This. You can get many clients and still get kicked out of your apartment/house. Clients do not pay on time. Some never pay.
Aye.
I had my kitchen redone by a friend’s company. When the invoice arrived, I paid half of it and told him I’d pay the rest the following month (it was quarterlies time, and the taxman is a lot less forgiving when it comes to “pay you the rest later”).
His answer:
“No worries, I know you so I know you’ll pay, and the big construction firms pay after 120 days… waiting 30 for half of it? I wish all my customers paid like that!”
I did the exact same sort of thing you are planning on doing, with about the same amount of foresight and startup capitol. I was able to barley eek out a living and the fact that I had very money severely hindered any ability to grow the business, even though I had a pretty good word of mouth reputation and good internet reviews. I had different reasons for starting my business though; I had very few job prospects and did not want to wash dishes the rest of my life. If there had been any sort of half decent job available to I would have taken it.
It was a lot of work, and my perspective on small business ownership changed. at the outset, I thought that hard work, honesty, sweat equity would pay off and I could overcome the lack of initial startup capitol, kind of like the little engine that could. After a little while I started to see that sound financials are the be all and end all and that making good decisions, understanding the market, understanding people and proper timing are the most important things in having a solid business. After 3 years I ended up closing the business after taking one too many gambles that didn’t pay off. The one thing I still can not believe is the sheer number of people that would say that they wanted to open their own business or had plans to do so. It was so common for people to say “you get to be your own boss,” its more like you have a thousand bosses and a disturbingly large number of them are petty tyrants who will fire you at the drop of a hat.
In the end, I was kind of in the same position as I started out - pretty broke but not bankrupt. For me it was good because having business ownership on my resume allowed me to get out of the low wage dead end job rut - I get called in for interviews much more frequently.
So the moral of this little story is if your job prospects consist of nothing other than menial low wage jobs, then, hey - go for it (actually, if your future consists of nothing but menial low wage work, might as well go for anything pretty much). Otherwise wait until you have lots of cash.
Oh god yes this.
Entire post was very good tho. Good advice.
Agreed!
Also, people seem to think you set your own working hours. Um, no. Your clients/customers determine your working hours!
Yep, it’s like leaving home and discovering all the day-to-day hassle and expense of running a household is now your problem, only worse. And the funny thing is, everyone’s so blithe about it when they’ve seen it. Every friend I’ve watched start their own business worked their butt off for less than they used to make for years until things got going or it went under - hardly paradise.
Unless this particular payment schedule was discussed when you signed the contract, you did a sleazy thing.
Think of the reverse.
I know we are halfway through your kitchen remodel, but I have another job, and I’ll finish yours next month.
Oh that’s great, because I know some remodelers would abandon me for months!
He did his job, you should have paid him upon completion, or you should have waited to start until you had all the money.
The schedule included them coming in September. I paid the advance in July.
They came in December because, you see, bigger jobs for those people who pay after 120…
You were saying?
But you still didn’t pay him on time, and you should have. Period. You should run your finances better to hold up your end of the contract. Taxes are a foreseeable expense.
I’m sure he had to pay his taxes, too.
Take the shower payment discussion to another thread, please. Thanks! 
Not knowing anything about the OP, there are a lot of people who start a business essentially because they want to do the same job that they’re currently doing, but “be their own boss.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t work this way: the skill sets and tasks you need to do to run your business are vastly different than the skill sets needed to perform your current function.
Any, as others mention, you’re the one responsible. You don’t get to go home at 5 and forget about work for the next 15 hours. You are the one that has to meet payroll. You are the one that needs to set up policies, procedures, forms, marketing materials, advertising campaigns, articles of incorporation, health insurance and employee benefits, as well as find customers, make sure the accounting isn’t a mess, hell, you might be the one that has to come in every Sunday to empty trash cans and sweep the floor.
And then you’re the one responsible for making it all work, and when it doesn’t, you’re the one responsible for staying late on Friday figuring out why it didn’t work while the employee who benefits - why, that person gets to go home and forget about your company for the next 2.5 days, assuming that you’re going have the solution ready for them come Monday morning…
It’s just a* bit *different from merely thinking “God! I could <insert corporate task here> more rationally than these idiots!”
JohnT: I had the impression that the OP was planning a one person business–so it wouldn’t be quite that complicated.
He wants to do the same thing as a business that currently hires employees. Possibly it isn’t as simple as the OP thinks…?
A few years ago before my 40th birthday I thought now or never. If it crashed and burned I could still get a job and be where I was now.
My best friend was an owner operator of his grandfathers shop doing just Ok for himself. One day I told him I want to quit my full bennies salried job and throw in with him. His eyes goggled and was taken aback.
I did it. My income cratered but my quality of life skyrocketed. I love what I do but make a fraction of what I did. There is light on the horizon and I envision a shop where I will have minions of my very own. Bwahahahaha. We’re not there yet but getting there.
The last few years were rough, money has been tight. Do I really need cable for example? The tradeoff is that I don’t drag myself out the door in the morning with a knot in my stomach.
The admin part of it all like taxes and bookkeeping is tolerable and takes more effort and time than I expected but it’s not crushing.
The one part I can’t stress enough and I’ll say again and stress enough is your work ethic. Is it the ability to do work? I struggle a lot while having having coffee in the mornings and reading my emails and looking at funny videos or looking here at the Dope for example and it’s 10 or 11 o’clock in the morning and I didn’t do any “money” work.
The first few months are gangbusters and go go go and then do you have the ass to keep motivated? Dig deep and answer that question.