Starting a New Business: My Son Actually Listened!

Posted on April 30, 2008
Filed Under Income |

Once in a very great while you realize that something you said to your children actually sunk in and they acted on it. It’s a very good feeling. Now my son will probably deny me having anything to do with his decision but I am going to take a tiny bit of credit for this one anyway.

Back at Christmas time, my son was talking about financing a tow truck and branching out into his own business. He has been working evenings and weekends in addition to his regular job for about a year at this and likes it. At the time, he was thinking about driving the tow truck full time.

I expressed some concerns about it and related my experience over the last year with my own business. I suggested that he continue working where he was and save the money up for a tow truck rather than financing it. I also suggested that if he was going to do this full time that he needed to have enough money saved up to live on for a period of time.

He hasn’t mentioned it since then but in talking to him this week, he mentioned it again. I asked him if he had been able to save any money. He has actually saved up about $5000 to put towards the purchase of his truck. I am so pleased! He has definitely grown up in the instant gratification generation and saving money to buy something rather than getting credit is a new skill for him.

He has also decided that he will keep his full time job and either hire someone to drive the tow truck during the day or go into business with someone who can take the day shift. As he puts it, my job pays the bills. This is one of those moments in parenting (parenting never quits even when your children are adults) that make me so proud.

If you are thinking of starting a new business, here are a few suggestions. Some of these I did prior to purchasing my business and some I didn’t. I hope that a few people might learn from my mistakes.

Start with as little on credit as you can. Building a business takes time and the fewer bills you have starting out, the easier it will be to make ends meet. If I didn’t have a loan on my business I would be sitting pretty.

Do your research on the demand for your business. If it is a local business, know your demographics and who you expect your customer to be. You will want to target your marketing to this segment of the market.

Have a business plan. This should go without saying but you need to have written goals and plans. You should know what your target income is monthly and how you are going to achieve it. Know what expenses you will incur along the way. Be conservative in your income estimates and plan for your expenses to be a bit higher than you expect.

Have enough in savings to support yourself for a year or an alternate plan for supporting yourself. Again, this is the biggest reason why start ups fail. It takes time to build a business and if you plan on yours supporting you for the first year, you are setting out to fail. So far I have managed to keep my head above water or close enough to not drown but it has been a struggle and not a pleasant one.

Plan for long hours and doing most of the work yourself. For your start up period, you need to plan on working long and hard to get your business going so that you can invest the profit back into the business. If you are thinking that being a business owner means hiring someone to do the hard stuff, think again.

Review your plan monthly and be prepared to change. If you look at your plan and see that your business is coming from a different segment, you need to be flexible enough to take advantage of it. If your expenses are higher than you planned initially, you need to be able to compensate for it quickly.

Owning your own business is rewarding both personally and financially. Statistics show that the majority of millionaires own their own business but it takes time and dedication to get to that point. Are you willing to invest the time and hard work that it takes to follow your dream? Are you willing to sacrifice to make it a reality?

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Comments

7 Responses to “Starting a New Business: My Son Actually Listened!”

Rachel @ Master Your Card (6 comments.) on April 30th, 2008 10:09 am

Great advice. I run my own business but my husband goes out to work and therefore we know that we have one secure income coming in.

I think it is hard to admit that we are taking advice from our parents - it is nice to think that we are individual and can look after ourselves. They key is, as parents, to make sure that you make the children think the idea was theres all along!
Mrs. Micah (19 comments.) on April 30th, 2008 6:22 pm

Wow. You have every right to be proud…those are such mature decisions! Congrats on a job well done and I hope for many happy (and successful) years for you all to follow.
Lindsay (17 comments.) on April 30th, 2008 9:09 pm

Those are some good suggestions. That’s awesome that your son has saved that much for a truck. I wish him the best, and that he is able to start his own business soon if that’s what he wants to do.
cindys on April 30th, 2008 11:32 pm

I am still amazed but very proud of him. Someone asked me how old he is… he is 30 and the proud father of two beautiful boys and husband of my most wonderful daughter in law.

The best part is that he earned all of that $5000 at his part time job over the last 4 months. Pretty good part time income. Maybe I should learn to drive a tow truck.
Jungleswife (4 comments.) on May 1st, 2008 2:34 pm

Good advice! All most kids hear is, “get a good education and a good job.”
The friday gathering for 5/2/2008 on May 2nd, 2008 6:01 am

[...] Oh My Aching Debts - Starting a New Business: My Son Actually Listened! [...]
Wess Stewart (1 comments.) on May 3rd, 2008 2:44 pm

Towing can make tons of money. But two things are very important to remember:

1. Most tow operators are jerks. Don’t be a jerk. How do I know this? I’m a tow operator…I deal with quite a few different wrecker services, and most of them are jerks.

2. As of September 2008, you must be a Level 1 Certified operator, or you can’t run a truck. It’s a federal certification, which costs about $100.