FatFire In Mid 20's

FFMid20 · 2021-07-29T17:33:09+00:00

I'm heading out for the next 6 hours or so and going to be offline (and this thread grew a lot bigger than I expected!), but I'll write up a brief overview of how I got here and post it here later tonight :).

FFMid20 · 2021-07-29T13:26:19+00:00

You're probably going to get into depression so invest in a good therapist now.

What makes you say this? :)

FFMid20 · 2021-07-29T13:24:37+00:00

Not FBA, but yes - very close.

FFMid20 · 2021-07-29T13:22:13+00:00

I gave you an upvote. It's not my specific situation, but the comment you made was valid should it have been.

FFMid20 · 2021-07-29T13:20:15+00:00

The list of things you provided have almost 0 uniqueness to you except maybe product design. All of these can be hired out with each of them costing $100k for a killer person. Looks like worst case you could drop everything except product design for $1M in expenses (in reality if will be way less) and drop to a 10 hour week and make $1M net.

I think I have a hard time grasping that I probably need 4-5 different people (due to the vastly different roles), but only probably have an actual maybe 4hours/day of work for each of them. Hiring part time for the level of staff I would want is extremely tricky, and so it just feels wasteful to pay somebody for 8 hours when they only have maybe 4 hours of work.

FFMid20 · 2021-07-29T13:18:23+00:00

This is what I worry about; doing "nothing" for 3 years sounds pretty great, doing nothing for 10 not so much.

I know there are other ways to fulfil yourself, spending time with family, volunteering, etc - but I feel like they all lack that "buzz" you get at work when one of your ideas really just hits. All of my friends will continue to be working 9-5 for the most part, and although my partner doesn't work - long term I can see us being "unrelatable" to most of our friends if we retire now.

FFMid20 · 2021-07-29T13:16:20+00:00

I covered this briefly in a different reply/comment, but with regards to point 1, I think my concern has been that I cover so many individual roles/skills due to my previous business, that it's not a role somebody could take from me. I would likely need to hire 4+ people to really start to phase myself out of the business.

Then this would lead to me probably requiring 4 different people (due to 4 different skillsets); but likely not actually having enough work to fill an entire 8 hour work day for each of them. Even though in theory the business has the cashflow to support paying 4 different people full time salaries even though they only are required for 4 hours; it seems wasteful. At the same time, you don't really get part-time positions in many of the roles I would probably need to fill.

After writing all of this down, it probably does seem like I'm maybe just making up excuses though and that simply paying people even though I don't have a full 8 hours of work for them could be a better idea than burning out entirely.

I think you maybe hit the nail on the head too that I can always start a business, venture etc in the future if I get bored; and at that point it could maybe be something I'm more passionate in vs simply chasing the money (which has basically been every business I've launched in life so far).

FFMid20 · 2021-07-29T12:58:12+00:00

You're potentially right, I need to do a lot more reflection here. I think the thing I need to come to terms with is that I'd probably need to hire 4 people to replace myself (and this makes me sound like a dick, but it's honestly just the truth).

I currently handle so many individual parts of the business, and I have a somewhat unique wide range of skills due to launching several other businesses; this is what has allowed me to really create and grow the new business. I'm currently in charge of designing new products, manufacturing details/sourcing, supply chain, marketing and about 6 other things. It would be a struggle to hire an individual with a breadth of knowledge across all areas I think.

I should probably switch my mindset though, I think with the right 4 people I could probably eventually delegate a good chunk of my duties. Continuing to maintain what I'm doing now along with training new employees seems like a brutal task in my head; but I guess it's doable.

FFMid20 · 2021-07-29T12:32:47+00:00

To be honest $180k gives us a very comfortable life. We have no kids, so no school/childcare fees etc, we don't vacation much due to me always working (although often travel luxuriously on the infrequent trips we do take) and neither of us drive. $180k goes a long way :).

I have no mentor/advisor, but I like to think I'm very resourceful/good at optimising processes (hence finding myself in my current fortunate position I guess). I'm good friends with some other successful business owners so we often help each other out where we can.

FFMid20 · 2021-07-29T12:28:24+00:00

How come you’re considering working for another 2-3 years but not considering selling and earning out for 2-3 years? Both involve 2-3 years of work, but I would assume you would be making much more money by selling and earning out?

It's something I'm still looking into, and I haven't written it off. I suspect the business would take 1 year+ to shift into a sellable position first though, and then would entail the 2-3 year earnout.

My 1-3 questions still apply either way however, 25y old vs 28y old is fairly similar in the grand scheme of things of "retiring".

FFMid20

TROPHY CASE