Dead Cat said a number of things very well, that I had refrained from including in my post.
Any place with high priced housing and a substantial number of low paying jobs (like most retail) is going to have lots of people looking for roommates. These people also can’t afford $1400/month apartments.
Who can you go to for help if the tutoring business doesn’t make as much as you expected? I mean, exactly who you’re counting on is none of my business of course. But tutoring, though relatively simple to do as supplementary income, is hard to handle as your primary source of money - coming down to the fact that regardless of how you set it up, any client can just leave at any time, and it’s obvious to them that that’s the case. Regardless of your place in their hearts and minds, your place in your clients’ budgets is way down near the bottom somewhere.
Actually, the tutoring is the dependable part. I’ve been doing it full-time, as my main source of income, for about a decade. Earnings are pretty good, if you’re toward the top, which I am. I have a small network of other full-time tutors who also do well.
If I didn’t have expenses from the second business, I’d take the nice apartment in a heartbeat. There wouldn’t even be a question about weathering slow months, etc. Even if I lost several students (which I do, as often as possible; I love seeing people meet their goals early!), I’d still be OK to cover my office rent and expenses, pay back the taxes, and have my own apartment.\
The issue is that the second business isn’t working out as planned, and our estimates of expenses and startup time were both way off. It didn’t help that we hired a web designer who misled us pretty horribly about what she could do for us and when she could get it done. We’re out a lot of money and time from that. I suspect we’d be in much better shape, had we chosen someone else or done more of the work early on ourselves
My estimates say that I can afford the apartment. But my experience with how bad my estimates can be make me hesitant to spend any more money than is absolutely necessary.
So, in case anyone is still interested - I’m moving out at the end of the month, but I’m not taking the apartment. That gives me a month to find somewhere affordable but not terrible to go.
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The business stuff to me seems odd, but not uncommon. I say this as someone who was primarily self-employed for 13 of the past 14 years and still operates a small business with an equal partner. I say the issues are common because I think most people do it your way to some extent, but I do things differently. If I choose to spend money in my personal life to have a habitat and basic hygiene, that does not in any way affect the survival of my business or well-being of my partner. We draw salaries based on what the business can reasonably support and don’t do huge month to month fluctuations. A big month means maybe looking at an end of year bonus or a sustainable raise if it isn’t completely reinvested into the business. I took another job last year because I saw that the business was not going to pay me enough to live at the comfort level I needed and my partner was unable or unwilling to take on the tasks required if he expected me to continue to invest my time and do most of the revenue generating. My point is, I think you should have a set monthly budget with an income that supports that, based on what the business is and not what it might be. If you choose to go into debt for your personal expenses, you should do that on your own and not involve the business.
Do that if you have to. You won’t be the first or last person who does this.
Congrats on getting out, & contact the appropriate town or county authority, no heat or water isn’t legal…anywhere. It may not help you but it might help the next guy.
Does Creepy Carl happen to own the house next door as well, and rent it? If so, and if this is him, see if you can move in with those guys. Master Shake is a rather unpleasant fellow, but Frylock usually keeps him in line, and Meatwad is just as friendly as can be.
Don’t lend any of them money, though.
Living in an office is a thing now, apparently.
Or you could give up the second business and just use that space to live in.
Looks like part of what you are dealing with is the unpredictability of your income, as well as unpredictability of the costs of the new business. Given that you were considering continuing sucking up living in conditions unacceptable to most, just to save money - would it make sense to instead suck it up with an extra job? Because 3 or 4 months of that could give you enough of a emergency fund to where the unpredictability has less of an impact.
I don’t know what the setup of the new business is, but there are some flags. You say it’s worthwile because of p/l and cashflow analysis, but at the same time you doubt your own forecasting ability. You use “our” when talking about the business, but seem to be the only source of money when the unexpected happens. And the web design situation means some bad decisions have been made. Maybe it’s time to look for someone with business experience as a minority partner? Depending on how you set it up, it could mean another source of “emergency business funds” as well.
I’m working all the time as it is. There are only 24 hours in a day; I can’t take on another job, unless I ditch the one I have.
I have a business partner whose background is in a combination of business and education. We did the forecasting together, so I’m not alone in getting it wrong.
Part of the problem is that we’re doing something new, so we didn’t know how much we didn’t know. (In Rumsfeld’s terms, we had some unknown unknowns.) But even with that, the basic concept is solid. We know there’s demand for what we do, the pricing is good, and there’s an economy of scale that will help a lot, once we’re up and running. And, yes, even if our expenses ended up being far more than we’d thought, and even if it took us even longer to get off the ground, we’d still be in the position to do really well. It’s getting to the point where we’re doing well that’s the issue.
In answer to some of you who asked “why wouldn’t a bank fund your business?”–a bank would definitely lend us money. We got approval for credit quickly, should we need it. But we’d both like to avoid outside financing, if at all humanly possible.
Something that occurred to me yesterday–maybe we’re going about things backwards. Our single biggest expense is rent for lots of space that isn’t being used, because we’re having some trouble getting going. We’ve been making half-hearted efforts at subleasing the space for times when we know we won’t be using it. Now I think that maybe we should focus mainly on making a profit by renting out the space to multiple short-term occupants. (That’s permitted in the lease.) Doing so would give us time to build up the venture we’d originally had in mind.
I might lose my lease if I lived in the office. I could probably get away with it for December and part of January, while a lot of people are away for the holidays, anyway. Luckily for me, people know I’m in the office at strange hours all the time, so I’d have some cover.
But it would still be kind of risky for me. And I’m not the kind of person who could hide something as basic as where I’m living. Sooner or later, someone would figure it out. Once that happens, the landlord is going to know. (It’s a small world we live in–lots of interconnections among the people we see every day.)
Construction started on the sewer line this morning. My God, that’s loud. The noise and shaking alone would be reason to leave. I’m so glad I’m out of here at the end of the month.
I’d live in a van down by the river, next to a 24/7 health club for showers (preferably next to a Laundromat) before I’d stay there one more second. I’m not even joking. Good God.
Not to keep hammering on you, but this is the most sensible thing you’ve said so far. Do the second paragraph, and don’t hesitate to borrow from the bank of you need to. Very, very few businesses get going with no outside investment or borrowing. Spend the money you earn from tutoring on reasonable living conditions, then if you need more capital for the business, that’s what the bank is for. Again, I wish you all the luck, and I can’t wait for an update in a few months on how it’s all taken off 
.
If you do decide to rent an apartment, find one that will allow you to sublet and to airb&b. That way you can fund your travelling.