? For self employed members

Woodrow

New member
Apr 24, 2014
12
0
0
No risk no reward. I love the feeling of making my own future depicting on my input in what I do. With working for someone you work your hours,collect your check and that's that, self employed its constantly on your mind,never ending but it can be well worth it sometimes, love what you do!
 

LWATSON

future trans limpers
Jul 30, 2008
2,587
1
36
55
Scotland Neck NC
It's really not too expensive to get set up to do business if your already doing the job on the side. I own a welding/repair shop, my liability is one of the higher rates, higher than mechanical repair. I have $1,000,000.00 coverage and it's only $1100.00 per year.
 

1pieceatatime

Member
Mar 30, 2014
179
0
16
Schuyler NY
Licensed yes no bond. no insurance. so yeah it would cost more to go full time with it. but making a 1000.00+ a day is damn good money is it not? and thats just with me work alone. but also around here I could easily charge 85$ hourly and would still be cheaper then the dealer they are all at a 100$ or a little higher. see this is why i put this post up to get this type of insight. thanks for all the good responses.

Are you making $1000 a day or grossing $1000 a day? My family runs Truck garage and Machine shop with about 15 employees. I see the day to day expenses, insurance rates and other incidentals. I love the work I do, but the work environment leaves me more and more frustrated as each day passes. I've always done work on the side and in the last year I've set up my own corporation and am doing more repairs/installs and selling some parts, mostly cash stuff with the parts going through my business books. I've looked at the costs and even being eligible to go on my wifes health insurance, going out on my own is not a promising leap at this time.

That $1000 a day is peanuts once you have to start paying taxes on it. Once you have full time overhead you can only leave so much out of your books before it becomes a problem. Depending on how your business is set up you may have trouble getting loans if you ever need one if you don't draw a W2. More billable hours/work= more hours of book keeping.

I'd be looking at alot more than health insurance costs to walk away from 100k a year job with insurance and I'm assuming is a very competitive pension and vacation/sick time package. Plenty of guys make a good living working for themselves, but plenty also dive in head first and get a somewhat rude awakening.
 

BUST'EM 504

Active member
Oct 7, 2009
1,047
0
36
All depends on your growth potential. Employees get expensive I.e workwans comp, insurance and benefits. Best thing to do is a cost analysis and take into account the bad and good months. Also make sure you have so working capital


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Evan@InglewoodTrans

yerp
Vendor/Sponsor
Aug 5, 2010
3,118
65
48
40
Western MA
Are you making $1000 a day or grossing $1000 a day? My family runs Truck garage and Machine shop with about 15 employees. I see the day to day expenses, insurance rates and other incidentals. I love the work I do, but the work environment leaves me more and more frustrated as each day passes. I've always done work on the side and in the last year I've set up my own corporation and am doing more repairs/installs and selling some parts, mostly cash stuff with the parts going through my business books. I've looked at the costs and even being eligible to go on my wifes health insurance, going out on my own is not a promising leap at this time.

That $1000 a day is peanuts once you have to start paying taxes on it. Once you have full time overhead you can only leave so much out of your books before it becomes a problem. Depending on how your business is set up you may have trouble getting loans if you ever need one if you don't draw a W2. More billable hours/work= more hours of book keeping.

I'd be looking at alot more than health insurance costs to walk away from 100k a year job with insurance and I'm assuming is a very competitive pension and vacation/sick time package. Plenty of guys make a good living working for themselves, but plenty also dive in head first and get a somewhat rude awakening.

Very well said. I know it was a eye opener for me paying taxes, insurance ect but it's a must if it's your only source of income and you want to run a legit business. I thought I wanted a day job and to just do work on the side but that lasted about a month before the side work got to be so much I decided to go full time and I'm glad I did.
 

Dozerboy

Well-known member
Jun 23, 2009
4,892
470
83
TX of course
I recently left a a company that paid 100% of my benefits for a small mom and pop company. A Bluecross PPO w/high ded. is $200 a month and $500 for all 3 of us. Not bad but like others said it covers next to nothing. Now thanks to my wife being in school we qualify for gov assistance (Thanks guys:thumb::roflmao:) it will only ost us $265.

My dad owns his own construction company. He isn't much of a businessman, but a hell of a carpenter. Money was always tight, but he was the type that wanted to make the rules. As a kid I always kind of resented that he didn't go work for someone else he would of made $100K+ easy as a PM. He could of been home more and a lot less stress. Got to respect what he has accomplished though. Having your own business isn't a walk in the park.
 

durallymax

New member
Apr 26, 2008
2,756
1
0
Under The Hood
Insurance is pricey but so are medical bills. My first treatments were 3,500 for a 3.5hr ordeal, current one that actually worked was 55,000 per treatment. Its a 20 minute treatment. My medical bills the past year would buy a nice house on the beach.

That said, if we could completely purge the system and start over from the bottom things could work out. But I dont think that will happen. Were rated as one of the most disorganized countries in the world when it comes to healtcare and have the highest costs of any country, not to mention some of the most unhealthy people. The latter is the bigger issue IMO, lazy unhealthy people.


Currently I lucked out on being double covered under my families plan and my wifes plan. IIRC cost to add me to my wifes was a couple hundred. This was before I was sick obviously, I'd hate to see what the quotes would be now.



Self employment is great. Do a lot of research first though. I would build your business and work it as a legitimate side job before quitting your high paying job. Many people see the dollar signs and get excited but then get sick of it or burnt out and are left with nothing. Happens too often. For insurance, can you go on your wife's? For years this has been very common around here on smaller dairy farms. Husband does all of the farm work, wife works off the farm for benefits.

ACA has generally made things more expensive making things harder for those who actually apply themselves, seems to be a theme in our country.
 

catman3126

Ehhh?.... You don't say?
Jul 24, 2012
2,636
0
36
NE Oregon
OK so this side business of mine is legit and pays taxes and have filed the last two years. for the most part I don't keep any of it for income and I use the income from it to buy tools and equipment for the shop right now and am in the process of a website for parts sales. so right now I only take a small draw here and there for some cash but my regular job is what I live off of. My wife is self employed also so no benefits there.
 

catman3126

Ehhh?.... You don't say?
Jul 24, 2012
2,636
0
36
NE Oregon
Are you making $1000 a day or grossing $1000 a day? My family runs Truck garage and Machine shop with about 15 employees. I see the day to day expenses, insurance rates and other incidentals. I love the work I do, but the work environment leaves me more and more frustrated as each day passes. I've always done work on the side and in the last year I've set up my own corporation and am doing more repairs/installs and selling some parts, mostly cash stuff with the parts going through my business books. I've looked at the costs and even being eligible to go on my wifes health insurance, going out on my own is not a promising leap at this time.

That $1000 a day is peanuts once you have to start paying taxes on it. Once you have full time overhead you can only leave so much out of your books before it becomes a problem. Depending on how your business is set up you may have trouble getting loans if you ever need one if you don't draw a W2. More billable hours/work= more hours of book keeping.

I'd be looking at alot more than health insurance costs to walk away from 100k a year job with insurance and I'm assuming is a very competitive pension and vacation/sick time package. Plenty of guys make a good living working for themselves, but plenty also dive in head first and get a somewhat rude awakening.

LOL Im sure I sound like some dumb kid wit a pipe dream of this awesome business where I make tons of money and have lots of toys. but I do weigh all the angles out and check into these things. that would be why I posted this post and it has really netted great insight on this subject.
 

NC-smokinlmm

<<<Future tuna killer
May 29, 2011
5,203
363
83
At Da Beach
I pay about 750.00 a month for the wife, baby and myself. You get used to it after awhile...:)

As for business insurance I have 10,000,000 in coverage and it's only about 1,200 bucks a year, so that's no deterent. Jump in a do it but, I warn you the stress is ridiculous when the business is your own....:hug:
 

LWATSON

future trans limpers
Jul 30, 2008
2,587
1
36
55
Scotland Neck NC
I've been around the block over the years, I've had as many as six employees and have worked with two and presently work alone. My income was at its worst when I had six employees and at its best when I work alone. Do as much as you possibly can alone even if it means turning down certain jobs. Nothing I hate more than turning work away but a $10 lawn mower deck repair usually cost me about $50 in lost income. I Love helping people but I've learned my good heart could put me out of business. It sucks but you have to have thick skin and just limit the favors you hand out.
 

68skylark455

Larry the "Stroker"
Aug 7, 2008
1,091
0
0
Texas
www.larrysperformancepalace.com
Well that insurance is cheap compared to us folks out here :happy2:Since January ours went from $169 per two weeks to just over $420 per two weeks and I am self employed while my wife is a nurse and works for a clinic that provides our insurance haha sorry rips us off for our insurance. Blue cross gave me a quote of $250 monthly with high deduct and 80/20. Being self employed for 20+ years has been awesome but working in a shop for family as self employed/contract labor sucks balls. Working on something to remedy that now and with my kids the insurance is a biggie but it will work out. Just put all you've got into it and make it yours!! No reason to go to work everyday and hate it!!
 

WolfLMM

Making Chips
Nov 21, 2006
4,005
26
48
38
AL
LOL Im sure I sound like some dumb kid wit a pipe dream of this awesome business where I make tons of money and have lots of toys. but I do weigh all the angles out and check into these things. that would be why I posted this post and it has really netted great insight on this subject.

Not at all man, but owning your on shop is exspensive lol. A few years ago we had some crackheads break in and steal finished parts (over 300k) just to scrap them for meth. So there our insurance company was on the hook for 300k in the blink of an eye. Not to mention we missed out delivery date to the customer. I would weigh that heavily man, you make dang good money now, and you really don't have to worry about all this other stuff. Jmo
 

yellowchevy

Well-known member
Sep 9, 2010
1,926
82
48
Louisburg, KS for now
I made the self employment jump in March of this year. My wife works part time but doesn't qualify for insurance or benefits.

We have Conventry One and pay $559/month for a family of 3. Our deductible is $1,750, 80/20, max out of pocket is $5,000. $50 out of pocket for doctors visit. Hospital copay of $250. This includes no dental or eye insurance, we pay that out of pocket. Out dentist visit yesterday was $480 for 2 cleansing and 2 x-rays.
When I was fully employed I was paying around $20-$30 a week for insurance.

I left my full time job building power plants due to not going any where in the company and wanting to start a family. It was also a very hostile and stressful environment; lots of back stabbing. I worked there 6.5 years and my pay only went up $5k in those years to around $70k. I worked 60-80hrs a week and I was salary so no extra pay.

With that said catman, I completely understand not being happy and wanting to move on. I loved about 10% of my job. The planning, lift plans, scheduling, and coming up with new/cleaver ideas to get the work done was great. But 90% of my job was dealing with corporate requirements and dealing with coworkers and/or craft guys that didn't take it serious.

Before I quit I know I shouldn't have but my quality of life was really bad and had to leave. I've always wanted to be self employed being my Dad has started & sold many businesses and is very successful.

I'm having a very hard time making money right now and will have to get another job with an engineering firm being I could make $70k-$80k, which is better than almost nothing right now, haha.

If you've done all your researched, have everything setup, and see that work is steady then I would first do more advertising to get a larger back log and then look at making the jump.

I'd just hate to see someone start a business without being all setup like I did.

Sorry for the long response.

Yellowchevy