Today, Constantly Working quietly celebrates its 11th anniversary. It was 11 years ago today that I made the decision that in the coming three months, I was either going to start a business or leave my job at the time for a new job.
As fate would have it, I ended up going down the road of starting a business with a business partner and would be relying on that business as my sole source of income in just seven short months. Then, in just another 5 years and 9 months, I would determine that it was time to go back to working for someone else. That was not an easy decision to make, and quite frankly, I put it off for about two years longer than I should have. Today, I can say, however, without any doubt, it was the right decision to make.
Constantly Working, after a name change, a couple of address changes, and a pretty significant officer change that I can only equate to something along the lines of an extremely amicable divorce, still exists, and while it’s a very tiny amount, is set to turn a profit for 2011, the first time in eight years. While I am only serving two customers in my spare time at night and on weekends, this small, profitable year has been very therapeutic. I own a very (very, very) small business with my wife that has an 11 year history, somehow (miraculously – no thanks to a good volume of personal funding by me) has a perfect, albeit small, credit history, and as long as I can make a solid $900 a year, will be profitable.
Needless to say, my actual income earner, my job, remains my complete and total focus for about 50 to 55 hours a week, and Teresa continues to put in more hours at her job than I do, but as I sit today, our bills getting paid, the business being a pretty sizable debtee, as opposed to the pretty sizable debtor it was 4 ½ years ago, I am looking to the future with great promise. Naturally, we, like all of you, worry about the state of the U.S. economy, politics, and how long it will take to see economic prosperity again, but when I look back at how things could have gone for us over the past eight years, I think we are still sitting pretty, regardless.
While I could probably fill an entire book with the lessons I have learned on this 11 year journey (and maybe I will someday), there are a few quick points that I can make.
First, never tie yourself financially on a personal level to your business or to anyone that you go into business with. I imagine you can see the reasons why. Secondly, while you may have always done everything yourself in the past, when you start a business, you cannot continue to do everything yourself. You need to rely on experts and you need to rely on expert staff to help you build and grow. My job has definitely helped to drive home that message. You cannot start a business with the intent of it being your sole source of income and then try to do everything (sales, marketing, accounting, management, delivery) with just two people. And most importantly, whatever the cost, no matter what, handle yourself in a manner by which at any given point you could sit down across the table from any given person and be able to know that you did the right thing.
So, as I look to the future, I am honestly quite happy. Happy to be constantly working, earning a good living, and happy that this very, very, very small business is once again a positive source of joy in my life as opposed to the burden it was when it was what put food on the table; happy to have such a wonderful wife, wonderful family, and wonderful friends; happy to know that today, in every capacity, my deals are square, my cards are on the table, and my deck of cards is cut every time; happy to have my two wonderful customers that have, without knowing it, renewed my faith in this small, little business; and above all, happy to report to you that tomorrow’s dawn will be even brighter than was today’s.
As fate would have it, I ended up going down the road of starting a business with a business partner and would be relying on that business as my sole source of income in just seven short months. Then, in just another 5 years and 9 months, I would determine that it was time to go back to working for someone else. That was not an easy decision to make, and quite frankly, I put it off for about two years longer than I should have. Today, I can say, however, without any doubt, it was the right decision to make.
Constantly Working, after a name change, a couple of address changes, and a pretty significant officer change that I can only equate to something along the lines of an extremely amicable divorce, still exists, and while it’s a very tiny amount, is set to turn a profit for 2011, the first time in eight years. While I am only serving two customers in my spare time at night and on weekends, this small, profitable year has been very therapeutic. I own a very (very, very) small business with my wife that has an 11 year history, somehow (miraculously – no thanks to a good volume of personal funding by me) has a perfect, albeit small, credit history, and as long as I can make a solid $900 a year, will be profitable.
Needless to say, my actual income earner, my job, remains my complete and total focus for about 50 to 55 hours a week, and Teresa continues to put in more hours at her job than I do, but as I sit today, our bills getting paid, the business being a pretty sizable debtee, as opposed to the pretty sizable debtor it was 4 ½ years ago, I am looking to the future with great promise. Naturally, we, like all of you, worry about the state of the U.S. economy, politics, and how long it will take to see economic prosperity again, but when I look back at how things could have gone for us over the past eight years, I think we are still sitting pretty, regardless.
While I could probably fill an entire book with the lessons I have learned on this 11 year journey (and maybe I will someday), there are a few quick points that I can make.
First, never tie yourself financially on a personal level to your business or to anyone that you go into business with. I imagine you can see the reasons why. Secondly, while you may have always done everything yourself in the past, when you start a business, you cannot continue to do everything yourself. You need to rely on experts and you need to rely on expert staff to help you build and grow. My job has definitely helped to drive home that message. You cannot start a business with the intent of it being your sole source of income and then try to do everything (sales, marketing, accounting, management, delivery) with just two people. And most importantly, whatever the cost, no matter what, handle yourself in a manner by which at any given point you could sit down across the table from any given person and be able to know that you did the right thing.
So, as I look to the future, I am honestly quite happy. Happy to be constantly working, earning a good living, and happy that this very, very, very small business is once again a positive source of joy in my life as opposed to the burden it was when it was what put food on the table; happy to have such a wonderful wife, wonderful family, and wonderful friends; happy to know that today, in every capacity, my deals are square, my cards are on the table, and my deck of cards is cut every time; happy to have my two wonderful customers that have, without knowing it, renewed my faith in this small, little business; and above all, happy to report to you that tomorrow’s dawn will be even brighter than was today’s.
