I'm tired. Tired and I don't think I have any left in me, to give my company

After 25 years in business, I am tired. Tired of being tired.
We made it over the hump, once.
You know what I mean: you finally have enough in the bank to absorb the typical, monthly, kick in the teeth that robs your savings.

I have sunk $150K (of my own savings/ retirement) into this company since covid started.

This year already, I sunk another 30K (to provide a little cushion for the unexpected)

I have hired the best, and most knowledgeable employees I have ever had the pleasure of employing. (TO DATE!)

We have raised margins, raised rates for different & larger capacity machines, increased efficiency, moral, productivity, better benefits, an automatic 2% / job that goes to an interest bearing account for employee bonuses, and more than I can think of at this time.
I am currently getting 90% of what I quote. (I know, I need to raise margins until I hit 70-75% of quotes awarded)
We have work.

SO WHY the F am I still stressing over the same "if we can just make bills this week!" bullshit?????

Vision is not ANY closer to back paying me any of my paychecks, stopped in October of 2020, nor is it in any position to even allow for me to take an owner draw.

I have been kicking this around in my mind for over 1.5 years. This is not impulsive.

I am just tired. I want to retire.
Beyond my employees & customers, I just don't give 2 $hits anymore.

Maybe I will liquidate my shop for machine / tool value and just leave. I have no more reason to stay in Houston.
I own my homes outright. I can sell them and move my unhappy & stressed ass to Red River, CO.
Ski, hike, hunt, fish, and smoke legal marijuana. HA! Wouldn't that be a trip????
Or, invest $150K in Vanuatu (Or St. Kitts) for my wife and I, to gain citizenship/ passport.
Travel. Be happy. Enjoy what time I have left, after 50 years.
Why wait until I (or she) gets too sick t0o travel/ enjoy life?

Anyway, I have not made my decision 100%, but I thin I am at 90% at this moment, and just don't want to admit it completely.
OR
Maybe I should shut the lights off, lock the doors, & take a 6 month sabbatical.

Tired and manic rant over.

Doug.

You could imagine you're the Tom Brady of machine shop owners - and announce your retirement. Then discover you missed it and want all your tools and customers back?

More seriously, this could be anything from (1) a physiological reason for being tired, to (2) mild depression, to (3) just reasonably wanting to move on.

Might be useful to eliminate the first two possibilities first?

Ya man, getting crushed under the reality of the new normal. You are totally sane.

I'm a firm believer that you should do things while they're fun and when they stop being fun you need to get the fuck out.

I don't mean that in a sense that being in business should be all sunshine and roses. There are ups and downs and the ups make the downs worth it. When the ups stop making the downs worth it or the ups stop happening that's not living anymore. Make a major change and get back to enjoying life- to living again.

Sounds like a good time to make an employee the operations manager, and take off for a while. Anyone a candidate?

I'll add this - it's good to pay attention to how you're feeling, instead of burying it. Much wiser, as it gives you a chance to deal with/fix what's wrong, rather than letting it build up to a bursting point.

I knew a fellow who sold his highly successful business to a fellow he trusted with having a side, an under-the-table deal that paid for the first fellow's retirement.

Milland said:

Sounds like a good time to make an employee the operations manager, and take off for a while. Anyone a candidate?

I'll add this - it's good to pay attention to how you're feeling, instead of burying it. Much wiser, as it gives you a chance to deal with/fix what's wrong, rather than letting it build up to a bursting point.

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Or even get someone to do it part time, and cut down on the hours, maybe a retiree?

Red River Colorado is nice! Take some time off this summer, hit the road and see America, maybe find someplace you like, make sure to turn the cell phone off.

Garwood said:

I'm a firm believer that you should do things while they're fun and when they stop being fun you need to get the fuck out.

I don't mean that in a sense that being in business should be all sunshine and roses. There are ups and downs and the ups make the downs worth it. When the ups stop making the downs worth it or the ups stop happening that's not living anymore. Make a major change and get back to enjoying life- to living again.

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Is this input valid for marriages? Not asking for a friend. :/

Did you get Covid, and if so, how bad? Lots of people have taken a serious hit to their constitution from it.

Hey, I have felt this way for years.

But seriously, why are you not making money?

I know why I don't make enough money, but why are you not making money?

This has been a brutal stretch for everyone, hell,if I could retire I would. I have never been that attached to working, it is the eating and living indoors I like


In this business, an employee has to create a couple hundred grand for you to bother. Are your employees creating that much?

A funny thing is, outside of outliers, labor is twice parts. Cute, I know, but unless you have to monitor your scrap prices to make a profit[IE making brass washers] or have 40 hour cycle times on 100 dollar blanks, this is really how it works out in the small business world. I am fond of saying that if you want me to drill 1 hole in a 100 dollar piece of stock, the part will cost you 201 bucks. I will not ever pay to make parts.

How do your margins stack up on that dumb ass metric?

Dude, I say 'I'm tired' 3 times a day out loud, I get it

One of the hardest things in my business in the last 30 years has been having to balance employment with income. Sometimes when it is slow, you gotta say buh-by, even though it sucks

Right now is the best time to shed employees, because they will probably end up making more money elsewhere as opposed to being in trouble

Cole2534 said:

Is this input valid for marriages? Not asking for a friend. :/

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X1000 for marriages!!!!

Life is short. Too many people act like it's not until it is.

If you want to sell the shop as a whole operation, now might be a good time. There's still lots of cheap money floating around and people looking for a place to put it. When this insanity turns around and makes 2008 look like the good old days, might not be so easy to sell.

I've been thinking about what my exit strategy is for a while now too, I need to slow down my body is falling apart and I've had no life for years. Some of that plan is going into action very soon, though I've said that for years already...

You want to be careful not to telegraph your current low level of enthusiasm to your customers, or they, too, will lose enthusiasm, your revenue may decrease, and then you really will have money problems to worry about.

doug925 said:

I have sunk $150K (of my own savings/ retirement) into this company since covid started.

This year already, I sunk another 30K (to provide a little cushion for the unexpected)

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I didn't get a kick in the nuts from Covid, took mine from the 2008 recession it was almost 3x what Covid did to you.
Covid killed some of my customers off, but orders from the gun customers increased to make up for it.

Never make life changing decisions on an impulse, especially during a low point.

Take two weeks off starting immediately. Just go. Do anything but work. Don’t set any objectives for the time. Just go do something you like.

Come back fresh and lookup “activity trap”. Figure out if you are in a trap. If you are, fix it!

We have bought the assets of several shops. We just closed another one this week. Sometimes I look at what they were doing and wonder how they didn’t shoot themselves years ago. The owners are in a rut, the business is stale, the shop is a dungeon, employees are going through the motions……. The prior owners are always surprised when we scrap half or more of the mess and shine up the good parts. I’m sure your business has good parts too!




If your perspective does not change and you’re still tired of the business, make a choice and move on. Life is too short to be miserable.

Man, I'm with you. House is paid off. Machines are paid off. But we can't get parts so we're running like 10-20% of capacity. Every day you wake up and see what the new bullshit is. Oh, nickel is $50 a pound today? Guess that new stainless part isn't happening any time soon.

For me it's not the struggle, exactly. We all made it through 2008. Hell, 2008 was comparatively fun. This? Every time you make a new plan, one of the legs gets kicked out from it by some fresh new bullshit outside our control.

I mean, give me one material I can actually rely on and plan on for the next three years and I'll make that work. I don't care if it is aluminum, steel, carbon fiber, wood, concrete, clay, goddamn mud would be fine. But I know six months from now someone will have a new patent on "constructive combinations of water and soil, and processes thereof", and it'll be back to the damn drawing board.

It's exhausting and I'm tired of it.

One of the hardest things to do in life is walk away from a business/job when you're making more money than you ever have but you only get one life. I retired young and took a pretty big hit on income(50%ish) but I had literally been planning my retirement for over 30 years so I was prepared for the decreased income.
It doesn't cost as much to live when you're retired either. $4 or $5 gas? No problem. You're not on the road all the time when you're retired.

It doesn't seem like a good idea to put a closed sign up tomorrow morning but it isn't a bad idea to spend some time thinking about an exit strategy. Succession planning if you want to keep the business running or an auction if not. Your call. Best of luck dealing with this.

A long time ago an entrepreneur I worked for said "The best part of working for yourself is that you get to pick which 80 hours a week you work".

There comes a point where you just get tired of it all and want a simpler life. Since you have been thinking it for a while it's obviously not just a whim or phase so if you can afford it why not?

A phrase never seen on tombstones is "I wish I had spent more time at work".

Your old life and goals have been worn out. Good luck, and happy hunting for your new life.