it’s an either/or proposition. Right now I can work on the side on starting my business, until it gets to the point where I need to flip the switch. But that’s just me.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Textured Soy Protein 07/26/2017 at 13:33

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I guess my thought is, if they really value you there and they pay you well to match, once it gets to the point where you need to make the switch, it doesn’t hurt to ask for a 6 or 12 month unpaid sabbatical. They may be open to it, and that gives you some kind of insurance policy. Goes both ways though: if you’re working with a net, you know can fall. If not, you know you can’t, and it makes your focus that much sharper.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 07/26/2017 at 13:51

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That’s how I feel about it. I’ve watched my father work himself half to death and he somehow continues to go to work with his torn achilles, hurt knee, and 3 types of neuropathy from diabetes to a shop without air conditioning in the southern most part of SC that gets up to 115+ inside.

He knows if he doesn’t work there’s no money. If I get injured I put my foot up with my laptop and keep working like any other day or if I’m so injured I can’t even do that...it’s ok I’m covered.

Textured Soy Protein > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 07/26/2017 at 17:42

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I guess the thing with a sabbatical is you’re expected to come back, and if the business took off as desired, I wouldn’t be back. Also I’m in an area that’s already under-staffed so they would probably need to hire someone else and there might not be a spot waiting for me.

I’m not yet to the point where I need to worry about this, and my wife and I have been feeling the pull to buy a house a lot lately, which would leave me more inclined to stick around than jump ship with the business. There’s no set date on when that absolutely must happen.