It’s not easy being a business owner

I guess at some point I must have had one person working for me. Then I must have had two people working for me. Then I must have had three people working for me ….etc. etc. To a point where you suddenly have a business ‘empire’ with a large wages bill, PAYE obligations, VAT, expenses claims, invoicing etc. etc. etc.

I don’t really remember any of it?

I seem to have been doing this for so long that it’s all blended into a blurry, dim, vague recollection of how we’ve arrived at where we are.

I can clearly remember using cheques.

I can actually remember people paying with cash.

I can clearly remember playing games with delaying sending cheques due to poor cashflow ….and telling people that the money was ‘In the post’.

I can remember chasing people for money – I mean literally chasing people – in my car down the M62 when I knew the owner of a company was avoiding paying me.

I feel that maybe I was ‘entrepreneurial’, I founded a new industry and pretty much wrote a lot of the articles and detailed methodology that others now use and call their own. I created new systems and new ways of dealing with invasive plants – when we were hit with problems we had to think on our feet to find methods that worked.

I’ve seen health and safety arrive and thrive.

I’ve seen technology arrive – fax machines, mobile phones, the internet, e-mails, direct payments into banks …and I’ve been here through Covid and seen how the whole working environment has been destroyed by ‘Working from home’.

I’ve seen people decide who they want to be identified as.

You may be wondering what I’m wittering on about here …but I guess what I’m pondering here is as to whether I would STILL want to become a business owner? …

There’s no hanging on to cheques.

You cannot be late with the PAYE or a couple of days overdue with the VAT.

The workers have more rights than you do as a business owner….and it’s going to be from day one.

Your team can leave you anytime they want with little or no consequence.

If however, you wish to get rid of somebody without a fuss… your chances are less than zero.

Tax, tax and more tax – there’s no hiding, there’s no escape.

If you have a good year – more tax.

If you have a bad year – still tax.

…and if you do manage to sell your business …there’s more tax.

I’ve had a reasonable run at this whole business owner lark.

But the question is ….. would I do it all again?

Sorry but I’m saying ‘No’ –

I think my life would have been a damn site easier if I’d worked for somebody else.

 

Mike C