How far do you push yourself in business?

[Ben Anderson]

In my opinion, you can only listen to yourself. There is a lot of pressure that running a 'lifestyle business,' e.g. just paying your way with maybe a bit extra, is a failure, is what many online business influencers say.

Working in a co-working space (which also has office space) in the last few years has taught me a lot. 2 of the largest companies in the office building don't seem ever happy when I talk to them; how stressed they are, and one particular company seems to be living on the never-never with fancy cars, fanciest office interior (all for show). Everyone always talks about their turnover as soon as they hit 1M but never their profit margin. The people that talk the loudest and boast, are the ones actually failing a lot of the time.

While it will never make me a millionaire, my business is pretty stress-free now that I've gone through the difficult years. 99% of my clients are on a monthly retainer, and co-working space and advertising are the biggest expenses; they have very streamlined and automated processes, so I don't currently have the stress of staff. I want to grow into a small company with maybe a few staff, but I won't ruin my health by doing it.

Be true to yourself always.

 

[SillyBill]

I'm pushing myself less but thats moreso because of the government. I ain't working Monday for them, Tuesday for them, Wednesday for them and at about 10-11am on Thursday I can start getting my cut. Just typing that description is enough to raise my blood pressure. Get other mugs to grow your economy on those terms. And that is a rant on the personal income side of the equation only, on the business, its corp tax up 30% and business rates up tens of £k in the last 5 years, probably even worse on that side from tax grabbing. More and more is taken every year and services seem to be rapidly disintegrating at the same time? What gives? Makes me less inclined to do my bit when more hard work results in more taxes and losing ground in real terms and being at the back of the queue for any service I pay a lot more for than the average Joe.

If they sorted out the hostile tax cliff edges that create bonkers marginal tax rates (not to mention frozen tax bands in high inflationary times) then it might be worth looking to do more. As it happens, I'm paying as much on a tax rate as I'm prepared to pay, pensions are filling up, when that is done, if Labour don't play silly on CGT, which I think they will do as nothing else for them to raid, then it'd be a good time to review if its worth it at all.

I speak to a lot of people in the same boat, even IR35 killed a lot of motivation for highly skilled one man bands/consultants - for a lot of people, the juice ain't worth the squeeze if they can survive on what they already have.