I have two major goals in 2016:

  • Turn my backyard into a food production machine.

I’m well on my way to accomplishing this goal. I’ve got raised garden beds, a keyhole garden bed, rain harvesting swales, beehives, started strawberries and blackberries. The garlic will be ready to harvest soon. I’ve got the rest of the seeds ready to go as soon as we’re past the frost window. Plus, I’ve learned to make homemade yogurt, mead (honey wine), ferment vegetables, make bone broth, and learning to make wine from fruit. So, I think I’m well on my way to having a functioning homestead.

  • Begin to supplement my income with a side business, with a plan to replace my primary income entirely.

I make pretty good money in the construction industry. I’m a Project Superintendent, which means I’m the guy that makes the jobsite run. It’s not quite six figures, but it’s well above the national average. According to Social Security, The national average wage index for 2014 is $46,481.52. ssa.gov. I make more than that. And I just got a end-of-project bonus that was pretty decent. So, the issue is not the amount of money I make.

I like my job, for the most part, even if I’m not “passionate” about it. Construction can be a fun industry. I like the aspect of being out on a project, and solving the problems as they arise, moving from one trade to the next to determine who needs to be where and when. The company I work for is fairly large within the State of Texas, with offices located all over the state. The particular branch I’m located in focuses primarily on big box warehouses. Which become boring to build after just a couple of them. And, I’m well beyond the point where I think that big boxes are a “good” project to be assigned to. But I’ve had numerous talks with the company executives about moving to different type of work, serving different markets. One exec even told me that if I’d hang on, his goal is one “sexy” project in five years. So, it’s not that I dislike my company, or even the work I do. On the whole, I rather enjoy it.

I guess my biggest peeve about what I do for a living is the time I put in. I leave the house at 6:30 AM, arrive at a jobsite by 7:00 AM, and work until 5:00 or 5:30 most nights. As I write this post, it’s 5:45 PM. And then I battle city traffic to get home, which takes 45 minutes to an hour. And I do this 5 and 6 days a week. And, if there’s a concrete pour to attend to, I may leave the house at 11 PM, or midnight, or 1 AM. So, I think it’s fair to say that I am away from my homestead, the place I want to be the most, 60-70 hours per week. I cannot envision doing this for the next 20 years.

Another reason to make changes to my income stream is purely financial. I’ve been a construction professional for about 20 years now. I have basically the same thing now as when I entered the industry fresh out of college. I make just enough to get by and very little to do anything extra with, including invest. Now, a fair portion of this is my fault. I know I have not been smart about our money management. I have not been the leader in our household I am supposed to be, when it comes to managing finances. Lots of the blame falls squarely on my shoulders. But, let’s face it, the game is rigged against us, the rank-and-file W2 earner. We don’t live extravagant lifestyles. I drive a paid-for 1999 Dodge pick-up truck. My wife drives a 2010 paid-for mini-van. We take our vacations to exotic places like Oklahoma and Six Flags. We’re not talking about Beemers and trips to Paris.

So, while I readily admit that I have not been the best manager I could have been with the money I’ve earned, I’ve also come to the conclusion that the system is stacked against us. Real wages haven’t risen, but inflation has risen. I think the abundance of homes where both parents work is symptomatic of this trend.

Also, I think it’s foolhardy to have all of your eggs in one basket, so to speak. All of my income rests solely on the success of this one construction company. Granted, they’ve been successful for many years. But to assume that they’re going to continue to be successful, forever, is a prime example of normalcy bias. “Things were ok yesterday, so things will be ok tomorrow, too.” I think it pays to look ahead. It’s better to have a 2nd income before you need it, rather than need it, and not have started.

To summarize: I want my time back. For the amount of time I spend away from my home, and not being able to devote time to the people, places, and things that are important to me, I’d be better off to take less compensation for a 40 hour per week job, closer to my home, and gain the time to devote to things that are important to me. I don’t love money. In fact, if I were a bachelor, I could easily get by on a tuppence. But I’m not a bachelor. I’m a happily married guy of over 20 years, with three great kids. None of them understand the ideas I’m proposing to you, the reader. My wife, as much as I love her, doesn’t understand the idea that I’m running in a hamster wheel for “The Man.” So, I’ve got to take matters into my own hands and devote some calories to creating something outside of my primary income. And therein lies the problem.

I’ve got lots of different ideas about “what” to do. Some of the idea I’ve already implemented. It’s a lot like the shotgun approach. With the amount of energy I am devoting to creating a working homestead, I don’t need a shotgun. I need a laser. Something that I can focus on, a little every day, and make progress. Right now, I’ve got so many ideas in my head rattling around, I’m paralyzed and end up not doing anything.

To that end, I think it’d be wise to evaluate each of these business ideas by a consistent set of metrics, and figure out which idea to devote the most time to. I think of a simple 0-5 numerical scale, with 0 representing the least desirable state and 5 representing the most desirable state. So, for instance, if I rate “Passion” at a 5, I am intensely passionate about that idea. If I rate “Passion” at a 0, I am totally cold to that particular idea. With that in mind, here are the categories I will include in my evaluation:

  • Passion: Passion is the zeal, or the heart with which you are interested in something. I don’t think that passion should be the end-all/be-all of every business idea. I had a friend once told me about a lamp business he had. He would buy the components for the lamps from China, assemble the lamps here in the US, in his warehouse, and the sell them. He said he made money, hand over fist. Now, he didn’t say this specifically, but I have a hard time believing that this friend was passionate about Chinese made lamp components. Nevertheless, he made beau coup money selling lamps. But I do think that passion should be a large component of what we choose to do with our lives.
  • Ease of Transition: How easy will it be for me to make a transition from full-time in construction (again 60-70 hours a week, as noted above) to full-time in a small business. In other words, I can’t just quit Plan A to start a dream of Plan B. I need something that I can work part-time until Plan B ramps up enough to quit Plan A. So, for instance one of my ideas is to start a podcast and monetize it. That would have a high degree of transition. I can record the podcast in my truck on the way to work, edit and upload it at night. Another idea is to start a small concrete company, picking up some small concrete jobs here and there around the city I live in. That has a very low degree of transition. It’s hard to get out and meet people and shake hands and search for jobs to bid, when I’m at work when all the other construction people are also at work.
  • Income potential: How realistic is it that I can replace my current income? For conversation’s sake, let’s assume that my target income for a small business is $100,000 per year. I recognize that the taxes are not going to be exactly the same between a small business owner and a W2 employee, but 100 grand is my target number.
  • Passive Income Potential: ANY potential income from a small business puts it in the category of being better than my full time job. If I can create an information product of some kind for sale on the internet, and let’s say that it makes $200 per month. Not a huge mount in sales. But the product is for sale, forever. So that’s $200 per month, every month for as long as the internet runs. And the more of these little income streams you can build, the more pressure that takes off you.
  • Startup Capital Required: I don’t have a lot of money to throw at a business endeavor. And, again, because my wife and I are not necessarily in lockstep on the importance of starting our own business, I can’t just ask her for thousands of dollars to start an endeavor. She just won’t get it. I do have a little money squirreled away, but I need to focus on an idea that I can put my blood, sweat, and tears into, rather than a pile of money, at least up front.

 

There may be more factors which a business idea can be evaluated. In fact, I’m sure there are. Right now, though, these are the most important criteria to me. In future posts, I’m going to brainstorm and evaluate all the ideas I have through these filters. Also, I’ll include a summary of each of the business ideas and maybe some pros/cons or just some thoughts on each plan.

This blog, then, is going to document my journey from where I am right now, through the journey of where I want to be.

Hopefully, you’ll take the trip with me.