I have had a full time job since 1984, first an engineering firm for 10 years, then a small city and since 2000 the State of California.
Over the years I worked various side jobs in order to supplement my income, I worked on the side for various private surveyors, delivered the Sacramento Bee (that is a miserable job), flew as a flight instructor and ran a side business for several years after I was licensed. All of the side work dried up during the melt down in 2008 and I find that I just don't miss it, the work and especially the business aspect of it.
I guess every practicing professional dreams of having their own thing, I have but now that I've done it I find it just isn't for me. I'm not a people person. I appreciate all the stuff my boss just does (he listens to my input) that I don't have to do. My work partner usually does the talking (I'm the chief, the supervisor) and I tune out the world and run the equipment. He always has to remind people that I'm really the chief. It works for us. We are both licensed so it's more like a collaboration, sometimes these weird jobs they send us to requires it. It's a different world driving to the origin mapping job through smoke and fire burning on the side of the road.
I have a lot of autonomy at work which I guess takes away much of the desire to be my own boss. I wasn't really my own boss anyway always having to please some client or other.
I appreciate your comments Ralph.
What I meant by "sleeping good at night" is that I enjoy the tired feeling you get from a hard day of work. If I go on my own I'm certain I'll have my share of sleepless nights.
I don't have answers to all of the questions you posted and I'm certainly going to ponder the ones I haven't thought of. I'm not planning on quiting my job and going on my own cold turkey so to speak. My first step is to get a job that won't conflict and then maybe go part time on that and survey more. I'm just at the point in my career where I feel as if I will be an instrument man for the remainder of my life and I want more.
There aren't alot of opportunities beyond that for me, at my location. I work for one of the larger local firms and the guy running the other firm is younger than me. Other than that, guys are on their own. I could wait for DEC or County jobs to open up but there are only a few. If I'm going to work in the field for the rest of my career (which I don't mind), I'd like to have a little more say in what I do and have the opportunity to benefit from my labor. I come from a rural area and I could be happy doing backwoods boundaries and little else.
Thanks again to all who responded.
Ralph,
Are you happy doing things on your own or would you rather go back to work for someone else?
I'm sure that answer changes here and there but generally speaking what would you say?
Even with all of the stress that comes with owning your own business, would you say it's still worth it?
Thanks again for the comments.
Gregg
Dave,
I can understand that. I guess I just want to see for myself if thats the direction I really want to go.
Good comment.
Gregg
> The one thing I might caution that I've discovered more or less the hard way is that the things that may make you a good surveyor, often work against you as a business man. The folks that seem to be the most successful seem to manage both worlds effectively, those that don't ....
Willi,
I've heard that alot over the course of my career.
Gregg
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....
> Ralph,
>
> Are you happy doing things on your own or would you rather go back to work for someone else?
>
> I'm sure that answer changes here and there but generally speaking what would you say?
>
> Even with all of the stress that comes with owning your own business, would you say it's still worth it?
>
> Thanks again for the comments.
>
> Gregg
Hi Gregg,
It is absolutely worth it, I'm not trying to scare you away. I'm simply giving you a realistic point of view from my experience. I have everything I ever owned invested into my business. What I do is very technology intensive, so the initial capital investment in equipment and training was huge. But there is bad debt and there is good debt, and investing in growth through leverage was my model. This was only because I wanted to do it right and better from the very start. I got tired of dealing with politics and procedures. I pay my employees very well and I recruit the best I can find, that means since I'm the last to draw a check I may go with out one.
If your model is boundary specific it probably doesn't require the outlay that my company did. And in that case I would recommend you go for it, what's the worst that can happen? It fails and you can go back to work for the man:-)
Feel free to peruse our company facebook page you'll find some cool pictures there:
If there is anything I can do to help, feel free to reach out to me via email
Cheers
Ralph
Thanks Ralph. I looked at your fb page and your website. It's pretty impressive. I can only imagine what your startup costs must have been!
