Did you buy your business? Or, start it on your own?

I’m probably not the best candidate to answer this, but I have had two home businesses that I ran. One was a Financial Brokerage and I really did not have a passion for that. But the money was good. Long story short, I went through a break down etc., and now I have just started a Massage business. Totally different and yes , a passion. The money is no where near what I need. But I do have steps to further educate myself in the area of different types of massage and “get my paper”, so to speak. For me the massage is therapeutic, is more authentic to who I am, I meet interesting people. It is something I “give” to people which I enjoy. I know a number of people who are currently following their passion and no they are not making huge bucks.

They are supplementing it with other jobs in between. So I am not very convinced that following your passion is the right thing to do if you want to get wealthy. But on the other hand a good sound business plan, a dash of determination, and a solid start up base, with time it should grow into a cash cow.

Yes I also like the hours I work since if I am having an off day its OK. Well not financially OK but not the end of the world.

Inherited it from my parents and my ex still works in it. (We are co-owners now of half the business.) My job is elsewhere though.

Started it on my own.

I started my own. I just love to invent stuff. Never even gave a thought to buying an existing business.

I started two business with my ex-husband. One we sold our share. The other we ran for a number of years and then closed.

My husband now started his own business and still operates it. A key focus for him at the moment is setting the business up for him to more easily sell in the future. He isn’t sure if he will want to or when he might want to but its value is enhanced the more saleable it is.

I’ve had a couple of small business experiences, and each was something I started rather than bought. Only the two most recent experiences (which are not so much a business as they are just being self-employed) involve(d) any passion. I like to love what I’m doing…it makes it much less like work!

We started it on our own. The market was right and we decided we’d pull the trigger, jump in and work our asses off and see if we could make a little money. We did/do (work our asses off) and it now, God willing, seems to be moving into a second business that I like better than the first.

My husband and I started a business, but considered buying a business to have ready-made clients. We found a suitable business, but were not able to get the broker to contact us with details (and the business name was not listed). Even if the broker would have contacted us, we would have had to work out a deal with the current owner in order to swing it. It was a lot of cash up-front, but if the numbers were as advertised, it would have been more profitable to buy rather than start our own company.