Quit work and started a new business (employees, credit card, wholesale)

[Tampaite]

I have lost few co-workers since the company is down-sizing and would like to hear ONLY from folks who have quit a well-paying job and started their new venture?

If so, please let us know what your new venture is and how you are making it work for you?

Again, am not looking for suggestions or opinions(we have many already on the forum) but looking to hear from folks who have had the courage to quit their jobs and move forward.

I currently have the desire but lack the courage due to not being very clear on my next steps.

[harry chickpea]

I started my (latest) own business back in 1995, when the company I was working for was about to be bought out by a company I had already worked for. A lot of why it worked back then wouldn't fit today. Here are some things that were important that still make sense:

I immediately incorporated and hired a CPA to guide me. (With that it goes without saying that I NEVER messed with misreporting income or playing games with taxes, but had the CPA do all the work and figure out the LEGAL way to pay as little as possible. I'd seen people making a lot more than me get messed up in lies and red tape and penalties, and I didn't want to go there.)
I stayed within fields where I had strong knowledge.
I used contacts that I had made in my past job.
I designed the business to have three unrelated income streams. This is counter to what SCORE, banks, and others will say works, because there is a division of focus, but it DOES work. One income stream never made it past the first couple of weeks. The second almost immediately hit and made decent money for about three years with little effort other than some driving. The third took a year and an outside promoter to click, but then it clicked big AND it provided yet a fourth income stream from a side product. Had I only had a single income stream, I would have failed early on. Even G.E. makes both locomotives and credit cards.
I kept as much income to myself as possible. I used temp help a couple of times, but kept away from payrolls.
I kept all other expenses at a minimum, with the exception of items needed to impress customers with glitz or technology.
I knew the market price point for my products, and made sure to build support costs in.

After 18 successful years, the market segment I targeted is winding down as expected. I'm investigating a different possibility as an income stream. I could have chased the ball, which was shrinking and being chased by more players, but I allowed for a natural lifespan of the product and didn't waste money and time constantly changing it.

FWIW, I had my first business when I was 19. It was very part time and only lasted a short while, but it gave me experience. Another business that I had that didn't work out I viewed as a cheap $12,000 college education in what works and what doesn't. As long as you pay the government, pay your bills, and pay any employees, you've got basics covered. If you aren't always angsting for more income and thinking you're poor, you aren't cut out for it.

[Tampaite]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

Had I only had a single income stream, I would have failed early on. Even G.E. makes both locomotives and credit cards.

thats an excellent eye opener!

[CAVA1990]

I left a position as a marketing director at a big company to start my own on-line retail business out of my house in the early 2000s when ecommerce was just taking off. I sourced wholesalers to provide my merchandise at a good margin. I used a canned website and shopping cart product and attained good search placement first on Yahoo then Google when it started to take over the search game. I also set up a little temporary store in a high traffic area (not a mall) and after that sold my merchandise at weekend events related to what I was selling. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun. It was entirely self financed using credit cards and home equity at first but after it got to a certain point it was cash flow positive (even after paying myself) so no additional borrowing was necessary.

I've since gone back to the corporate world (doing IT stuff from home) and quit doing events, but have kept my on-line business running at a lower volume. My wife maintained her work from home job while I was setting up and running the business and started her own ecommerce website selling things unrelated to what I sell. We both sell our products on Amazon. These provide a good second source of income beyond our day jobs and will provide us with something to do in retirement if we want.

The first and most important thing you need to figure out is what you're going to sell or service you're going to offer.