Is starting your own business solo worth it? Is it difficult? I have questions about your experiences

[juliussneezer]

So the paragraphs below are just some background, you can skip down the questions if you don’t want to read all that.

been lurking here a few weeks. I’ve kinda failed at life so far (28 years old). I don’t really have any interest in stem jobs or trades. I can’t really maintain interest in careers that require a lot of knowledge/studying/skill and constant learning. I just get really burnt out and lose interest. I know that sounds lazy but that’s where I am. I’m at a loss for how to make a living while not hating my life.

I work low wage entry level jobs and barely get by. I don’t like managing other people, so I don’t like “moving up” in entry level jobs since it usually just to management positions. I also dislike sitting in an office all day everyday

I like “boring jobs” like painting, mowing, cleaning etc, because they don’t require the same level of mental work/attention. I like working with my hands, seeing the work I’ve done, and making people happy. Sadly these jobs don’t pay the bill.

What I’m wondering is if I should attempt starting my own solo business. Seems like it could be the answer to my problems, being able to work a “sweaty” job but also make a decent living? I think learning to market and get people interested would be easier for me to maintain interest in learning since it’s for myself, for a job I like, for a wage I like?

I’m sure I’m romanticizing it though, it seems too good to be true, so I have questions to get a better sense of what it’s really like.

1.) I know that when you first start your business, you’re basically gonna be working a lot of overtime to get everything rolling, but is it realistic to make a decent living while only having to work 35-40 hours a week eventually (For a solo business)? If so, how long does it usually get to get to that point?

2.) Is it super stressful having to find clients all time?

3.) Do you feel like your job is secure? In an economics crisis do you think you’d still find work?

4.) Do you feel like you make a comfortable living? Do you feel you are paid a fair wage for the work you do?

5.) What job do you work? Are you glad you started your own business ?

6.) Were any of you similar to me? No degree, little/no interest in stem/trades, lost and aimless jumping around from dead end jobs?

7.) Is chance of success high/low in your opinion?

 

[towerwatchman]

@juliussneezer Owning and running a business takes a lot of consistent work. I’ve run a business solo and now running one with a partner and both have ups and downs.

Doing 35-40 hours is possible but it’ll go slower. If you don’t have money for advertising, you’ll be doing a lot of door knocking (at businesses), Facebook posts, and calls. I’d recommend to never stop doing those for a few years. You’ll think you’re good because you’re busy but then it’ll slow down. It’s a grind but can be worth it.

Yes, super stressful to constantly find customers. That’s why it’s super important to establish relationships. Do good work for customers and go out of your way for them. If you have a realtor or someone who sends you a lot of work, treat them well. We’d make our plumbers a priority and go above and beyond for them. Sometimes dropping off equipment for free if they caused a leak. I was doing water restoration work. But they would send $10k referrals. So eating $200 of equipment for a couple days was worth it.

I’m now in junk haul and dumpster rentals. And it’s definitely a thought about recessions and how we’d do but we’re trying to ensure we can not only survive but thrive. We’re not taking on debt or a lot of debt and we’re establishing relationships with those who won’t be as affected by it. Property managers, flippers, construction in general. We’re also increasing our cash reserves so we can be in a position to buy out those who don’t make it through a recession. We’re hoping these will all help us get through one but only time will tell. My thoughts are customer service is key. Treat people well and they’ll keep coming back and sharing you with friends and family.

Yes, fair wage. I was a software developer before I started these businesses. Some weeks I work more, some weeks I work less but I average more than when I was working as a developer. Plus I have the freedom to do what I want. Just had over an hour lunch with a friend on a Wednesday. We go on vacations 2-3 times a year and I don’t have to worry about leave. I gave up a good career to do this, made less at the beginning but it’s well worth the freedom in my eyes. The flip side is time off is money lost until you have employees you can trust. Unless you want to work for the rest of your life, figure out how to hire and manage employees.

It’s hard to say if success will happen for you. So many factors. Some you control and some you don’t. I’d say if you want something easy, starting a business is not right for you. Even something like running a painting business takes a lot from you. Emotionally, physically, financially and mentally. Pay is not consistent. You’ll get stressful customers who don’t pay on time. You’re constantly looking at what to do to get more work. Especially at the beginning. My uncle is a painter in CT and after 30 years, he still has a constant stream of stressors.

What are you wanting? Low stress? How much do you want to earn? Have you considered factory work? Not down playing what they do but it’s relatively easy work and you can make an ok living from it. Most places are hiring like crazy, at least where I’m at. I’d say figure out what you want in life and work for it. If you don’t have a drive or good work ethic, it’ll be hard to grow a business successfully, not impossible just harder in my eyes.

 

[georgeal]

@juliussneezer I think it all depends. I knew when I started my business (solo - so far - cleaning business, started Aug 2021) that I didn't want to quit my existing part time job. I knew I didn't want to do the physical labor of cleaning full time, and I stand by that decision wholeheartedly. I managed to get a 40% raise at my part time job last year, so I'm glad I stayed and glad to have a desk job 3 days/week.

It stressed me out at first finding clients but eventually it just becomes part of your routine and isn't that big of a deal. Of course this varies depending on whether you hire employees etc. Security in terms of the economy kind of depends on what your business is and how bad the economic crisis is.

A comfortable living? For me, yes, but my expenses are extremely low. I work 18 hrs/wk at my desk job and 6-9 hrs/wk cleaning most weeks (occasionally more when my commercial jobs hit or I take a bigger one-time job). I am able to pay my bills and save some money. My total income is still fairly low. I make good money cleaning - minimum $40/hr before expenses (which really are also quite low for a cleaning business), max $75/hr for some commercial jobs that are quicker to get done. More than I've ever made doing anything else.

I am glad I started it - I was able to increase my monthly income over $1,000 which goes a long way when you start out low income.

I don't have a degree although I did go to college - I dropped out toward the end of college for personal reasons. I became a paralegal for many years but really that work doesn't pay well most of the time and I hated the stress of working with lawyers every day so I left for a non-profit admin job and it's much better and pays better. I wanted to make more money and couldn't find any jobs that paid more than I was already making so I looked for other ideas and ended up on this subreddit and the rest is history.

I think your chances of success with a sweaty startup are very good IF you have enough drive to make it work. Service businesses are always needed. They can't be replaced with a computer. Real human labor is needed. Long-term (and this is my plan too), you want to be able to move from working solo to having employees since when you are solo all your income is based on your own labor. If you can bring in help, you can make a little while other people are laboring and a lot when laboring yourself.

 

[devinf]

@juliussneezer

I don’t really have any interest in stem jobs or trades. I can’t really maintain interest in careers that require a lot of knowledge/studying/skill and constant learning. I just get really burnt out and lose interest. I know that sounds lazy but that’s where I am

I know this is unsolicited but have you ever considered if you have ADHD? A lot of people with it just feel like broken people but actually their brain is just funky.

I’m sure I’m romanticizing it though, it seems too good to be true,

You've asked a lot of good questions here but I do think some of the downsides might be missed by them. For example, a lot of these businesses rely very specifically on physical labor. So they may not be viable as a solo person up into your 50s and 60s and would require hiring a couple folks to take on the labor (which is a part of the work you said you explicitly didn't want to do). Just throwing that out there.

Some of your other stability questions I think very greatly by location. Income is impacted by state taxes. Some states have benefits for self employed people and others have pretty much nothing.

 

[rooseanistonn]

@juliussneezer With working for yourself it is usually a thing where once you do it you can't go back.

Sometimes you do work 60 for yourself so you don't have to work 40 for someone else. That's usually when projects get behind or stuff comes up. When things are easy I can work just a couple days a week and make more than I did working for other people.

It really depends on what your business is for how long it will take to ramp up.

I have always done what my friend calls "octopus income." I am a contractor and I flip vehicles. Been on my current project for a while and have not been able to do any flips. Before though I would build a deck, flip a car, remodel a bathroom, etc. Having something that doesn't rely on me finding customers is nice. I have also just picked up an excavator, dump truck and am looking for a skid steer. If you are building a company it's best to pick one lane, if you are a solo practitioner I think doing more than one thing is helpful. No reason you can't do pressure washing and window cleaning. This has worked for me, a lot will advise against this. There is something nice about just being set-up for one thing, like building fences. You have your trailer set and you get really efficient at it. But some weeks people might not need a fence built and they need a deck built.

I will always have work and if I don't I will find something else, buy some broken washer and dryers off of facebook and fix them or something.

I was in non-dead end jobs but even working as a mechanic and becoming master mechanic there is only so much you can make at a shop. I was never happy making someone else money.

Chance of success is what you make it. Decide you are going to be successful and do whatever it takes to do that and you can do it. Like others said, keep your costs low. I invest back into my business often but I don't buy a lot of equipment on credit.

 

[starlightmike]

@juliussneezer I can tell you if you don’t mind cutting grass, weedeating, emptying trash and chainsawing fallen trees you can earn a decent middle income with the safety of county employment as a parks employee and work a plain 8 to 4 with 3+ weeks off per year, without the “sweat” of running your own business. You’ll be limiting your earnings compared to someone who starts a mowing business that expands to multiple crews, maybe, but you won’t have the frustrations of managing people.

 

[psalm24healing]

@juliussneezer Literally in the middle of starting with nothing hahaha, no budget, broke, just jumped into it, I helped my brother start his, helped other people grow theirs, went to school to learn the processes, and tired of doordash working check to check, so I maxed out my credit cards, got my equipment, graphic designed the f out of everything, and starting to get jobs, trust in yourself, believe In yourself and if your starving enough, you’ll make it, trust me. It’s a lot harder in other countries and people are still doing it, Americans have no excuses, every excuse can be solved.

 

[ihave10descendants]

@juliussneezer 1) Yes. How long... it depends.

2) Yes

3) No on both which is why I have multiple businesses.

4) My hourly is great but getting enough clients is hard.

5) I own multiple businesses... some are desk work (editing 30-50/hour), some are clinical (hypnosis 50-270/hour, EMS 30/hour), some are retail (reselling), and some are working events (EMT 30, stage manager 60-120/hour). I didn't have a choice of starting my own business. All of my businesses have been going on for many years.

6) I was not. I have multiple degrees.

7) Hard to say, but most businesses close within 2 years. So probably low unless you find something you really enjoy and learn how to manage people. The money really comes when you expand.

 

[georgeal]

@ihave10descendants That’s like the total failure rate of all businesses. A sole proprietor service business has far less overhead than most businesses. I think OP’s odds are good if they have the right personality for it.

 

[simplelady]

@ihave10descendants What's your net take?

 

[ihave10descendants]

@simplelady Depends on if we are doing individual or combined.

All of them are profitable. We usually take my money and status as a business to write off things we know could be considered writeoffable expenses which are harder to write off as individuals now but easier to write off as a business. That was advised by a tax specialist and minimizes our tax burden.

From the amount I made, I paid (and was able to write off on taxes) my grandmother's final expenses as she passed last year, her autopsy, her funeral, contributed half towards her house's new roof (in exchange for co-ownership), two surgeries that insurance didn't cover in full. I was also able to pay off a personal loan 2 years early and my 2019 car bought new is expected to be paid in full by September, that's about 3 years early. My husband and my combined net last year was still 6 figures.

The reselling is the worse profit margin. I think my net was 3-4k in the last half of last year (which part of that got wiped since all my husband's startup failed.) I had taken a break from reselling and then came back and tried a different area. That was a bad idea. I should have stuck with my normal area. Still the money I made wasn't bad, but was not worth the effort.

Event medic as far as the IRS is concerned is a loss because I deduct all the mileage. that being said, I own a hybrid so the mileage isn't nearly as insane as they think it is. I make around 500/week to sit and watch football, every other week I had to get gas. I made them pay not to me but to my production company (that I own) for some medical insurance reasons.

Hypnosis gets a few hundred a week but that depends on the season. I'm not allowed by malpractice insurance to go over 20 hours a week.

Event stage manager got me almost 4K net for 4.5 days of work last show.

 

[simplelady]

@ihave10descendants You have quite the a list of talents and I'm surprised that you are able to wear so many hats and juggle so many plates at once.

I am curious about how you managed to get to:

• edit: is this editing copy or video/photo editing
• hypnosis: did you go to school for h. therapy
• EMS: clearly you went to school as a paramedic?
• reselling: what products did you resell? thrift flips?

You also mentioned a production company, what kind of production?

Do you have employees or is it just you and the husband?

Also, what you mentioned about your grandmother really struck a chord with me. This is the sort of family member I aspire to be.

 

[ihave10descendants]

@simplelady I've been having to work since I was a child. When I was in high school I had a full time job. This is normal for me. I never leave a career, I only get new ones haha. I also collect degrees like some collect stamps. I also have other side gigs that don't have as consistent money coming in. Like I do some consulting but that's never consistent, same with speaking.

In answer to your questions though...

1) I do scientific copyediting for pay. I am trying to learn video editing though but DaVinci resolve spends most of it's time pissing me off. I am using it to work on a podcast though with my husband.

2) Yes and I also have a MS in Psychology. My MS thesis was on clinical hypnosis. Most of the hypnosis schools around are fly-by-night places.

3) I am not a paramedic. I'm an EMT basic. I did a 1 month course. Normally it is 2 or 3 months. I make the same amount as a paramedic if they do events. If I was doing 911, they would make more than me. The one who contracts me for the events, we also teach stop the bleed together.

4) I sold used books for 12 years, but took a break when I was doing other things and tried doing clothing. Now I'm about the worst person ever clothing wise, but I was getting thrift finds from a thrift store we had that sometimes did incredible sales. I would always buy out everything that was for a dollar.

5) Theater/film/live events.

6) It's just me. My husband is overwhelmingly as useless as tits on a bull. He does his own companies, they fail. His W2 job saves him. He has no drive or ambition. He starts projects and never finishes them. I tried hiring a virtual assistant for 10 hours a week for a few months, that was basically useless.

Thank you. My grandmother left everything to my mother who has a bad history of bad investments so now I am going to have to gradually buy everything from her and develop it more. I will to put in my main LLC which my mother is technically a member of but she has no control, but I can send her a monthly allowance once that part has a stable income. My grandmother was a bookkeeper and owned her own business in the 1950s. I learned a bit from her. How my mother missed it I will never know.

People make fun of me that as far as the IRS is concerned my income is negligible, but it is paying everything else off or immediately reinvesting in other businesses. That's what people do to become wealthy. I know exactly what I'm doing. In September, I am planning to ask for a list of my household's remaining debts (which outside of student loans/house are all my husband's exclusively) and tackle one of the bigger ones or invest in home repair. I do this every time I clear a huge debt.

 

[cunderwood]

@juliussneezer I would agree with others that 35- 40 hrs a week would be a slower start and honestly when you own a business you never really shut off, unfortunately.. my husband and I work together with an employee and he is in the field from 730am until 5-6pm(in the winter until 7-8pm), then comes home and works on the computer for another few hours and I work all day in our office answering phones, doing estimates, managing social medias and answering emails, which can also lead into the evening. Obviously, it will take a little bit to get to that point of busy but be prepared to work even when your not technically at work.

A huge stressor is definitely finding clients... it was a heavy weight for us our first year or so going from busy to slow and this was all we had after moving across country so it was a very stressful for us. We dump a massive amount of money in advertising each month, which works great for us, but be prepared to put quite a bit of money back into marketing if you want the business to steadily grow.

We have busy and slow seasons where I live so at this point in our business I do feel secure but even just last October we were extremely stressed because our season was starting late due to hurricanes and snow birds not coming back so it was very tight for us financially. We have came back stronger then ever and have been able to really save up in case this happens again but honestly we racked up about 25k in credit card debt because we had no one else to turn to but still needed had business and home expenses.

We do make a comfortable wage, but this is with 2 people running the business basically around the clock. We even spend the whole day Saturday doing estimates so we really only get Sundays off and end up in our office working on that day as well

We own a Pressure washing & Paver sealing business. I am very glad we started it, it's extremely competitive here but at this point we are locked in to a few communities as people's go to company so it's alot less stressful once you start to secure a client base. We have really good reviews and protocols, so it really sets us apart from the other companies, but this of course comes with time and a ton of hard work

Neither of us have a degree and we previously owned a cleaning business together. What we can make per hour compared to house cleaning blows that company out of the water, it's not even close so I'm very happy we shut that one down and started something new. We learned a lot with our previous company but there is no comparison

I believe you can be successful but you will have to throw yourself into it wholeheartedly. Net working is huge so I would say find business groups and put your name out there, possibly have friends and family post on fb or try and put the word out there about you to get the ball rolling. You may have to do door to door at first but it's all part if the game. Make sure to get a website made asap, you can make one your self on wix and get Google set up.

What kind of business do you have interests in, btw?

 

[michaeljackson]

@juliussneezer Starting your own business can be really fun and exciting! However, when it comes to choosing the right business for you there is an actual formula.

Let's get you started on the right track by answering these four questions below.- What do you enjoy doing so much that you would do it even if you didn't get paid?- Who would benefit the most from what you do and why?- What is the value of the transformation or solution you provide to your ideal customer?- What additional and unexpected value could you provide to your ideal customer?

By answering these four questions you now have a general outline of your business, business model, your product or service you are going to offer, the value of your product or service, who your ideal customer is, and how you can provide exceptional customer service.

All this is essential to get you moving forward on a path of success. We have one other thing we would like to offer you as our free gift to help you get started. It is our Business Startup Checklist. It is a simple but powerful tool to help you stay on track as you begin to build your business.

We also have a weekly newsletter that is filled with tips to help you get up and running along with more tools, recommended resources, and more. You can take a look here and see which one would be a good fit for you. If you have any questions along the way please feel free to let us know. We are happy to help!

Wishing you every success,

The Spectrum Post Team