New Here - Looking for Guidance

[arthurb999]

I’m Arthur.  New to the board.  A little about myself….

29 years old.  Getting married in Oct.  I’m an accountant and have been doing it for about 7 years.  Have an MBA.  I really do not like the corporate world.     Reason being is you bust your butt for a big company and they can let you go on a moments notice.  I’m just a number.  If that happened, I’d be no better off than the day I started.  I’d have to look for a new job and start the cycle all over again.  

Girlfriend is a physical therapist.  She loves her job so that’s good.  She also sells Mary Kay cosmetics (network marketing biz)

I’m currently thinking about ways to get out of the 9-5+  days of the corporate grind.  I’m thinking about buying an existing business that once it runs the way I want it to… it will require a lot less effort to manage.  Basically once loans and such are paid off and the business is up and running well, I won’t have to be there as much.  I invest in the stock market and do fairly well for an amateur(I’m learning).   I am also going to begin to invest in real estate.  Bottom line, I am trying to come up with a plan to make enough money to live on without having to work in this environment.

Being an accountant I have a great grasp on our revenue and expenses and closely monitor them using MS Money.  I do analyze spending and know exactly how much is going out per month.  

I realize it will take a while and a lot of hard work but to me it’s all worth it if I am building something for myself.  I won’t be retired completely but cutting my working down to a semi-retired basis will allow me to spend more time on the things I actually like doing.

Has anyone else been in the situation I’m in now.  

-Arthur

 

[Dawg52]

I’m Arthur.  New to the board.  A little about myself….


Has anyone else been in the situation I’m in now.  

-Arthur

Yep, my first job out of college was with a large corporation they had 25k employees. Just a number like you. I'm also an accountant. I got lucky and went to work with a small company of about 200 employees. Didn't make a great salary to begin with and the work wasn't glamorus but did get the chance to buy stock in the company and eventually became the CFO and a board member. I will be retiring next year at 52. 

Sometimes the best opprotunities are not necessarily the ones that shine so much on the front end. Good luck with your plans!

 

[kcowan]

Like Dog has said, the early experience can get you well-positioned to participate in the success of a company. You can also become a consultant.

Regardless of which path life takes you, make sure to pay yourself first in every endeavour just in case the home run doesn't happen.

 

[HatePayingTaxes]

Hi Arthur,

I too am accountant. Graduated in 2001 and worked in public accounting for the last 3 1/2 yrs. Now I'm working for a private company. I too hate the fact that you work your a$$ off and they can fire you at a given notice. However, it's just the reality of corporate world whether you're an engineer, accountant, revenue side, etc etc.

I try to have a different approach to this. My thinking is that, if you produce good work, then company wouldn't necessary let you go. This probably applies to smaller companies and not mega corp like the one that you're working for. At my current company, I'll do a good job and stay until I have a good grasp of the business and my current role. I'm thinking that'll take about a year. After a year, if I feel that I'm not advancing or my salary is not where I want it to be, then I'll stick around for another half year and look for another job. If there is another job, great. If not, then I'll just stay put. If I give myself 6 months to find the next job, I can probably find something I like. So I stay at a job for 2 yrs and find something else. If the company is growing and treats me well, then I'll stay. In a way, I'm not leaving the ball in the employer court but I'm deciding whether I'll stay or go.

Also, I think it's bad to stay at a company for 3+ years when you're not really building your skill set. I've done consulting for a mega corp where I've seen people who has stayed there for 10+ yrs and it's just scarry to think where they can go afterwards. That company is known for not letting people go but who knows if that company will keep doing well after 10+ yrs. It's intimidating to leave a company after 3+ years becase you're comfortable at your position but I think you should always be on your toes and build your skill set. In a way, you're not relying on your current employer but building your own skills. At the end, if worse comes to worst, you can always go into consulting and I think you can bring alot of value because you have so much experience. Compare that to somone who's been with the same company for 10+ years who really hasn't progressed much. I think the first person who's been going to new company/industry and learning will be much valuable to the company. Of course, if your current employer values your hard work then they'll promote you or put in you interesting projects then you can stay put and grow with the company and hopefully make it to CFO one day. If not, go into consulting and it's not too difficult to make $100k (I'm in So Cal market).

Oh yeah, above all, always LBYM and invest wisely.

 

[HatePayingTaxes]

Another thing… for starting a business, you can always do that as a backup while having a successful career. If you're successful in your career then start a business, you're not really relying on your income from the business because you already have a successful career. For example, if you're a controller for a small company, you can probably leave that company and give yourself a year to start your business and put it on auto-pilot then go back to being a controller somewhere else and make about the same amount of money. Or if perm job doesn't work, go into consulting and maybe one of your clients will give you a perm job. In the meantime, your business is on auto-pilot. Worst case, business fails but you still have a successful career. However, if you go into business w/o setting up your career, then there would be alot of pressue for your business to make it.

 

[Scrooge]

...
I try to have a different approach to this.  My thinking is that, if you produce good work, then company wouldn't necessary let you go. ...

...you should always be on your toes and build your skill set.  In a way, you're not relying on your current employer but building your own skills. ...

...Oh yeah, above all, always LBYM and invest wisely.

Excellent advice  8)

"At will employment" is a two way street. You are exchanging your skills for dollars on a biweekly basis. If the equilibrium gets out of whack, you can always find a more equitable biweekly exchange. Sometimes it's a buyer's market and sometimes it's a seller's market, but in the long run the most important thing is what you have to sell, i.e. your skills.

 

[arthurb999]

Thanks for the responses. You’re right… I should be doing quality work consistently (which sometimes I admittedly do not). Good analogy… selling my time/skills for money. Now that I think about it, that is NOT what I want to be doing. Wouldn’t it make sense to be in a position to have people selling you their time and you profit… as in being the business owner.

I appreciate the feedback. I like getting people’s perspective on my ideas here. My family thinks I’m nuts when I talk about starting business, real estate investing, stock market investing, etc. They are all blue collar old school… work until 55, get a pension and put as much as you can in your savings account. I just think there is a better way.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Starting or buying a small business is not a cakewalk.

Back in Lakeland, Florida, years ago, a guy who supplied the seafood to Red Lobster (which started in Lakeland) started his own seafood restaurant, the Sea Wolf--very flashy, very successful. His accountant, who of course saw all the numbers, thought, I can do this, too! The accountant tried it at a weak location south of town and went bust.

I know many folks who have tried small businesses unsuccessfully (me included) and a few that succeeded. Rental residential real estate seems to be a more successful enterprise than most.

I understand your feelings completely. After 30 years, I don't think I am suited to work for someone else, but I have demonstrated a lack of aptitutde for working for myself.

 

[arthurb999]

Great point. I know it won’t be a cakewalk… naturally there is a certain level of risk involved. I also think it’s “risky” to play it safe all the time too. Not sure if that makes sense.

Call me crazy, but I think I can take the business skills I have and apply them to my own business instead of someone else’s ;-)

 

[Coach]

Arthur, it sounds to me like you have a plan you've put a lot of thought into and the skills to help make it work. And you're young, the right time to take some chances. Taking a shot at the kind of independence you're looking for gets harder with each passing year.

Coach

 

[Scrooge]

My family thinks I’m nuts when I talk about starting business, real estate investing, stock market investing, etc.  They are all blue collar old school… work until 55, get a pension and put as much as you can in your savings account.  I just think there is a better way.

In my experience, the first generation to make the "blue collar -> white collar" jump can find itself in a tricky situation. On the one hand, they see that the traditional blue collar approaches that they grew up with and that their family still holds to no longer work in the white collar world. On the other hand, they don't necessarily have the intuitive grasp of many areas that most people who grew up in a white color family have, including investment and starting/running a business.

Granted, some people learn faster than others, but even if you think that you have adjusted to the new environment, there may be subtle differences that you haven't noticed or internalized yet, and that can cause problems down the road. As a rule of thumb, I would be very careful jumping into anything that I am not initimately familiar with.

 

[arthurb999]

Thanks for the replies.

So true on the “passing year” comment. Once I have a house and kids, it is going to be next to impossible to try something “risky”

I’ve been doing my fair share of reading these days on the subject of money/small business. I’ve read some of the Rich Dad books, the richest man in Babylon and the E-Myth. Also some real estate investing books. I’m also an accountant by trade and have been doing it for 7 years. I’ve been #2 in my last 2 jobs in the company so “running” a business I’m pretty familiar with I’m also pretty confident I’ve made the switch to “white collar” thinking. It is a lot different the way I think now and the way say my grandmother thinks as far as finance goes.