Who owns their own business?

Nothing financial no MLM or rental discussions.

Who here is lining up work and their own boss be it solo or a big business?

Share a little story about what made you go out on your own.


Try to post if it’s a part time or full time job.

 

Does a side business count?
I work in mining, so I work half a year and I'm off half a year. I love bringing friends and family out in the bush, been doing that for a long time. I decided to make some money on the side, teaching survival and bush craft skills, so that's my side hustle now

 

I'm just here to read some stories.

Midlife crisis just punched me in the face, hard. Hard enough that I'm honestly not sure if I want to keep collecting a paycheck from someone else anymore.

Looking for some ideas on getting a little more, uh, independent.

 

Same. Looking to have a more direct relationship between my efforts and outcomes. And…. Not be at a desk 8 hours a day

 

I've worked at the same independent shop since 2007. While I don't own the business, I've been on a completely commission-based pay rate the whole time. I can leave early or take time off to ski pretty easy, just don't schedule anybody on a pow day. Just an example..

 

The easy part is the physical skills for the job.

Bidding jobs can be a very expensive lesson to learn .

Some weeks I was happy to net $1.00/hour.

I just put trust in someone to pay the bills with cash given to them big mistake.

 

What made you take a leap to work for yourself?

 

Back in late 2019, after 25 yrs at a large corporation (IT Project Management & Vendor Relationship Management), I received the "Your position is being eliminated" communication. I immediately made the decision to not go back. I was fortunate enough to have received a nice severance package and planned on taking 6 months off to just decompress. Well then the big C hit. I had always done carpentry, odd jobs, etc. So when the world re-opened I just started reaching out for work through F&F. Still at it 4 yrs later. I was fortunate that my house was paid off. I'm probably somewhere between FT and PT. I tell people "I'm as busy as I want to be". I'm just a one man operation with little overhead and I pick jobs that are sized accordingly. I'll be 55 this year and only plan in working until 59 1/2 as I was also fortunate enough to have a 401K (now an IRA that I still contribute the max to each year) and a pension.

 

The wife and I had one PITA!
Best thing we did was sell it.

 

I was owner operator of a landscape maintenance and construction business for 18+ years. It paid the bills and kept the kids out of daycare. It’s a pretty volatile business as there is always someone willing to do more for less, or customers who want more than they are willing to pay. Especially when you move to higher end markets. I worked mainly high end condos and retirement communities with a few residential customers. I eventually stepped out of a pretty good gig because I was tired of the politics. I believe customer service is key. That you provide a high end product for a reasonable price. On the maintenance side my mowing lines and edges were meticulous. The grass was always green. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but during several years of drought some companies were painting lawns with dye. That’s where I started specializing in watering systems. It was a niche market and honestly some of the best money that I’ve made. The systems I designed were low gallon sprinkler and drip irrigation systems that did not waste water and ensured compliance with watering restrictions. It also provided a pathway into the construction side which I loved. I specialized in building custom ponds, cedar bridges, planters and furniture, laying sod lawns and building both high and low pressure watering systems. Problem was I didn’t want to retire mowing lawns. We had some savings but in all honesty most of it went back into the business. So I went back to school and changed course completely. I will have about 20 years in and a decent pension by the time I retire. I am good with that and don’t regret one minute of the journey I’ve been on.

 

@Squirt

 

I started mowing for people on the weekends when I was 12. Slowly progressed into a part time job and then started shoveling snow in the winter. In high school I got a job at a local park district and learned how to do landscaping so I expanded from doing mowing to doing landscaping on the side. Started doing 9 or 10 lawns a week and doing there landscaping too on top of working the full time park district job.

About 2 years ago I got a riding lawn mower from a relative and then got an old 12'x6' trailer from another relative so that really helped.

Towards the end of last year I got a new job and now I'm only mowing/shoveling snow for family members. This year will be my 10th year.
All in all I did some commercial but mostly residential.

 

Side work but extremely small stuff so just following along, don't mind me

 

I cast "full time" but we no longer do. This was from early 2000's. Back when you had a chance against low budget offshore coders, when people still cared about Berner-Lee's web directives, I was one - server side, frontend, perl, PHP, C/C++, windows servers, Javascript, Vbscript, even flash, I did it all and worked mostly freelance, local and international. Eventually one of the clients hired me on.

But that's not the awesome story. Wife wanted a metaphysical and belly dance supply store, so I built her a site. She rented a 500 SF shop downtown. Neighbor next store flaked, couldn't pay rent, we rented that unit and knocked an arched doorway through the wall and she converted it into a dance studio, it was at least a 30 x 30 foot space. Re-floored it for a couple months free rent. She ran the store out of the small space, taught classes, held community events and free-for-all dances at a local brewery, even built TV ads and had a "famous" dancer attend one of the events. It was one of the most fun times of our lives.

The cool thing - the website paid for all of it. Back when search engine indexing meant something and you could actually make a buck, knowing what I know her site was front page on the right keywords, sales were through the roof, and shipping didn't cost your first born.

All that is effed up now, for a super small business it costs way too much money to sustain enough sales to run an Internet business. We did both for about 8 years.

Edit: pics of the dance studio. Last we saw it, it was a gun and ammo store LOL

 

My wife started an online business several years ago. At first, it was a side hustle during her maternity leave, but then she decided to quit her office job and run her business full-time. Of course, she worked hard, especially on online reputation management and marketing. Now she wants me to join her. I haven't decided yet.

 

I sell hand-made stuff online. Strictly small potatoes.

 

Same here. My wife and I owned a small convenience store while I still worked (and continue to) 40 hours in a machine shop.

We were blessed to sell the store last July and move. I still work in the machine shop and do welding on the side.

The store we had was a small mom and pop store, we worked a lot of hours and Saturdays. I do not miss it.

 

I run my own jewelry shop and just started a small clothing brand too. I wanted more creative freedom and to do what I love. Going full-time was scary at first, but it’s been so worth it seeing people like my stuff is the best. Being my own boss means I get to make all the decisions and learn as I go.

Managing insurance was kinda hard, but I found a company that handles outsourcing insurance services stuff like claims and customer inquiries. It made things way easier, so if you're in the same spot, it might be worth checking out.

 

Have always owned a business or two either full time or in the side. Nice having multiple incomes