What are the pros and cons of opening up your own business?
I'll start:
Pros:
- You get to be your own boss
- You set your own hours
- You have unlimited earning potential
- You can take as many vacation days as you'd like
Cons:
- You have to work very long hours
- You may have to work 6 or 7 days a week
- Your income is variable
- You can lose A LOT of money if your business fails
- You have to do a lot of extra paperwork
- You get no benefits or pension
- Your business has to gross at least 100k/yr for you live above the poverty line
Feel free to add to the list.
There is very little benefit if any to running your own business. I did for almost 6 years and it was the worst time of my life. You are responsible for everything that happens, don't have much control over what does take place, and you have to deal with so many pain-in-the-ass diva type persons (men and women). The government will bother you as will everything else after a while. Competition is also fierce, so if you do open a business, make sure you specialize in something and have a plan to start growing your business from the day you open. I will give you an example.
Let's say you want to open a general discount store. So you look for a space of 5000 square feet and you stock it with general merchandise at cheap prices. Because you are small and because your space and working capital is limited, you will have a near impossible time competing with all the other general sellers in your surrounding marketplace. You won't be able to grow, because you won't find success in your positioning in said market.
Now, instead of opening a store and selling everything and anything, let's say you chose a category that you knew was in demand. Let's say you wanted to stickers (stickers were very popular in my store, they are low cost and high margin. So, you decide to rent a 2000 square foot space and stock it with every sticker available to you in the market. Kids stickers, scrapbooking stickers, imported-overseas stickers from all around the world etc. You would most likely have the best and most exclusive selection on the market, you could negotiate better deals with suppliers because you would be buying larger amounts, and customers would chose you over the Walmart's, Michael's type stores because they would see you as being better. The likely success that would result would allow you to generate enough cash flow to duplicate your initial success in another market, therefore resulting in growth and more economies of scale.
but Tim Horton was actually just the frontman. The real founder is a retired policeman name Ron Joyce. When the real Tim Horton died in a car crash, Ron paid his widow a million dollars to buy the entire company. Tim's widow blew the million dollars on junk and sued Ron for more money and she was denied by the courts.
