Who here are self employed/entrepreneurs ???

tc35dforme · May 23, 2005

Chaulk me up to the unemployable ..... I mean self-employed !!

I have been doing the solo thing as a designer / consultant for 7 years now. I support facility owners, contractors, and architects with mechanical issues, HVAC - piping etc.

I do enjoy the variety of work and the ability to be selective with clients.

Worse part...varied cash flow....best part...independence.

I started when I walked away from a job due to the company heading in a direction I didn't agree with. Another big factor was child care and my need to be a 'stay-at-home' dad when the wife was working.

The most important factor in my ability to continue is my wife's job giving her full benefits even at 20 hours per week !! I couldn't do it without her carrying health insurance, dental, and the 401K.

Gotta go...here comes the boss /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Dachshund · May 23, 2005

After 8 years in the USMC - went into the Civil Engineering field (Kansas Dept of Trans). Got tired of dead-beat Engineers- so struck out on my own repairing Mobile Homes. Been doing general contracting and specializing in window/door work. Also like to do a lot of work with my scrollsaw to sell. Wife has a website that sells gifts for dog fanciers (dapperdoxie.com). Getting to the point where I am going to be semi-self UN-employed because of disabillity. More time to spend on the farm!

jeffinsgf · May 23, 2005

( Who all is self employed here?)

Guilty

( 1. What do you do, what kind of business do you have ??)

SharpToolsUSA is the company my wife and I started 13 years ago to sell and service the TORMEK sharpening system that is manufactured in Sweden. We demonstrate and sell the system at The Woodworking Shows throughout the country and through our web site. During show season (from October to May) we have a show in a different city every weekend. That makes our schedule for those six months rather brutal. We fly to our destination on Thursday and set up, work the show Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, fly home Sunday night or Monday morning (not as many Sun. nights as I would like), and then spend Monday through Thursday running the office, placing orders, shipping inventory for the coming shows, and managing the web site. This time of year, it slows down a little -- Thank God. While I have a mountain of things to accomplish before next Fall's season starts, I also have time to get on my tractor and do the landscaping on our new ten acres that I love doing.

( 2. Do you like what you do ?)

I spend my show hours teaching people how to sharpen their tools quickly and effectively. Many of the show attendees have never experienced a truly sharp tool, and those that have are used to a serious time investment to get there. I love the look on their faces when I can do in a few minutes what they are used to spending hours working on. Working shows can be both rewarding and frustrating. I love working with folks who immediately recognize the value of our system -- whether they can afford it at that point or not. It gets frustrating working with owners who just can't figure out how to use their machine (luckily that's not very many) and with people who want to argue about why our machine is so expensive. Yes, I like it. As some of my other "roadie" buddies say, "If I didn't do this, I would have to work for a living."

( 3. How did you get started in your business ? Was this something you sought out and planned to do or was this something that sort of happened in time,like one thing leading to another ?)

I was struggling with a different imported product before TORMEK found me. I am a great demonstrator, and a pretty good closer, but when the product you're selling gets delivered with defects, and is really expensive to begin with, you start running into roadblocks. My foreign partners weren't interested in improving quality control and I was getting fed up with rebuilding every machine before I shipped it out. So, when TORMEK approached me to see if I wanted to carry their machine in our product mix, I was very open to the idea. Over the next few years, it became such a significant part of what we did, that we finally decided to shelve everything else and concentrate on what was making us money and what made our customers happy.

( 4. What are your likes and dislikes about your business ?? )

I miss football. While I catch the updates on SportCenter, other than holiday weekends, we don't get to watch either college or pro football games while they're happening. I also dislike having to do fall chores at a frantic pace on the couple of days we're home. Fall outside work should be relaxed and reflective. I don't have time for relaxed and reflective during show season.

I like having summers where I can tackle some major projects and have the time necessary to devote to them.

I like that our business has made it possible for us to build our new place. Our office/warehouse is now about 25 steps from our home. It is not in our home, which makes a division that I think is healthy -- when we close the door and walk to the house, we're done for the day. We pay rent to ourselves, not to someone else and we have the space customized to our likes and habits. If I want to go out and cut brush for a few hours, I can while still being a couple of minutes from the phone to take a call if necessary. As others here have pointed out, some of us just aren't cut out to work for someone else. With all the headaches and gut checks, I still wouldn't change a thing about my life.

nomad · May 23, 2005

I worked as a wheat farmer till my twenties, plowing, cultivating, etc lands of other people using an old tractor of another person. Then, I have studied (engineering, science, etc) at the universities as a teaching and researcher academican. Left this 07:00AM - 23:00PM work after 10 years for business. I have formed my own firm to hire myself for myself. Mainly doing export business, special manufacturing for customers, etc. I have one and only one employee; me. Doing marketing, engineering/production, exporting, accounting, web designing, logistics, etc of my all business works. All by myself. It's good not to get money when you don't work. It's good to do the work only when it is your need.

Jagmandave · May 24, 2005

Aren't all small farmers basically self employed? I always thought of them as such........

Treed_in_TX · May 24, 2005

I own a swimming pool service in Austin TX. I have 3 employees that do the service and I run the office, fill tanks, sweep floors, clean the toilet (not NEARLY often enough) do all the paperwork listen to the customers and try to correct their behaviour and educate them in the ways of swimming pools. I am blessed with short hours. From 6 am to 4pm M to F. That's in the off season which is Labor day until Memorial day. From Memorial day on the hours are MUCH longer. I usually don't work weekends unless something bad happens. Like an employee disappears or forgets to come to work or gets fired. All of those happen regularly. I guess I've been lucky the last 3 years, I have had a stable employee situation. One guy with me 10 years, one 6.5 and one for 2.5 years. All do a good job, 2 are good employees. In 6 days the sweat is going to hit the fan and we'll ramp up the effort. I started April with 506 pools being treated weekly, I put out an ad (direct mail) and as of today I have 596. That's 90 new customers in about 2 months. There have been very few problems absorbing that many so things are good right now. My next ad is sitting on my desk ready to go out. Another 6000 flyers (and $3000.00) and maybe 30 more new customers. If I may borrow a famous line from another member, Life is Good!

LBrown59 · Jun 11, 2005

( Who all is self employed here?

1. What do you do, what kind of business do you have ??

2. Do you like what you do ?

3. How did you get started in your business ? Was this something you sought out and planned to do or was this something that sort of happened in time,like one thing leading to another ?

4. What are your likes and dislikes about your business ?? )
=============
1*Retired from owning my own housing company.

3*something that sort of happened in time,like one thing leading to another.

AndyM · Nov 24, 2006

LBrown59 said:
1*Retired from owning my own housing company.

3*something that sort of happened in time,like one thing leading to another.

What kind of housing company did you own?
Did you sell houses, build them, or remodel and repair them?

I've always wanted to own my own business... still trying to figure out what kind!

Nat · Nov 25, 2006

I tell people that I'm a piddler, but it makes Vickie made, say's it make folks think she supports me. I tell her she is the most supportive person I've ever known. I sold and installed swimming pools for 20 years or so till I couldn't take the beating I got on a bobcat. I now flip houses, a barely honest living, but the wolf isn't knocking so must be ok. Later, Nat

AlanB · Nov 27, 2006

After the Army, wanted my own business with a passion. Opened a woodworking shop / cabinet shop and was buying equipment from failed shops that had been open 20+ years and went belly up around 90. At some point, it dawned on me if they were not making it, I was in trouble.....

At the point of attending Vo-tech full time, security gaurd full time, Mowing lawns, a little welding work, and a smattering of wood working, trying to support a new baby and wife with no benifits etc, my wife looked at me at about 2 one morning when I came home and said, Go get a real job that pays real money or I am headed back to Germany and you can come if you like......

Back to Aviation Maintenance working for the Army as a contractor, then moved into Hazmat as the field developed.

But have always had the entrapanurial burn. So developed the wifes business

*** Hanna Bechard *** A Woman's Touch *** Clarksville *** and it has worked out pretty well. Still does not satisfy fully because we can only really implement what she wants to do.

I also do a fair amount of welding and fabrication on the side, often associated with motorcycles, but has had a pretty wide range over the years. The latest one with my daughter is a custom sling to lift balled and burlapped wire basket trees that we are making for the nursery industry.

We could not have done the small businesses successfully, without the stable steady job to finance them, and to give the benefits as the kids grew up.

Quote that I liked the best was that the secret to small business is to only work half days....

The good thing is that it does not matter which 12 hours you pick.