I'm 42, married, 2 kids, my wife works in special education as director of a program.

I've been doing this for 11 years on my own, I do similar numbers as 3 pedal. It's been a learning curve, it's based on relationships, and it all depends on you. I really do like it, always something new, usually it's challenging and I do something that people will see and either say "I don't get it". Or "how the hell did he do that".

I want to say I'm good at this, better at some things than others. I refuse to dedicate my life to this, I don't work weekends except for the occasional sales call when it feels right. I don't want to wake up in another 10 years and realize that I missed my kids grow up.

The money is decent, owning your business let's you have a BMW as a sales vehicle, write off a portion of everything, so a salary of $75k is deceiving, we are comfortable, not rich, not poor. My kids aren't in private school, but I'm not willing to put in the 80 hours a week to be able to afford it and have my kids be private school brats that won't have any childhood memories of their dad not working.

Honestly, if you have the relationships and are willing to spend the next six months like I used to scouring this site asking questions, reading every back issue of cepro, stereophole, Cedia blogs, etc..... learning your shit, realizing that your aren't god and you need them second guess your choices. If you can make families comfortable enough for you to be around their children, to be alone in their homes regularly, then give it a shot. It's a business you need to learn, you need a tax ID, relationships with vendors, you need to learn hundreds of products inside and out and make them work together. Tech support doesn't exist. You need to learn what works that you can sell that amazon won't undercut you on.

This is what I do. This is probably what I'm supposed to do. It fits my personality. I can climb steps, crawl in spaces, wire racks, program from a laptop siting on a bucket slightly hung over with a decent breakfast skipping lunch for 9 hours straight. I could take a job with a larger integrator for decent money, but larger integrators come and go. I don't think I want to get any bigger than a full time tech, but that's even a huge undertaking unless I find a younger me.

My plan is to do this for another 10 years, save money along the way, the house will be paid off in 8, then find something else to do. I'm hoping to figure out the something else along the way.

Good luck in your travels.