Anyone have regrets/joys leaving a decent full time job for starting a business?

[slave2lawns]

It sounds to me like you just need to figure where you want to be in life and what it is you want to do in general. I started with a 6 x 12 open trailer pulling it with an 88' cougar yrs ago. And now, we have 3 crews of 4 that go out 6 days a week. I'm now looking into opening a seperate shop to not only become a dealer for lawn equipment and snow plowing and repairs but to also offer 24hr service during snow storms for everything and anything to do with snow plowing in my area. The possibilities in life are enless. It's the direction of the journey that you need to choose. Then again that's just my opinon, lol.

[MDLawn]

I feel I am in somewhat of an adventageous position as I own most of my equipment from being part time for so long. I can still have an income while trying to "test the waters" this spring to see if the market is still there in my price range. If I see that things are not as good as I hoped I can go back to work. So we shall see..... The part that stings the most is the 7 years of college (bachelors & masters), 2 years of internships (unpaid!) only to watch my wife with only her bachelors make double what I do, seems right

[ncnurseryman]

Ditto, mdlawn

[MDLawn]

Originally Posted by ncnurseryman

Ditto, mdlawn

ncnurseryman, ditto as in my last statement?

Thanks for the replies everyone, hopefully more people will chime in.
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[cpllawncare]

Originally Posted by MDLawn

I feel I am in somewhat of an adventageous position as I own most of my equipment from being part time for so long. I can still have an income while trying to "test the waters" this spring to see if the market is still there in my price range. If I see that things are not as good as I hoped I can go back to work. So we shall see..... The part that stings the most is the 7 years of college (bachelors & masters), 2 years of internships (unpaid!) only to watch my wife with only her bachelors make double what I do, seems right

I do believe in higher education as I have a degree in electronics, but I also have come to realize that higher education doesn't equate to higher pay in most cases, it's just higher education and that's about it. I've told my story on here several times, and I'm having the best year I've ever had, FINALLY after struggling for the past three years something finally clicked and I'm extremely happy about my choice to become self employed, the work is out there you just have to go get it and keep going to get it.

[MDLawn]

The more days I'm at my current job the more time I'm spending on getting things ready for next year, rather than doing my job, well not really but a lot of downtime is spent reading, reading, reading, oh yea and reading about what I need to do.

[yardguy28]

I've been in business a short 6 years so far.

at first I was absolutely loving it and jumping with joy. but there are days, weeks, sometimes even months where I'm kicking myself for leaving that other job.

on a whole though I still love it for the most part. the only thing I miss from my last job was it stayed at work. once my shift was over the rest of my day was mine. no invoicing, maintenance, phone calls, estimates, etc to tie me down.

it's funny I came across this thread because it just so happens I've been going through a month of kicking myself for getting into this business.

[MDLawn]

Originally Posted by yardguy28

I've been in business a short 6 years so far.

at first I was absolutely loving it and jumping with joy. but there are days, weeks, sometimes even months where I'm kicking myself for leaving that other job.

on a whole though I still love it for the most part. the only thing I miss from my last job was it stayed at work. once my shift was over the rest of my day was mine. no invoicing, maintenance, phone calls, estimates, etc to tie me down.

it's funny I came across this thread because it just so happens I've been going through a month of kicking myself for getting into this business.

Well for me I look at it two different ways. One is that it would be a self employed job making just enough as my wife has a great job too. The other would be making it into a business and having employees. That doesn't happen overnight and has its own headaches. Truthfully I'd really love to find someone or two people to do the majority of the work and just take the cut of it as extra income and still have a full time career. Again not easy to do but it's how a friend of mine has it. I worked for him for years and now he's 15 years into having a full time job and part time biz where he still works but not nearly as much. Perfect scenario.

[Roger]

I would take back my previous job in a heartbeat, if that were possible. I would put all my equipment at the curb for trash pickup, and be off the mark at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow.

[MDLawn]

Originally Posted by Roger

I would take back my previous job in a heartbeat, if that were possible. I would put all my equipment at the curb for trash pickup, and be off the mark at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow.

Care to elaborate?
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