He doesn't have to hire everything out. He just needs to hire someone to do some of the things hes doing now. Hes already willing to sell and take a job as a rep (stated in his first post) which already means hes taking a pay cut. Who said anything about "many extra workers"? 1 person. Honestly he can probably shave 8 hours a day just by hiring a competent assistant.

You feel free to make comments with zero information in them.

I've told you before, open a Rocky Mountain division and we can have serious talk. Of course this talk will have to involve snow and snowboard. We can arrange for a day warmer the the -17 when I rode last. :)

Brian, you're full of shit.

I opened my own shop after being the sales manager for another firm, where I was basically running the job for the owner, who might have put in 20 hours a week in a bad week. Eventually, I ran the company in a manner that allowed for me to work a reasonabe amount of hours per week.

I owned my bar in Florida, and worked about 15 hours a week, mostly stopping in to collect the moolah and check on the operations.

Jeff,


If you want to cut it back on a personal level, it most certainly can be done. Your decision is one of whether you want to be hands on or not. Hands on, you cherry pick jobs. Hand off, you become the owner/manager and have staff that tends to the everyday affairs.

Both can be a PIA, but in my opinion, cherry picking jobs is a lot easier. Hiring staff means "growing the business" (a term I despise), and all that comes with having crap employee's you have to put up with.

Those aren't norms, they are exceptions. While with plenty of work, some can get to the point that they can do nothing and hire others to run everything. But, it's not an automatic that can just be done as Mac thinks.

Exceptions that tens of millions of Americans have somehow figured out how to pull off.

I was in the same boat when the owners decided to close up shop 8 years ago: buy the business I was already running (and all the headaches that go along with it) or scale back and cherry-pick. I chose the later. Worked out well so far... though I'm always entertaining the idea of selling my client list and move on to be a hobbyist!

Tens of millions might be stretching reality a little bit.

I'd venture a guess that a significant chunk of currently registered small businesses are not succeeding, and again another chunk that is profitable but the owner/operator doesn't make a significant amount of money.

There are around 28,000,000 registered small businesses. Of those "10's of millions" are not absent owners.

Not saying he can't do it, but finding someone competent and trustworthy isn't an easy task.

I switched to hobbyist and it's enjoyable again

The US is a couple/few hundred years old. Ill bet im closer than you think.


teraforming mars isn't an easy task. Hiring someone competent happens thousands of times a day all over the country.

Yep. Reps. Fake friends, All of em. I'm glad I retired!

Wow. This is a cool thread. Mac is right about hiring help. That's precisely how you get your time back. If you think it is impossible for your business then you have only your own thinking to blame.

Here is a short list of businesses, that I am personal friends with owner, where the owner almost never works more that 30 hours a week. Painting contractor, plumber, auto repair shop, law firm, doctor, window and door contractor, general contractor, bar owner, insurance broker, mortgage broker, security company, and audio video integrator. I could keep going but I think you get the picture.

In every case the owner has hired people to do nearly all of the day to day operations and tasks. They also all hire business coaches or consultants to help build the business this way and to keep it going. They can all take a vacation with out taking a single business related phone call and the business doesn't burn down when they do so.

Of course there are problems. People quit, break equipment, steal equipment, crash your vehicles, call in sick, take your customers, get hurt doing stupid shit, etc etc etc. It sucks when it happens, but you deal with it and you move on.

On the flip side, there are some very good, honest, hard working people out there that want to work. They will help you build your business and give you your time back.

At what point did you get so jaded and so absolutely unwilling to not consider opposing viewpoints? You've even gone to extreme reference (the entire history of the United States... Terraforming Mars? Because Waltons can do it so should WVL?) to not concede even an inch.

The Waltons reference is particularly rich since they inherited an empire. Sam worked his ass off building that company, didn't step down as CEO till his 70's and participated in business ops until he died...

No one is saying it isn't possible if you build your business up, but you are using extensive hyperbole in a zealous defense of numbers you largely pulled from your ass.

Owning your own business has pressures and responsibilities that Mac will never fully understand unless he gives it a go. That being said a 16 hour a day slave is not the proper way to run a small business. I say that very bluntly. I have been in business for 40 years and I have worked plenty of long days. If you let that become the standard, you have no one to blame but yourself.

If you have never taken a class on the cost of doing business or don't have the familiarity with establishing your hourly rate, then you really need to sit down and do that first thing. The odds are pretty good that you are charging a lot less than your cost of doing business, and cannot afford to work less than 16 hours to make ends meet. If you are making a ton of money and could scale it back to 10 hours a day and still make ends meet, then you need to cherry pick more or get some help.

With a wife and lots of kids, I understand how a business can rip you off and steal the time that you should be spending watching your family grow - but only if you let it. It is a dynamic that a business owner will always be dealing with, but he has to manage it.

My business goes back so far that our hourly rate for repairing audio gear was $19 per hour. We worked a lot of hours. Then we went to a seminar on the true cost of doing business. One of the principles of learning your true cost of doing business is that you can double your hourly rate, and still lose half of your business, and you will still be making the same amount of money, with a lot less paperwork and headaches. We went home on a Friday evening with a $19 per hour rate, and opened up Monday morning with a $45 per hour rate. We did not lose business. We were working ignorantly before that.

Jeff, we are 4 hours apart but I will be glad to spend some time with you if you wish. You can get hold of this and manage it.

BTW, you likely would have a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach after a couple weeks of being a rep.

That's very generous.
It's really more about business vs. business plan.
Over the last couple of years I've been away from the business with a sick kid. During that time we got away from the business plan as a way to allow the company to roll on its own. It has and continues to roll but it also puts us in a position where we are constantly forced to grow. This means it's always an investment with little profit to stay ahead of the game. There are always fires to put out and talent is hard to come by. My days turn into my nights and always stressing over the next move gets old. We are far too deep in contracts to simply use the pick and choose method. I'm weighing my options but I really just want a simpler life and time with my family. As long as I own this at the level it is I will never have that. Regardless of who I hire.

Here is the new business plan:
1. Finish up all the contracts that you have currently.
2. Raise your labor rates at least 50%. This will result in less jobs but the higher rates will bring in more money.
3. Work less hours because now you won't have as much work.
4. Learn to delegate key employees to take over your responsibilities on the job site when you are not there.
5. Most likely you will have to cut back on some staff. Keep the best who are willing to take on some of your responsibilities. Let the rest go. This will be the hardest thing.

There is something to be said for being the most expensive company. Many customers will often take the highest bid because they think that they will get the best job done. If you are referred by another customer then often those customers will not even get other bids

The amount of work your company is doing will drop. But the increased profit you make will compensate for doing fewer jobs. Because there is less work then you can assume more of a supervisors role. Just check in on the jobs each day and make sure that things are going to plans.

Schedule your work so that you are home each day by 5pm so that you can enjoy some quality time with the wife and kids.