Re: I need a holiday miracle
vogeltron brings up an interesting point. Not everyone is suited to own a business or be self-employed.
If you are the type of person who cannot stand any type of uncertainty or any deviation from your "normal" routine, then this is not for you. Many people are happy waking up at 6:30am, taking a shower, leaving the house at 7:30am and working from 8am-4pm taking lunch at exactly 12:30pm. They feel "off-kilter" if their lunch break moves to 1pm.
As a business owner, you have to be able to "roll with the punches" so to speak. You have to be able to adapt to change easily. Marketplaces change, rules change, taxes and laws change, etc. You have to be able to adapt to cash flow issues - which EVERY business experiences to one degree or another and also be a good manager of money.
Building a "reserve" is a MUST! Having some extra cash on hand to smooth out the road ahead of you is important. Let's say you find a niche and sell a product that nets you $500 per week in profit. GREAT! You are happily selling, but then your supplier has a problem and for 10 days you cannot get the product. Obviously, you will lose some sales. With a reserve in place, it can be dealt with. If you are running close to the edge with no reserve, it may become difficult to put food on the table. So, if you have been proven to be incapable of saving money, then owning a business is probably not a great idea.
The upside is, if you can manage to run your own business, then you can make more money than the average person. But becoming rich is another matter entirely. Some business owners might become rich, but many more do not. I don't think there are any rich people on this forum. There are probably several who have GOOD INCOMES, but that is different than being wealthy. Of course, I can only speak for myself, so I could be wrong.
And, you CAN take a vacation once in awhile. You just have to make sure that you have someone who can take over for you for a short while. Most people I know that own their businesses complain about not having vacations, but the reality is that they CHOOSE not to take vacation time. They are frightened that if they let go of the reigns for two seconds, everything will spin out of control, which is not usually true.
If you can deal with change, then owning a business may be for you. On the other hand, if you HATE change, then it probably is not for you.
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