Become a millionaire in just 12 months!

I guess every person, at some time or another, dreams of going out on their own and starting a business. Some may have grand plans of taking over the world, while others just want the independence and freedom that working for yourself may offer. Either way, it’s a big step and everyone starts off at the same point.

So, where do you start? After all, it’s a tantalising idea isn’t it? We all know when “Billy” left our place of work and went out on his own, he was killing the pig, playing golf every Thursday and Friday; and bought a ripper of a small truck with bull bar, spot lights and tool boxes along the chassis. Making a fortune he was. What a lifestyle!

Makes you wonder why, after nine months that Billy ended up going to work for “Blog Signs” and gave up his dream life. His reasons were (of course) that he missed the mateship of working in a team and preferred working more regular hours for his young family. Fair enough too. Or, was it because he was playing golf every Thursday and Friday because he had zero work on those days? Maybe his repayments on the “ripper” of a truck were killing him and by the time he got home after completing what work he had done, he then had to do the invoicing, pay creditors and work out where the next job was coming from and how he was going to pay his suppliers.

I have yet to meet a single person who started off from scratch, on their own, who didn’t have major battles through those first formative years, and nearly went broke several times over the ensuring years. Even the hugely successful people I now know, and have been in business for decades, can still recall how many times they faced ruin. If anyone tells you it’s easy, they are lying or haven’t tried it.

So, where do you start? I’m going to call you “Bob” for the sake of the exercise. Bob, you’re a good bloke, a good tradie and you have a wide range of skills, and you’re full of energy and enthusiasm and already have five of the boss’ clients asking if you will do their work on the weekends. That can make you about $1000 extra per week, but you need to work every weekend. That’s okay, that’s how you start building your empire. Plus, if these five clients are pleading with you to do their work, what will happen once everyone knows you have gone out on my own? You will need four or five others to help with your workload.

That’s, say six of us, working an easy 50 hours each, Bob isn’t too greedy to start so he’ll start off at $80 per hour.

Bloody hell, that’s $24,000 per week, every week. That’s over a million dollars a year.

It’s at this point your sense of reason just flew out the window. You knocked off work early just to drop in at the Sea-Doo dealership. You’ve always wanted one of those, but the missus kept holding you back. Boy, is she going to be thrilled when you bring this bad boy home! You sign up - after all, it’s all academic now. You’ve done the sums and you’ll buy a work vehicle next week but you had to spoil yourself, you know, just to celebrate becoming a millionaire. And in 10 years, that’s 10 million, what could you buy with that?

As you pull into the driveway, you can’t wait to see the excitement on Betty’s face when she sees the Sea-Doo on the back of your vehicle. Just wait until the kids get home from school, and see it too!

You probably know what Betty said about it, even though the kids thought it was Christmas come early. But once Bob and Betty sat down and went through the sums, even Betty couldn’t fault it. So Bob and Betty go into business. Bob and Betty’s business “Signs Inc.” was born.

Bob goes into work the next day at Economic Signs where he’s been employed for the last six years, his heart pumping, and his face flushed with an excitement he can hardly hold in. Internally he is laughing out loud. He strides past his work mates, shoulders back, head held high, knocks on the bosses door with a bravado he didn’t know he had. This is what success feels like. All Bob’s work mates can see the change!

The boss listens patiently to the reasons for leaving without notice, after all, the world is waiting for Bob and Betty’s “Signs Inc.” so there no point in wasting time working out your notice period. After all, how is he going to stop you?

The boss hears you out, shakes your hand with a funny smile on his lips that you find a bit disconcerting, and wishes you the best. You feel a little bit miffed that he didn’t throw a bucket load of money at you to stay but it wouldn’t have made any difference anyway.

As you walk out of the office, the boss reminds you, “By the way Bob, I think you’ll do well. Just remember your restraint of trade in your employment contract stopping you from contacting any of my clients for one year.”

Really???? Bob hadn’t thought of that, but the boss will never know anyway. You shake everyone’s hands on the way out, showing them the photos of the Sea-Doo, with the kids astride and Betty behind. Everyone is envious saying after you leave, “Bob’s killing the pig.”

On the way home you sign up for a brand new Isuzu light truck, with bull bar, upgraded sound system, toolboxes and racks. It cost a lot more than you expected at $65 000, but that’s chicken feed out of the first years’ one million bucks – the repayments are only around $300 per week. That afternoon you design your new logo and order business cards.

You need an accounting package and everyone advises you to go for the best with MYOB, so you sign up for the $75 per month fee for that. Insurance, you need that too, so you sit with a mate who’s a broker and he asks how much you need. How much? Buggered if Bob knows. But your mate’s a good bloke and signs you up for public liability, comprehensive cover on the truck and Sea-Doo, some accident cover plus a heap of other minor covers (just in case). Your mate gives you a bottle of wine and it’s nice to see him so happy. It’s for your success, of course.

In one and a half days, you’ve signed up for quite a lot of money - money you don’t really have, but out of the million it’s a pittance. That afternoon you call the five clients who have been begging for you to do their work - they are going to be so happy! They are all very enthusiastic and promise they will call. Today is Tuesday so you go out and starting preparing the truck with all the tools you have accumulated over the years. That ripper hammer drill, hole saws, cut off saws, grinders, cordless drills, extension leads, plus the nut and bolt box that always has everything in it you need.

That afternoon a client phones you and needs a new fascia. This is it, the start of the money train. You go out measure up, the client tells you how happy they are you’ve gone out on your own and advises he wants it all in aluminium to avoid any fire rating issues with ACM. No worries! It’s not as cheap but if that’s what he wants, no problem. You spend the next few days chasing pricing and being told you will be a ‘cash on delivery’ customer until such time you are approved for a trading account. Bugger, that’s expensive.

You only have an old 600m plotter at home so you’ll have to tile the lettering and you don’t have a printer yet so you have to outsource that. You are going to need a scissor lift, so you allow for that, and by Friday, you have the quote finished.

You phone your client with the price and he tells you he gave the order to Economic Signs because the order was urgent, like he told you. They are installing it right now! Bob sits back in the chair and just stares at the phone. “I don’t get it! He said he wanted me to do the work - he was thrilled when I called him, and he gives the bloody job to my old boss?? Bloody hell, how did they build it that quick anyway?” you ask yourself.

Two weeks go by and no one else has called yet. You phone them and they advise your old boss from Economic Signs had called in to see them, thanking them for their long and loyal service and leaving them with a bottle of very fine red wine. They didn’t feel comfortable going to you after that.

Well Bob, welcome to owning your own business!

Bob sold the Sea-Doo and truck and took a massive hit on both. He bought a second hand truck and he and Betty worked hard. When the kids were at school, Betty was on the phone or dropping in leaflets into businesses they thought needed signs. Bob worked all day and as late at night as he possibly could. Betty did the books and allowed Bob to build the business. Betty kept pleading with Bob, asking when they would be able to afford to buy groceries every week instead of only when we they could afford to. That’s a tough question to have to hear, but it’s the reality in the journey of growth.

In five years Bob put on a young bloke to help with preparing the work and helping install. A year later Bob could afford to employ two more guys and was able to cut back to six days a week and down to about 10 hour days. Finally, Bob and Betty could see daylight. Bob replaced his old truck with a later model and bought a ute for his guys to use. Bob won a huge tender that kept them busy for four months along with his other normal works.

In the seventh year, Bob and Betty purchased an old factory with rusty corrugated iron sheeting, leaking pipes and weeds growing in the spouting. The entry door didn’t close properly and mice scattered as you entered. But it was on a busy road with 50 000 cars passing every day. It cost them everything plus a heap more they didn’t have. Bob built a massive fascia sign, painting the old iron and put some pot plants with palms in them out the front and they looked fabulous. (Sadly the pot plants got stolen the first night and Bob didn’t replace them.)

But, 50 000 cars passing every day paid its dividends, People started dropping in and Betty started working full time as a  receptionist/sales person. They employed three more people and updated their plotters and printer.

12 years since walking out on Economic Signs, Bob and Betty bought an old run down shack on a remote beach down the coast. The windows creaked, the roof leaked, the beds had feather mattresses and the carpet stunk. But it was on the beachfront and they loved it. They awoke every morning to the smell and sounds of the ocean, and took long walks watching the sunset.

One night they sat on the beach watching the sun sink into the ocean and the colours merge into blackness, and reminisced on their journey. They opened a cheap, expensive-tasting bottle of wine. (It’s amazing how your palate adjusts to cheaper vintages over time when you’re forced to!) They worked out their home had about $600 000 in equity, the factory now about $250 000 and the shack around $100 000. Add in what the amount that the plant and equipment came to, what they calculated they could sell their business for, then paying off their debts,  and the total came to $1,075,000.

At last, Bob and Betty were millionaires! Bloody hell it had been a hard trek, but sure as hens lay eggs, it felt so damned good.

The moral of this story is simple. If you want to be an overnight millionaire, prepare for years of bloody hard work, massive sacrifices and quite possibly failure. Then, if you’re really, really lucky and have worked and saved and scrimped, after 20 years you may at last be a millionaire!

Written by Vernon Kingman