I own a small plumbing company with my brother (3 employees including us). We work primarily in London (We commute from Hertfordshire), we do pretty well and for the most part I enjoy it. I have 20 years experience and I know I’m very good at it.
I’m 42 years old though and can’t see myself doing this forever. In the back of my mind I kind of see myself transitioning into something a bit different by about age 45.
If I called it a day and drew out my shareholdings from the company, I would have around £100k to set something new up. I’d struggle to work for somebody now, having been my own boss for 17 years so ideally it would be something that would be my own business. I have no problem using my current skill set, I just don’t want it to be the same thing I’ve been doing for years. I also have no problem completely changing direction.
I’d love to hear any suggestions that people may have or any tales of anybody who did a similar thing.
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This sounds like a bigger question. One of those, “what do you imagine you want life to look like in 5, 10 years?” scenarios.
After starting smol and working hard for years, (with plenty of wants and needs) it is odd to think there could be difficulty in defining desires. I’ve pondered that myself as I’ve gotten older.
A thankful place to be.
Is it possible to expand upon the existing business but pull back on your physical need to be on jobs? You focus on building more business and hiring another person for labor?
While this would seem a logical route, it’s kind of counter intuitive to what I’m trying to do. It isn’t even the physical labour of the work that bothers me, it’s more the relentless always having to be on the ball and thinking ten steps ahead constantly. Having the responsibility of multiple people working for you only exacerbates that dynamic. Ideally I’m looking for something maybe a little bit niche that I can do on my own.