I was at my last job for 20+ years. I loved it. My boss wanted to retire at 50 and after working together for a couple of years, and startied/ran a couple of other side businesses he halved his hours, went speedboat racing and when he turned 65 we sold the land to a developer, and the core business to a family member. I was on 100k py. It worked because I loved my job, the customers, the team, and primarily because he was a silent boss and trusted me to make money for him.
Do a cash forecast for 2 years and then extend to 5 years.
Be realistic, be pessimistic, do include cost increases for materials, staffing, your salary, your income tax, your super etc, insurances etc.
Then compare the nett income to working for somebody else.
I highly recommend doing some accounting studies before putting 300k on the line.
… my 60 y/old aunt and uncle put their savings and house on the line to increase the size of their business and now at 70 y/old have no income because they were overly optimistic, got into financial trouble, did a deal with some backers and now their home is security for a business they don’t work at and can’t get out of, and they can’t get the pension because their name is on a business document. It’s a big, big, mess.
From memory, I think the stats are that 70% of businesses fail in the first 3 years, and a further 50% in the next 2 years.
So 85% fail in 5 years.
In my previous role, we had a time clock in our workshop. Every week, I tallied the hours, highlighted any unusual transactions, and then I had the workshop manager’s authorise the hours.
In my current role in a big government dept, the managers auth all variancesand requests electronically or manually.