What next?

[when64]

Hi ,

Been lurking for years. I have learned a lot. Decided to finally post. 49 years old , married , 2 teen age kids.

Want to leave mega corp. Good payout when company sold a few years ago but now we are corporate, I'm exec waiting on one more bonus. Have zero debt but not ready to retire yet.

I want to leave the corporate world and probably can swing buying a business in the 500k range but very apprehensive. Don't want to consult in my current field. Want to run small business and have been looking at many but the right fit is hard to find. I can handle the big pay cut but want some income as I feel I have a good 10 years of doing something but I just want to call my own shots.

Anybody else use savings to buy business and do what they want?



Thanks.

 

[jerome len]

Lots of small businesses make good money......lots of small businesses go broke.

Take a look at shopping malls; there are always empty buildings and I wonder how many of those business people retired rich and how many went broke. And, most small business owners work a ton of hours.

I've been part of the corporate world and have owned my own successful small business. I worked far harder and made more money and worried more owning my business. I've had owner associates make more money than me and I've had others lose everything they had because of their business failure.

What do I think you you should do? Think hard and carefully before you decide. Go work in a comparable business for a week or two before you decide. Frankly, I don't think it's for most people.....especially if they aren't committed to really serving their customers and working as few or as many hours as it takes to be successful.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I am too much of a coward to invest a lot in a business. I have always done things from scratch with services or intellectual property where the investment was more my time and not much money required upfront.

It is a dated list, but The Millionaire Next Door has a list of occupations / businesses of self employed millionaires. Maybe there is a more updated list in the author's most recent book.

 

[slowsaver]

I would also be nervous about buying a business. Have you thought about just getting a new job instead? Maybe a startup? That should be exciting.

 

[pb4uski]

Even if you have the skills to successfully run a small business, 10 years is a pretty short time horizon to acquire the business, improve it and then dispose of it. Not to mention the risk of a big loss if things go sideways or worse.

It may be easier/better at this stage to change jobs/careers but continue to work for someone else. BIL and a friend both made late job/career changes and it seems to rekindle their fire for work.

Good luck.

 

[MooreBonds]

Hi ,
Want to run small business...I just want to call my own shots.

I have your similar feelings about not allocating that much capital into a single business. I was offered a chance to take over the family construction company with my brother (from my father). He wanted waaaaay too much. I simply said "sorry, too many issues and reasons for me to walk away". If the price had been reasonable enough, I might have done it.

Any way...my comment is about what you typed above: when you run a 'true' small business with employees (and not just offering consulting services as a self-employed business of just 1 person), you will quickly find out that you do anything BUT 'call your own shots'. You are at the mercy of employees (who many times truly don't care about your business), customers (who will demand the world from you), gov't staff...it goes on and on and on.

It can be a great way to occupy your time, but please don't overly romanticize the concept and instead realize all of the potential problems you can have.

It's like owning a real estate rental - ___ times however many employees you have.