Hypothetical question. Would you put your life on hold both socially and finically for 10 years when the end game is to own a successful business? When I mean give up 10 years I mean you are married to this business. 80-100 hours per week. 6 days if not 7 days per week. Maybe take off a few days a year but you will probably still be working by phone while gone. You will not have much money. Just enough to feed yourself and your family and fill your beater truck up with gas. All revenue is dumped back into the business. Forget about vacations, hunting or virtually any social life unless it is late at night after working. You will be tired though. At the end of the 10 year years you have employees and have a successful business where you are finically stable, have the time to travel, hunt, relax and enjoy life. You now have someone to run the business for you where you just need to check in for time to time. We live for ~80 years. Are you willing to give up 1/8 of your life to build a business that will be wonderful once you put your time in?
I don't think so. My personality is not one of a risk taker, so not knowing if, when or where my paycheck is going to come from would scare the crap out of me. I need stability. Would I be better off in the end? Probably so, but I don't think I could do it.
No--- Here is why.. After tens years of your hypothetical mission to be come financially stable you probably aged your body and mind by another ten years at least... So if you start at 30 to build your business you'll be aged to 50 by the time you get there. Being financially stable means different things to different people..
Done it.....im about 7 years in and it's getting better all the time....i started at 23 years old and had 8 dollars in my checking account the day I opened the doors....now I'll be 30 in October and have 2 locations that are top stores in the region.....i bust my *** every day to make sure it doesn't fail and probably have aged myself physically and mentally....in fact I know I have....but in the end I know that my wife and my daughter will be taken care of shall something ever happen to me and they are my number one.....it's hard....really hard...especially when you don't make any more than you would working 40 hours for someone else and you're putting in the 80 to 100 hour weeks....but the assets and the long term is what it's all about.....if you can make it there then it beats going 9 to 5 for someone and limiting yourself on what the future can hold....it's certainly not for everyone but I had an opportunity and I took it....im one of the lucky ones I guess and it seems to be working out....sacrifice is an understatement but you will never get rewarded without some kind of risk and sacrifice
Nope. Life is about the now, not the future. No one can guarantee that you will even live to see tomorrow let alone 10 years from now. Plus, you have so much free time at work as it is now, Brad. Why change that?Kidding of course.
We are actually heading that way....though I am not seeing a 5 year turn around....I am thinking it will succeed pretty quick.... Actually it started 3 yeas ago ... the wife sells perennials and pies....th episode business has been crazy as she sells tons of them. We started out of our farm and now have done shows, tastes, and sell out of the local Farmer / Flea Market every weekend. We have added local, raw honey and we are selling a ton of that as well. Wifey has been meeting with The Small Business Department out god Buff State an dour business plan is almost completed. We are actively looking for a store front to open a cafe in and then we will hit the bank....our Fico scores are in the mid 800s, and we have both been in management all of our careers so th Elian will be a non-issue ....it's scary, tho.... Everything Pie will offer both savory and dessert pies....premium coffee as well....
I believe I would pass on this as well. with so much uncertainty in todays world you can't really count on anything. If you start the 10 year plan and get 8 years in and realize your not going to make it then you have just wasted 8 years of saving that could have gone towards a 401K, College for your kids, a new truck. If in 10 years the plan does work that would be a great thing but to me the risk out weighs the reward on this one.
Another thing to add to what Henson said. 10 years of savings is a lot. Even with a fluctuating economy (btw, my portfolio is doing well despite what mainstream media will have you believe), if you're smart about it, you can be MUCH closer to full retirement in that 10 years. IF it works (the business), then you may be rewarded beyond this conservative approach. Risk/reward, I suppose. The possibility of failure is far too great for me to take the risk, though. I don't plan working a day past 55 at the most, so even at 30 (this November), I could still get it done, but I like stability. That's why self-employment isn't for everyone. Some are great at it, and have the personality that's willing to take the risks.
My dream is to own and operate a tackle shop. My grandfather ran his for 12 years but sold the business before I was old enough to invest any interest into it. That said, I probably never will. There are already a few "sucessful" one locally. And by sucessful I mean they are owned by old men that are retired. Not enough business here to make it work
Honestly, my dream to be the man I'm created to be is much more than the man a business could provide. Tough because I've had chances and I am still kinda "building a business" just not as the frontman more the vice-president. Is what it is, I respect it but not sure I could live that way.
I'll add to my original statement, right now my daughter is the most important thing in my life. She's 11 so we are talking about missing ALOT of what would be important to me. Right now she has and gets everything she needs and most of what she wants.
I had a chance to do this about 10 yrs ago right as my second child was born. I passed. Now if I had the chance before my kids were born I would have strongly considered it.
That's the way most businesses that start up in the work I do is. First 8-10 years your working your butt off for almost nothing. High school buddy I worked for until this year did that, now he's set to where doesn't need to and is sitting pretty good. Me personally being 30 and probably not having a job any different then I've had the past 5 or 6 years I'd do it in a heartbeat if the pay off was didn't haveta break my back everyday by the time I was 40-45. But I also don't have a family so to speak besides a dog ha. Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Tapatalk
I had my own successful business, retired, and started another. I'm doing okay, so I thought I would throw in a few comments. First of all, there's no reason to think it will take ten years to have a successful business. It could happen in much less time. You will be doing the work of two people until you can hire an additional employee. Then you'll find yourself doing the work of two people to enable you to hire that third person. It gets better after that. You won't see a steady upward trend. There will be good years, really good years, not so good years, and terrible years. Just remember when you hit that first pretty good year, it's not time yet to go out and buy that new truck. At some point, you'll notice that your business is successful. But you won't be able to turn the management over to some one else, relax, take long vacations, sleep in, and so on. You'll still be working just about as hard as most of your employees. Don't get me wrong. You'll still be able to take a week off to go deer hunting, leave early now and then to go fishing, etc. But a business is like a wife. You gotta tend to her regularly or she'll slip away on you.
