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RE: My One And Only Successful Foray Into Business: How It Began
Partnerships sound challenging and risky. Which is interesting since I’m about to walk into one. It’s a shame that he was your friend before the partnership. That would have made the split incredibly hard to handle.
I can totally relate to the highs and lows of business ownership however mine has never been massively profitable.
I often think that life is much easier as an employee. But also a lot less interesting.
Can’t wait for episode 2. This was a great read. I’m so glad that you got around to writing this. :)
I'm glad to hear that, since I'm basically writing it for you. :) Okay, maybe someone else might find it worth their while.
To a degree, life is easier. Especially if what you need to do is fairly easy. If you don't have to think much about what you're doing, then you can think about other things. And in some cases, I'm finding from folks here, you can be at work and on Steemit at the same time! Amazing!
I think there's more lows than most people know. Even employees, as you've found with yours. Most can't seem to get past their own needs and those that do, tend to move up into better paying jobs. I was fortunate to have two employees that could have ran the show on their own. They could step in and manage or fill any position. I was blessed, and very fortunate in that regard with the staff I eventually ended up with.
There is a certain dynamic with partnerships that make it an incredible experience all around, and then make it the worst. It would be nice to be consistently somewhere in between, but I didn't really have that kind of experience. I think I needed to be a little more patient, and not as decisive in some ways, as odd as that might sound. I think I pushed when I should have waited a bit more. Which is funny, because it was me who always seemed to be putting on the brakes.
Well, if you are walking into a partnership, try to get your true feelings out as well as getting theirs. There's nothing worse in my mind than making decisions based on people's stated opinions only to find out later that's not what they wanted to do. Or that they didn't know what would be best but didn't want to stick their neck out, thus leaving the other to take the blame.
Not a good situation. I wish you luck with that.
Massively successful is relative. I think we did quite well, but i think massively would mean I'd still be living off of what we made. Unfortunately, that only lasted about a year and a half after we went out of business, give or take a month or two. Sounds like a lot, but it's really not.
Yes, this partnership is with someone who I only recently met so there’s definitely a few risks involved. As far as I am concerned though, I’ve got very little to lose in the arrangement. My business isn’t making any money so it’s either take a risk here or throw in the towel and become an employee once again.
At least you walked away and could rest for a while before deciding on your next move. That’s fortunate so you should feel at least a little happy with that outcome. It could certainly have been a lot worse.
Really looking forward to the next instalment. Don’t make me wait too long. :D
Walking away isn't exactly how it feels. It's more like a rug yanked out from under me and then being rolled out on a stretcher kind of feel. Then, I'm still deciding my next move, 5.5 years later. I mean, I've made some moves, but none of them have really panned out in any major way, other than to provide me some experience.
Anyway, you're right. It could always be worse. I could still owe a bunch of money for some reason, or I could have tried to hang on for another few months burning through my personal savings hoping something would change. So, in that sense, I did have a choice and I did walk away, I guess. Not much of a choice, though, and barely the lesser of two evils.
Okay, so this is with the gym business then. What's the partner bring to the table? Was this the person who was looking at buying it? It's been a while since we've ran into each other here so I'm not up to speed. :)