Business...Golden Nuggets

When I started my business almost 30 years ago, I got all sorts of suggestions regarding print based advertising. I knew they would end up in the trash. I joined the local Chamber of Commerce, participated and volunteered on several committees, and became part of a couple service organizations. Word of mouth referrals with great customer service ended up leading to dealing with growth issues to keep up with business. I sold the business years ago, but many in the community still recognize me, including many in the local motorcycle club.

 

Be ready to work twice as hard as you expected.

 

I'm probably in the rare group that really enjoys owning and operating a family business. Co-own with 2 of my brothers. It's primarily an aviation business but we dabble into anything we can make some money and have fun with. Each of us has our own specialty in the business and know enough about the others to do their job when they're out. As project management style we think of race car driving, one of us is on the gas, one on the brakes and one steering. We each take turns in those roles.

We're in the early planning mode of getting our kids interested and involved in running it someday. We like to hire people within our circle of friends and family. It hasn't always worked out though. Wives were the biggest obstacles.

Learn to do your own accounting! Hire out as it grows.

 

Ummmm…..How many years you have left til retirement?

Enlisted or Commissioned?

I feel so bad for the kids coming in now. They just absolutely gutted the retirement incentive. Their pension is gone.

Call me crazy but that may be a factor in recruitment problems they’re having now too.

 

+1 This has been a great recent learning for me as well. You would be shocked how many very profitable businesses are technically simple commodities with fancy marketing.

Are there any other business marketplace sites anyone can recommend?

 

Something like this would be a dream scenario for me. I've discussed it with the wife and if the business grows to the point that she can work as the office manager full time, we'd make that move, even if it meant a small step back in overall family earnings. That decision point is probably somewhere around the $20k mark.

In a perfect world I would have the wife, son, and daughter all in the business and the kids would take it over when I decide to fully retire.

 

I have 6 years left until I can retire, but I may go longer. I'm enlisted, pinned MSG/1SG in April of this year at only 13 yrs so CSM is an attainable goal for me. I can see myself going past 20.

The change in the retirement plan is a huge one, which is why when given the option I stayed with the old retirement plan. Its a much better option for anyone planning to stay in for 20 yrs or more. The new plan, however, is better for the overwhelming majority of people that serve though, as most don't stay until retirement so they normally left with nothing towards a retirement.

 

I used bizben.com, which was big in California at the time. The one @YamahaRick mentioned seems to have a lot of businesses. On Facebook there is a group business for sale by owners.

After looking awhile, I narrowed down to trying to find a business that wasn’t retail or food based, and figured I wanted business to business. Also figured it was safer to get a place the owner was retiring versus a place where people were flipping at after a few years.

 

What’s your intent with a business? Cash flow or developing it and selling it?

Are you trying to do something scalable or a profitable “create yourself a job” type ‘business’?

My general comment is that the “create yourself a job” full time model isn’t going to be worth it unless you’re going to make a minimum of 2 what you would at a corporate job with benefits.

Find something you can do asynchronously for now, that doesn’t require time commitment at certain hours. A lot of “businesses” can create consistent cash flow at a good margin but will never scale above a modest level due to market conditions. You have a stable job now and a pension to look forward to, you could create 4 or 5 streams of income now so you don’t have to do jack later.

If you’re looking to do something full time, your requirements for return on your time need to be very stringent otherwise it won’t be worth it.

I started and ran an e-commerce business for 5 years. Now I work a corporate job in tech and I much prefer it. I would never start my own business again unless I could guarantee paying myself 2x what I can make on the market including benefits, on day one. I’d also not bother unless I could realistically sell in 5 years max.

Avoid anything you have a passion for unless it’s going to meet the cash flow requirements and timeline for sale on day 1. The economy and system are extremely set against entrepreneurship unless you already have gobs of capital or are extremely politically connected. Don’t be a sucker, be ruthless with your requirements for return and exit quickly if you can’t meet the goals.

Do you have a security clearance? You’re a master sgt so I assume you have technical skills of some sort? You should look at options for getting a cruise corporate job at a government contractor after you retire making many times what you made in the military vs. running a business full time. You could probably get SgtMaj by the time you retire, there are lots of corporate options for those guys….

You should look into government contracting yourself, especially if you have domain expertise in a valuable area. The knowledge required to be successful is arcane, but you might already have it for particular niches. It doesn’t make much sense to me to get into businesses that are totally unrelated to my prior experiences, because my prior knowledge and skills will be useless and building that business would have no synergistic effects. For example, it wouldn’t make sense for me to become a real estate flipper. It would make plenty of sense for me to develop and sell web originated real estate leads.

 

Become a licensed plumber or electrician and you’ll be able to print $100 bills for the rest of your life.

 

You'd have to be out of your damn mind to start a business nowadays.

For what these corporations pay, you can make the same money with less time, way more days off and zero legal exposure. Hour for hour, I'd venture to say you can actually make more at a corporate job.

There is a reason so many guys tap out their first 5 years, it isn't by accident.

 

True, better yet, get a government job, and take it easy while enjoying an amazing pension in your later years.

 

Trades are vastly different than corporate or sales.
Employees are in the 20 to 30% range cor total compensation compared to self employed.
The higher end trades are all over $100 an hour here self employed and some double or triple that.
That's low to mid six figure income after expenses and the ability to write off a lot of them.
Most trades will need a few years to get skilled enough to go solo or get the certification necessary to do so.

 

Don't forget HVAC techs.

I missed a grand opportunity to start a company, after a discussion with a friend of a friend a few weeks ago. He was an HVAC tech, ran his own company, and limited his coverage to a 15 mile radius around his house. He wanted to retire, and wanted to sell the company. No takers. Then he wanted to GIVE IT AWAY FOR FREE ... still no takers!

Sure, the biz was nothing but a customer list, but damn, there's value in that when you are taking over a company with a stellar reputation and very happy customers. If given the opportunity, I would have taken it over, and hire a few good techs. The techs would do nothing but their job - I would have handled billing, scheduling, marketing, etc. A lot of that stuff can be automated and still be able to provide the customers a very positive experience. Sadly, the guy had already gutted his PC and destroyed the hard drive with his business data.

 

This is an important story to keep in mind when starting a business. Many businesses have no value on the open market. An owner spent so much effort building it, but there is nothing to sell in the end. You basically made a job. In my opinion, you might as well just get a job and not have the stress of having to do everything yourself. It’s also why I said I would buy a business. You can buy lots of profitable businesses for almost nothing and the owner will train you and finance you. Often you are just buying the inventory or equipment or real estate and are paying nothing for good will or blue sky or whatever you want to call it.

 

My intent would be to build a small, profitable business that I can run to supplement my retirement. It would be mine, and something that I could pass to my kids if they want it. I've always wanted to be a business owner and I'm good at, and have experience with, the two areas that I plan on going into after I retire. I don't plan on going into contracting or getting into a corporate gig after I retire from the military...but I've also learned to never say never.

A lot of what you said makes sense, especially if maximizing income is the goal...but that's not my driver.

 

Valid points. There is a beauty in buying a business that has multiple customers on your first month in the door. Convinced my BIL to buy a dental practice from a retiring guy instead of building his own and while the financial hit took a couple years to overcome he's in a great spot now.

Getting that customer list takes decades....don't underestimate the power of it.