If you have or are starting a business,

[juliahenry]

How is it?
What do you do?
Do you enjoy it?
And is it worth all of the effort and sacrifice?


I'm dreaming about what might be possible and would love to hear what's worked (or not) for you.

[rfs13]

My situation is slightly different as I started a business with my dad. He fronted all of the costs involved.

Business is good .. we just celebrated our 9 year anniversary.
We do consulting in the telecom industry.
I enjoy it, I love working with my dad, the work is tedious and draining but it's rewarding.

It's tough and requires ALOT of self-discipline. In 9 years I have only taken two vacations (and one of those was my honeymoon). We actually were thinking about closing up shop earlier in the year and I was ready to tackle the corporate world. But then I thought long and hard about it and figured that even though I'm not making a ton of money and have no benefits -- i still love what I do, I'm my own boss and I don't have to answer to anyone (well, except my clients). To me that means more than any salary. So to answer your question -- yes, it is worth the sacrifice!

[SJ]

I could go on and on about this topic for quite some time.

We own a film & video production company (technically DH owns it, but we run it together). It is a tremendous amount of work, and I must admit that it tends to dominate our conversations and time at home. We also argue about the business rather frequently.

That being said, we make a very good team, and it has been so exciting and rewarding to build this together. It has grown rapidly over the last 12-18 months and it is amazing to see it now as a real, income-producing business.

I'm not sure it would have been possible for us to create the business if I didn't have a stable, well-paying job. Now that DH has been working for himself, I can't imagine him going to an office environment. He loves being creative, working with clients, and getting to build his own future.

There are so many elements to consider- and making sure you have the proper legal and accounting team is the first.

For us, it has been worth all the effort & sacrifice, but that is a nuanced and loaded question. If you ask me on the wrong day, you might get a different answer.

[limey]

I just started in February. By education, I'm an aerospace engineer, but have always been on the software side (the idea of dealing with hardware makes my skin crawl). I'm going from working for a small company to just being a software engineering consultant.

I have already delivered my first milestone and am close to finishing my second milestone.

Though I have put a lot of effort and sacrifice into my career before, currently, there is no sacrifice and the effort is less than what I did at my day job. I realize that sounds strange, but it can be summed up with the following quote: "Being a consultant is kind of like being a houseguest in a dysfunctional family. You get a chance to leave when it's over. And you never build up all those emotional tangles and tugs-of-war you feel when you're really part of an organization."

So, really, I get gigs from a friend and when we have "design reviews" it is basically him and I running through software tests while eating homemade cookies and then we go to Happy Hour to celebrate. Or we IM back and forth about code upgrades all hours of the day and night. Some days, I put in 14 hours and other days, I only do three or so. I get to set my schedule, as long as the customer is happy with the progress.

I wouldn't be in this spot, if it wasn't for three very unique things - (1) I was a workaholic who saved like crazy for 10+ years and can now afford to take financial risks - there's the sacrifice effort you were talking about, (2) I have a very unique and marketable skill set which also took 10+ years to develop and I have good contacts, (3) my H has been a software engineering consultant for 15 years, so I have a built in mentor. He's been pushing me to quit my day job as a consultant for 6 years and I've finally listened.

I love it, BTW. I've always loved writing code and the debug process and writing requirements.

For someone wanting to take the plunge, I would make sure that you are in a spot where you can take financial risks and be able to bounce back if something bad happens. If you NEED an immediate income or aren't ahead on retirement savings, I would strongly consider not leaving your paid job.

[Pom]

Nov 26, 2012 11:16:47 GMT -5 juliahenry said:

How is it?
What do you do?
Do you enjoy it?
And is it worth all of the effort and sacrifice?


I'm dreaming about what might be possible and would love to hear what's worked (or not) for you.

I wanted to suggest you check out SCORE.org, a great resource.