Hello everyone,
I've rewrote this intro post a few times so I think it's best I get straight to the point.
Im 25 years old and I've been stuck in the slow lane with side hustle businesses for a while now. I've flipped shoes, clothes, toys, tickets, etc. anything I could find at a profitable price. Since I was a child, my father has beat (not literally, well...when I deserved it) the idea of entrepreneurship into my head. He is a self made General Contractor with zero formal education who has been in business for 30+ years. Now I feel like I am at a crossroads in my life, a quarter life crisis if you will.
I've worked a couple different jobs and learned that they are not going to get me to where I've always pictured myself. I've grown into a position where I now have the confidence necessary to start a business and a big take away from the book that has really stuck with me is the idea of safety. The absurdity of the idea that the "safe" route is working a job for 50 years to hopefully save enough to keep you off the streets until you die has been revealed to me.
Now to my dilemma, my father and I have had always had a somewhat contentious relationship. When I quit working for him at 19 we didn't speak for 2 years. However, I've matured a lot since then and we now our relationship is stronger than ever. As we've grown closer and spent more time together talking business over dinners and phone calls he's expressed that he wants me to join the company again, with the caveat of "you don't work for me, you work for yourself". Other than an accountant and lawyers he is the only person in the office, not even a secretary. The company does 1-2 million in revenue per year with ZERO marketing other than word of mouth and a sometimes a yard sign in front of a finished project. I'm confident I could bring a whole new market of customers in to the company by setting up a webpage/social media presence, creating recognizable branding for the company vehicles so that we are easily recognized, etc. but also setting systems in place that streamline the overall process in order to handle the increased workload at scale. The company is very well respected and known as one of the top competitors within its high end niche market and with proper branding could scale quickly. My father says that he is on board with all this but in reality he is extremely stubborn and finds it very difficult to relinquish any control to me even over things as simple as the website even though he has no technical knowledge. (Edit:Just to be clear, he is not paying me a wage for this, I'm working to grow the company and generate revenue not become a wage slave to the family business and wait around for it to be handed to me.)
The more I type this out I feel like I'm answering my own question but I want to hear thoughts from an outsiders perspective. Should I try to turn my family business with a lot of potential into my money system for fastlane success despite the contentious nature of my father? Would I be a fool not to take what might seem to someone from a different background like a golden opportunity? Or do you see this as a way to try to skip process? Ive got a lot of thoughts but I'd like to hear what you guys think in the comments.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
I've rewrote this intro post a few times so I think it's best I get straight to the point.
Im 25 years old and I've been stuck in the slow lane with side hustle businesses for a while now. I've flipped shoes, clothes, toys, tickets, etc. anything I could find at a profitable price. Since I was a child, my father has beat (not literally, well...when I deserved it) the idea of entrepreneurship into my head. He is a self made General Contractor with zero formal education who has been in business for 30+ years. Now I feel like I am at a crossroads in my life, a quarter life crisis if you will.
I've worked a couple different jobs and learned that they are not going to get me to where I've always pictured myself. I've grown into a position where I now have the confidence necessary to start a business and a big take away from the book that has really stuck with me is the idea of safety. The absurdity of the idea that the "safe" route is working a job for 50 years to hopefully save enough to keep you off the streets until you die has been revealed to me.
Now to my dilemma, my father and I have had always had a somewhat contentious relationship. When I quit working for him at 19 we didn't speak for 2 years. However, I've matured a lot since then and we now our relationship is stronger than ever. As we've grown closer and spent more time together talking business over dinners and phone calls he's expressed that he wants me to join the company again, with the caveat of "you don't work for me, you work for yourself". Other than an accountant and lawyers he is the only person in the office, not even a secretary. The company does 1-2 million in revenue per year with ZERO marketing other than word of mouth and a sometimes a yard sign in front of a finished project. I'm confident I could bring a whole new market of customers in to the company by setting up a webpage/social media presence, creating recognizable branding for the company vehicles so that we are easily recognized, etc. but also setting systems in place that streamline the overall process in order to handle the increased workload at scale. The company is very well respected and known as one of the top competitors within its high end niche market and with proper branding could scale quickly. My father says that he is on board with all this but in reality he is extremely stubborn and finds it very difficult to relinquish any control to me even over things as simple as the website even though he has no technical knowledge. (Edit:Just to be clear, he is not paying me a wage for this, I'm working to grow the company and generate revenue not become a wage slave to the family business and wait around for it to be handed to me.)
The more I type this out I feel like I'm answering my own question but I want to hear thoughts from an outsiders perspective. Should I try to turn my family business with a lot of potential into my money system for fastlane success despite the contentious nature of my father? Would I be a fool not to take what might seem to someone from a different background like a golden opportunity? Or do you see this as a way to try to skip process? Ive got a lot of thoughts but I'd like to hear what you guys think in the comments.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
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