For everyone out there, who wants to share their "burn your ships" stories? The term "burn your ships" refers to the practice of some Renaissance explorers to "burn their ships" once they reached a destination so that they would be unable to return from where they came and instead would be required to go forward.

In entrepreneurship, to me, this means the point where you choose to go "whole hog" and move into your business full time-especially if you have been operating it part time in the past.

My story-after having some real issues making decisions to go forward in the first place, I have taken the plunge and started operating my business. The biggest issue right now is that the business is an "on the side" business right now, but it is gaining enough success that I really have enough work to keep me more than busy full time. The one thing that has kept me at a full time for the moment is revenue-it's not steady enough yet to allow me to even begin to replace my full time income. While I do have some startup funding which includes resources for my living expenses, I have made a committment to seeing the business support itself before I make a move to it full time.

Now I'm at a crossroads-a real catch-22. I can leave my full time, but to do so will be a true "burn my ship" experience since the revenue looks like it needs about 6-8 months to begin to smooth out and the business really support me and my family. On the other hand, my full time is pretty demanding and I really feel like I'm focusing more on my venture than my full time. It's possible there may be repurcussions for that as well as the simple fact that slogging in day after day is driving me crazy!!! I spend most of the day thinking about how I could be growing my business with the time I'm "wasting" earning a paycheck.

Can anyone relate? What did you do? When did you do it? Any reply would be appreciated.

Something about"burning bridges behind you." It doen't matter. You have several options all are good. If your generating sufficient revenues to quit your job, but for whatever reason you do not want to quit then continue your outside employment. Hire someoone to run your business and you continue to work your business on a part time basis.

See if you can reduce the number of hours that you work at your outside emplayment. Cut that from 40 h43 to 20 hrs.

All kinds of routes for you to take. Let your imagination run wild and see what you can come up with. Sounds like your in a great situation.

TOM ROSE

I hear you about the bridges-there's a saying about that as well "don't burn your bridges before you've crossed them"-relates more to making sure that you maintain relationships because you never know when you'll need them, I was referring much more to explorers such Cortez and a few others who burned their ships in the bay after reaching North America. They didn't want their crews thinking about going home, so they forced them to go forward by burning the ships-no way home, they had to go foward.

That's kind of where I see myself now-if I quit my full time, I have no choice but to make my business succeed. I dont' worry about that-I know the business will succeed, but there is a certain finality to making the leap to full time. Even though there are strong indications that income will level out, there are no guarantees that it will do so and until I have a few guarantees, a part of me feels a little like I'm being irresponsible to the needs of my family by launching out after my own dream.

I'm definitely at the place where I need to go to part time, but the business is not yet mature enough to hand to someone else to run. Moreover, it's primarily a consulting business so I don't know if it will ever be one that I can give to anyone else to run.

Believe it or not, a part of me hopes my current firm will fire me-it makes the decision so easy. I will likely be eligible for unemployment for a while-best of all worlds-time to grow my business and income until things level out.

Hi Ben,

I realize it has ben a few months, but I thought your situation was interesting and wanted to comment.

2.5 years ago I was stuck in the dreaded "corporate America", hated every minute of it as was planning and developing a business idea and wanted nothing more than to be free of the BS.

For me, the "sink or swim" strategy has always worked. You do what you have to do to survive - and if that means working 16 hours a day at the start, so be it.

Never give up on you dream, set goals and plan how to reach obtain them - and then go on to the next level.

I strated my landscaping business with a truck, 2 shovels, a wheelbarrow and a pair of gloves... the first year I did 60k, last year was 467k, and this years looks like we will do 1.2M.

Never stop believing in what you are capable of doing!

Good luck Ben,

Brian in Arkansas

Thank you Brian-wow-what a story!! It has been a few months-I have made the leap and I'm now working to build my business. I have some customers right now and they are bringing in a little income, but I also have adequate startup capital to keep me for a while. I am plugging away at this thing called entrepreneurship and I really feel this is where I should be right now. Thank you for the encouragement-it's a HUGE pick me up-thank you!

Ben, thank you for posting this. Your messages have become a good inspiration for me. I am at that very point as well. My business is now at the point where I must be there to make it grow. Treading water is not enough. But before I burn my ships, I am trying to figure out how to get my provisions out of the cargo holds and on to shore.

How have you tackled the issue of Healthcare Insurance? That has been one of my Golden Handcuffs that I am trying to saw off.

Thank you for the encouragement! Healthcare was a bit of an issue. It really depends on how often your family goes to the doctor. If you have someone in your family that goes at least once a month, a somewhat comprehensive plan might run you a little. On the other hand, if you go very infrequently, you can get either an HSA account (with a higher deductible) and pay office visits out of pocket. Then the insurance basically only covers major medical-such as emergency room visits or hospital.
A good website to research these types of plans is eHealthInsurance.com. You can get realtime quotes based upon your zipcode. Good Luck-and don't let it stop you. Thank you again for the encouragement!

Hi Brian,

And conratulations on your success!!! I would love to speak with you if you ever had the time about some of what is attributed to your success, and other items as well.

If you find the time, please shoot me an email at info@whereinphilly.com.

Thank you!
Jonathan~
www.whereinphilly.com

>Hi Ben,

I want to start a gardening business. Start up equipment is no problem, I have my license, a truck, trailer,lawn equipment:such as lawn mower, edger, blower,and assorted hand tools: shovels, rakes hoes ect. I even have a chipper/shredder.It took eight months to put together my equipment, buying something every time I had extra money.
My questions are how do I go about soliciting customers. My area (CA central coast)has several senior parks, most are concrete jungles with container plantings. Low Maintnance. I have lots of experience with flowers.
Should I focus on seniors for clients who travel alot? and how do you set prices, by the job or hour? And what if two people are needed to do a job?
Thank you for your help
Lynne

Brian:
Thanks for the info... I was parttime with my small business, still had a high paying corporate job I hated, and I got laid off. I have never looked back. Growth is slow but steady, and I add one or two new clients every week. (I own a petsitting company in the Atlanta area.) Anyhow, I've heard that the first few years of building small business can be tight moneywise, so I just try to hang in there and look to the future. Your story really encouraged
Me.

When people with a dream put themselves in a do or die situation... they come through! I've seen it many times. Quitting our 9-5's in order to go it alone is the most difficult thing we (my family)ever did. But we had cut off all ways of retreat; we didn't let ourselves have a back-up plan (in case our restaurant didn't work out). And it wasn't a smooth ride, but after two years of just breaking even, we finally got to the point where we not only "made a living", but we have a profit!

If you don't give it all you have, you'll always wonder if you could have made it or not. And no one wants those kinds of regrets.

Hello, I'm sorry, I didn't visit this thread for a while so I didn't see the note, but great job preparing to go out on your own! I've found that getting customers is really a function of "who you know"-now that's not to say that it's a "secret circle" where only certain people succeed, but it's absolutely true-referral traffic is by far the best traffic. Developing a network of people who can refer others to you is probably the most sound way of ensuring that you will always have work-the flip side of that is that it takes a while to get there. To answer your questions specifically, where do many people that need your service hang out? Since it's yard maintenance, I would bet almost anywhere-everyone needs it. Those who can afford it-affluent neighborhoods, etc. are probably where you want to concentrate your time and effort. Another idea-"maintenance provided" communities are getting more and more popular-have you called a manufacturer of a "maintenance provided townhome" development and asked how they provide that maintenance? Getting one or two contracts to provide maintenance for a group of townhomes that need it would probably provide the income you needed. Again, building a relationship will send business your way that you would not otherwise get. These are just a few thoughts, but network like crazy and get to where your buyers are. You'll do great!

I totally understand how hard it is to get back.
I love the idea you gave me, but in my area we do not have that type of communities.
I contacted the manager of one of the parks and she is going to write me up in her newsletter.
But that still leaves me with the question, how much do I charge? By the job or by the hour? living in Calif. Gas is $2.75 and still going up.
Most companies here charge by the month and it is around $65, four visits and they are mow and blow. I hear alot of complaints because they don't want to do the dirty work.
thanks Lynne

Remember, whenever you choose a "fixed price" of any sort, you need to know EXACTLY what it will take to make money with that price-any deviation will quickly cost you money and you can't renegotiate once the deal is struck (until the next billing cycle, etc.). As you noted, gas prices are on the climb nationwide. If they went up another $0.25 cents, wouldn't that affect a "flat rate" price if you've given one? I would suggest instead offering a "minimum service" price where you offer a "starting" flat rate of X and detail EXACTLY what that includes (very minimal service) and tack on an hourly charge for all the "dirty work". I'd also probably build in at least 10-15% into your cost structure OVER what you really need right now (especially for the minimal service/flat rate) specifically for gas because it's going so crazy right now, you have no idea where it will land. Since you might be offering a different level of service than the "all inclusive" guys, you will likely still be competitive with price, but you will have a service offering component at an hourly rate to address customer concerns. You could even "bundle" services (as in develop a flat rate for basic service on each major service area and combine these flat rates to make a service "bundle") but detail each of these out and detail the hourly service charges over and above the "basic" service. I try to stay away from fixed bid work-been burned in the past-but if that's what the competition is doing, you just have to find a way to make it work. Being VERY specific on what each service level offers may allow you to do that-HTH.