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Poll: Are you looking for an exit, or building a lifestyle business?

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51–56 of 56 posts

Re: Poll: Are you looking for an exit, or building a lifestyle business?

#51
I'd say both, I bought a business 3 months ago, it was making £18k a year, i've got it running at about £40k a year now through basic cost cutting and automation using technology. I plan to bring it up to £60k a year without growth and then grow it to £150k in the next 2-3 years, after which i'll likely sell it for ideally £300k and move onto the next thing.

I'm not here to swing for the fences, i've not taken any investment, i'm not going to run anything unprofitably. I'm here to make a real impact on businesses using my skillset and have fun and make money doing it.

Its really hard work but I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

Re: Poll: Are you looking for an exit, or building a lifestyle business?

#52
I'm 30 and have had 7 jobs since leaving school, including two pretty negative startup experiences. I've learned to think beyond a single job, and that would apply to a business, too. You don't really get to control these external variables. Your investors might pull funding, fucking up your reputation, for any reason or no reason at all. Shit changes. Businesses implode, firms contract. I had the CEO of a well-regarded (though less so, these days) VC-darling startup spend months trying to destroy my reputation. I survived it because, by that time, I was already really good at what I do.

You just have to do the right thing with the cards you're deal, and play strategically for long-term excellence rather than getting seduced by quick hits (and that's hard to do, because most people are after the latter).

My goal is to keep getting better. I can control the rate at which I learn new skills and become better at the work. If the best move is that I start a business and the opportunity is there, that's what I'll do. On the other hand, if the best thing for my career is to join a 5000-person company where I have to wear a suit every day, I'll do that.

People talk about 501 programmers (those who leave, on the dot, at 5:01 pm). I call myself a "121 programmer", as in 1% per 21 days. Every 21 days, I expect to increase the total value (a somewhat abstract concept) of my entire skillset by at least 1% (19% annually). Obviously, this abstract quantity can't be measured on the order of weeks, but if I pass too many 21-day checkpoints without being able to justify to myself that I'm 1% better than I was 3 weeks ago, I start to get nervous.

Re: Poll: Are you looking for an exit, or building a lifestyle business?

#53

This question is so naive and it's loved by the lazy because it lets them indulge the fantasy of either telling their boss to get stuffed and getting paid for doing very little (lifestyle biz), or getting paid millions and never have to work again (exit). I really dislike this question and I tend to distance myself from entrepreneurs having these kinds of conversations. Even if you want to exit early or have lifestyl…

Most of us spend our time writing code once in order to automate tasks forever, the whole point of which is to increase "laziness". As many have said, laziness for the programmer is a virtue.

As far as lifestyle businesses, the term is itself a strawman that antagonists to the concept use, then you just knock down the strawman. I can't think of a good term for this type of business - I could say bootstrapped, but bootstrapped might just mean taking no angel money, but hoping for VC at some point.

While exit implies a buyout, it could also mean an IPO. I'm not sure what kind of business you are thinking of when you do not like any of the kinds that have been mentioned.

I do not have my sights set on an angel to series A to series B to IPO treadmill. Although market circumstances can change so who ever knows? If building a "lifestyle" business with the goal of doing higher level interesting work instead of drudge CRUD work, and having time for exercise, friends, family and leisure after working 40 hours is lazy, then call me lazy.

Re: Poll: Are you looking for an exit, or building a lifestyle business?

#54
Back in 1998 I was making $70k and had everything I needed. I was bumped to $80k in 1999 and now had more than I could spend. The extra $10k did not alter my spending habits any, other than I did not have to space out buying big ticket items (say a new laptop or other expensive purchases) as much. Of course I was saving as well.

Of course people have children, need retirement money etc. and money needs can increase. But as some studies have shown, once you hit an income that puts you in the top 10% or so of income earners, there is diminishing utility to each extra dollar you get. At some point a well paying job you enjoy is worth more then one you do not enjoy paying double.

A lifestyle business is the business you want to create. You usually don't have to deal with investors or all that that entails including the type of business it will be and its goals.

And as someone else here said, it often winds up the case that the lifestyle business is the one that gets the big exit offers, as opposed to the ones designed from the get-go as a vehicle for getting investments and an exit.

Re: Poll: Are you looking for an exit, or building a lifestyle business?

#55

I hate that term "lifestyle business". It sounds like I'm running a website selling yarn in order to fund a knitting hobby.

How is that any different than running a website selling a program in order to fund your programming hobby?

It's not. Neither has a minimal goal of "making a living".

Re: Poll: Are you looking for an exit, or building a lifestyle business?

#56

My wife and I are in for the lifestyle/long term. 3 years back, we'd decided to move out of the city into a more rural area to start building a farm business. We've built up a herd of about 50-60 dairy goats in that time, as well as produced some of best pasture raised chicken, ducks and eggs you'll find. We've just finished all our approvals and licensing to start building and operating a cheese making facility on t…

Sprocket - I don't see any contact info in your profile, but would like to talk to you about your business, as it is very much in line with my long-term goals as well. Would like to compare notes a bit. If you are interested, contact me at jeff -at- mercenarytech -dot- com
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