See a lot of home run threads and getting started/new idea threads, but I’m wondering how many entrepreneurs have “sort of” made it here?

I’ve been building a small business marketing agency for around a decade. We’ll prob do around 600k this year but no real profit (long story, working on it). I get paid 6-7k as a salary kind of like a normal job I guess.

Started doing some additional consulting work last year to make more money while we restructure the agency business model and now make about 6-7k/mo there as well.

I’m healthy, good marriage, generally doing well. But work is a lot, battling burnout, have a few regrets, etc. Not perfect but not terrible either.

Anyone else feel like their business aspirations have led to a life that kind of plays out more like you have a normal job give or take, vs the big fail / multimillion dollar exit dichotomy that is usually presented?

  • 7thpixel@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    You hear a lot of bad things about “lifestyle business” but that’s mostly from VC’s who are only focused on scaling.

    Nothing wrong with a lifestyle business imo

  • nickr2414@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I’m 36 and have a few businesses now, the most lucrative being a property management company. We hit over 500k this past year in total profits through the businesses but I won’t consider myself “successful” until I have the kids retired and I probably won’t stop even then. Lol good luck my friend.

  • HumbleBurritoo@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Running a side social media management business on my own. Pretty much no overhead costs except my website and canva… I’ll do monthly add ons for special projects like SEO and website designs… but yearly my overhead is like… $300? I’m making about $1200/month consistently and have had a few months of $2700+/month. I’m also working full time while doing this - so overall I’m happy with this on such a small scale but hoping to scale up slowly.

  • Saffa1986@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Have an alright business. I’m earning about 60% what I did working for someone else, but putting back into the business. Just me. Hired someone. That didn’t work.

    I’m now contemplating rejoining the work force for someone else; if I do that and cash out, it’ll be basically be bringing me back up to the same salary I would have earned the last couple years.

    Barriers are getting bigger, competition fiercer and confidence lower… so it’s been fun running my own shop, but time to step back for a bit I think.

  • smatty_123@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Same here. Had a huge up cycle for a couple years, then things slowed down. I’m married, two kids, we’re comfortable but not blowing up like I thought I would by this point. When you look around the data shows most people are like this. Just try to stay focused and you’ll have ups and downs, hopefully the ups continue getting bigger and the lows don’t get as low after a while.

  • Mobile_Prune_3207@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I’m like, hanging in there.

    Started the business in 2020, was given an existing client base. Many, many people left us, we’ve not gained more clients that have left, but we’re hanging in there. We have just under 200 monthly clients and our turnover is about 2m a year. But we still don’t make a lot of profit because people are wanting to pay less and less and less for more.

  • CodaDev@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    My first business, I was doing $1.2m/yr but only taking home about $40-60k/yr. This was like 2017 and I’ve just about 20x’d the numbers (besides the income part).

    Call me a weirdo, but I think good employees are worth their weight in gold. Simply put, why would I take $1m and pay a key employee $100k when while expecting them to do all the work while I’m off in Tahiti somewhere. So I pay myself based on what I do and assign “partners” to individual departments who I’ll then work with to manage key employees, who then manage the boots on the ground folks. It’s not the “take the most home” business model, but it’s done very well for me and my business - including reputation.

    I also only hire through word of mouth referrals. It will likely remain this way until I sell or decide to maybe franchise (probably won’t happen but w/e idk wtf I’m doing).

    • ali-hussain@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      I know I’ll get my money’s worth when I sell.

      I’m not sure what you mean by this. If you mean that your business is scaled and works independently of you then that does mean you are more sellable. If you’re saying that you’re paying significantly more than the market to individuals that are necessary for delivering your business without getting business value out of them then you might have shot your gross margins and those are looked at very closely while selling. Of course if you had Google like gross margins to begin with it wouldn’t matter.

      There is a moral and a business argument and I’m not saying the moral is not valid but rather that you need to be honest with yourself on what is moral and what is business.

      We always paid employees well and the goal was that money is not something on which we’ll lose talent. We had a 4.8 on Glassdoor and a platinum rank on Officevibe. But we didn’t put someone in such a position that they thought their job was irreplaceable and they stopped taking risks and created a lot of growth opportunities for them, with many of them completely changing career trajectories.

      /

    • trybananodotcom@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Are you hiring?!? Lol. On a serious note, I really like your style. Finding a good manger is difficult as well. In my 9-5 job I have a great manager. I’ve had offered for more money but have stayed where I’m at because of who I report to.

    • jamesishere@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Culture comes from the top. I give my employees amazing work life balance - fully remote, take the time off you need, no one is tracking you. Output is everything. I also work harder than everyone - the other executives and myself work 60 to 80 hour weeks, always. I don’t make my employees do this. But if you want your employees to care then you have to care. You can’t ask someone to work extra during crunch time if you aren’t also working. Hypocrisy is the easiest sin to spot and you must lead by example.

      • Rational_Philosophy@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        the other executives and myself work 60 to 80 hour weeks,

        I always wonder how people do this and still have time for Reddit lmao.

  • NemoDaFish_@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Started a small bookkeeping business in 2021. Specifically, We work with local construction companies It’s just 2 of us and we turn about 240k a year.

    Profit however…… maybe I keep 10-12k at the end of everything ? Currently paying myself a 55k salary so I guess I can see the end as a “bonus” at the end of the year.

    Working on getting my EA so we can start completing tax returns. I’m hoping that’ll push us to the next level

  • AngryAlterEgo@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Seems to be a question of margins. My consulting business brings in about $250k-$300k a year and growing, but I have no employees and very little overhead. I’m very comfortable with this outcome. Living in a LCOL area, I’m doing just fine.

  • Psychological_Mall12@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Wild. We might be the same person. I too own an agency. Our revenues are about the same. I take home about the same.

    It’s a frustrating place to be.

    You have a lot of freedom. Control of schedule and the ability to lead is great. But it’s also consuming.

    That said, personally, I have been thinking about this a lot and working to figure out, how do I get from $600k~ revenue per year to that next figure? Maybe $1.5 M per year.

    I mean the burnout is real. Don’t get me wrong. But I personally feel like I have to keep a plan in place to make that next landmark or else I really would be saying; “hey, I could probably make more money working for someone else in corporate”

  • TriStarRaider@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I’m covering bills with my main business, enjoying a bit of lifestyle with the side hustle. In the process of scaling main biz to get to upper/upper middle class in next year or so. I’m content, but work many hours of enjoyable work. Not exactly fuck you money, but I don’t get into really anything I don’t want to. No one telling me what to do is really nice.

  • yourefunny@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I work for a small family business. We have an office and factory in the UK and an office in Hong Kong. We used to have a factory in China. No longer. Our products are of yesteryear and we have had some very unfortunate issues over the last 4 years, so are just now getting back in to profit. We have a very small market share due to some of those issues, so room to grow. I would say I live an ok middle class life. Have been forced to cut back on holidays and expenditure in order to save for a house that we have just bought. I would like to think that in a few years we will be back up to the £2m+ that we had about 10 years ago before I was in the company.

  • Nuocho@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I sold my part of the software consulting company I founded with my friends for 2m€ this year. After taxes it will generate just enough passive income to retire if I want to which was my original goal as an entrepreneur.

    Really happy about it. I am still working at the company full time and don’t really know what I want to do next but time will probably tell.