How To Build A Passive Income

 

3) Deja Vu

Everything was going well. The business is successful and life is good. The owners of the business are extremely happy with how things are going and we have even started to help introduce a lot of our processes across the whole of the group which all seemed to be creating a positive outcome. However.... can it last!

Simple answer...No! Small but noticeable changes started to become evident in how we were treat by the owners. I would never say that there was a jealously or superiority issue when dealing with the owners of the group (as this would be ridiculous as we were making them a lot of money!), but the longer we spent with the business it became more and more obvious that it was very important to them to ensure myself and the team knew who was the boss!

We had created a business that was the same size as the rest of the group so doubled the size of the company in a matter of a few years, however, as time went on it became obvious that it was something that the owners did not like us taking any credit for and on a more regular basis decisions were being made by the owners that were rolled out direct to our team, without our input on the decision and sometimes we would only hear about them at the same time as the rest of the team via emails signed off by 'the board of directors'!

Now, I do not want to go into too much detail about the exact problems that came next, however, what I would say is a lot that was promised, and a lot that would be expected from creating such a successful business in such a short period of time did not end up being provided.

It became evident that I was used to create something, then once the task was completed I was expected to just fall back into a structure and complete tasks provided by the 'board of directors'.

As I said previously, there is only so much that I can really say on the matter, however, if I were to divulge this, it would be extremely clear what my points is, so unfortunately you will have to take my word for it!

So, at this point I had a decision to make about my future.

Do I endure? There are a lot of people relying on me but it's far from the life I want!

Do I leave and try and set up actually on me own? Unfortunately I do not have any financial backing to do this!

Do I look for another job? Being an employee just is not for me anymore!

I know one thing for sure, being an employee is not something for me. It goes beyond any financial reasons, I want to enjoy my work life and I want to have the freedom to make decisions for myself and learn from my mistakes. I've learnt that if you are working for somebody else, no matter how successful you are, the true success sits with the owner of these companies and rightly so, at the end of the day it is them that has risked their own finances at some point to grow the business in the first place!

It is time I become my own boss again, and stick to it! Now timing is everything, and at this stage in my life I cant risk not having an income as I have recently received the fantastic news that my wife is expecting a baby!

This news provided me with the additional drive that I need to put my plans into place so I can provide a good future for my family but also makes it clear that I cannot put my safe salary at risk straight away.....

BUT THERE IS A PLAN!

Now that you have the background to the story, the blog aims to take you with me on my journey to financial freedom and the ideal lifestyle! What I will be looking to achieve is to set up my own successful businesses with the end goal making these my only source of income, whilst maintaining my 9-5 wage to minimise any short-term financial risks whilst on the journey. This will undoubtedly take longer that going full time into something, however, it gives me the required mindset as time is not an issue so nothing needs to be rushed into, nor do I need to have any additional financial worries about supporting my family.

No doubt I'll make mistakes along the way but I hope that it will help others on the way by documenting everything and I hope I can inspire you to take control and aim for SUCCESS THROUGH OWNERSHIP!

2) The Next Step

After everything that had happened during my pervious employment, after the initial shock, the next feeling was freedom! I was away from the hours and hours of thankless work and stress and the world was my oyster, the only issue was I did not have a means of income!

I made the decision that I did not want to go back into the same pattern, so I started to set up my own business to provide commercial services within my sector. I organised a meeting with the bank and set-up a business account then met with an accountant that was recommended to me and they set me up as a limited company, sorted my VAT registration and within a week or so I was ready to trade.

I then covered the basics, of setting up an email account, preparing a home office and getting in touch with all of my contacts to market my services. Within days I had a meetings with potential clients and the work was starting to come in. At the same time, a recruitment agency had been in touch and there was a business that required my services on a regular basis. Fantastic!

The business that provided me with the majority of my work was a small business that had attempted to build a new sector of their company that had failed so the bulk of my work was to close the sector down as efficiently as possible. It was a great shame as they had a great model set up but unfortunately they just did not have the right people in place. After gaining the confidence of the owners I was asked to a meeting to discuss a potential opportunity.

I was told that there was a couple of schemes they were contractually obliged to undertake and they asked if I could resource a team to deliver these schemes. This I did, and with great success. They were amazed with the performance that we achieved and straight away wanted me to consider looking at further schemes for them.

This coincided with an old boss and friend of mine being available for work, so I organised a meeting with the owners for him and a deal was reached that we, in partnership, would aim to build a successful sector for the owners and although it was their business, we would be able to run it and make decisions as if it were our own. This did mean, however, that I had to stop trading through my own business and become an employee again! As I was enjoying what we were doing so much, and as we agreed a deal where we would be financially awarded for our performance this did not cause an issue to me. Also, it meant that I would receive a title of Director that was something that I had be striving for for years in my previous employment!

The work days were difficult but enjoyable and the feeling of ownership and total control was exciting and rewarding. After the first year of trading we had built a £5m per year standalone business that was performing at a fantastic margin. A margin that I never comprehended could be achieved.

The next three years where a whirlwind as we grew quickly but managed to maintain control and efficiency and had grew to become a business that was turning over £25m per year and maintained a fantastic profit margin. The sector that we had grew was actually as big and profitable as the rest of the company combined and the pride that came with what we had done was massive. We have a significant number of people in employment (over 100) and this all added to the pride in the job!

This was a massive change in my life over the 4 year period and at the same time I had moved to a new home and had been married so everything was looking good!

1) A Successful Failure

Through my career I have had lots of successes and only 1 real failure. The truth of the matter is though, that I learnt the most about myself through the failure.

I started my work-life at 18 after my A-Levels and went into an Apprenticeship in the commercial department of a fairly small family run business. The company I worked for put me through my higher education part-time at University on a day-release basis. From day 1 I knew that this was exactly what I wanted to do and over the next 5 years I progressed quickly through the ranks and became a valuable member of the team. It was a small business at the time but during my ti me there the business grew significantly to turning over around £150m per year.

The opportunity arose where the business wanted to set up a new sector in a different region so when I was asked to head this up, I was ecstatic. I was moved to a new part of the country and started the recruitment process to build a team and constant business development drumming up various opportunities. In my mid-twenties, I was working over 12 hours a day / 7 days a week building a business in a completely new city. The hours and responsibility did not bother me one bit and I grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Even the realisation that I was significantly under-paid did not put a dampener on what I was doing as the drive and determination to succeed drove me on. Even when I was hiring employees at market rate, that would work for me but earn a better salary than me.

The next few years flew over and before I knew it we were a stand alone sector turning over in excess of £25m per year and being very profitable at it. I had build a great bond with my team and all was looking good. At this point, the group was turning over around £300m per year and at such a large business that grew in such a short period of time things were starting to change. Rather than being able to spend my time focusing on our clients and efficient delivery I found myself wrapped up in processes and in board room meetings.

The changes became more rapid and before I knew it the group had employed a whole new board of directors for the region that I had previously led and pretty much over-night, from heading everything up I found myself reporting to a whole new team that had never worked for the business. The growth continued significantly, however, the efficiency was clearly reducing and it was obvious that we were not as profitable as we once were. Different decisions were being made, difficult contracts were being won and I found myself doing nothing other than reporting to people that had different visions for the future of the business.

Things were not going well so I decided to go back to the head office and make this clear to my old boss. I was surprised to see that there had been similar changes there too and all of my concerns fell on deaf ears. There was obviously a political game at play and people were rallying for positions but I was so naïve to this and had no interest whatsoever. I just wanted everything to be a success.

The next couple of years were absolute hell, however, I knew nothing but this business and I vowed never to give up. I found myself working longer and longer hours, sometimes even working over 20 hours a day trying to gain control of everything, however, any positivity I found was undone by a poor boardroom decision for the next poor contract or account agreement.

It all came to a head extremely quickly in the end. The board previously employed were quickly losing their jobs and new Directors were in and back out again without any notice. I then found that one of my most trusted employees was doing underhand deals! This absolutely broke my heart, and I completely blamed myself for not spotting this, and it effected me hard. I then made, at the time, what seemed to be the biggest mistake of my career....

I asked the employee to leave but although he had let me down, I did not want to ruin his career so we made his departure look like an amicable decision. What a mistake this was, when the reference I wrote for him, was sent into the CEO of the whole group, as the employee made a claim against the business foe wrongful dismissal! This ended up spelling the end of the road for me with this company!

After 10 years of giving absolutely everything, relocating to a new region and working every hour under the sun as well as generating a significant profit for the business I was for the first time since I was a teenager, unemployed!

Even on the day of leaving, I had to go back into the office to ensure all actions were carried out and everything was planned ahead. I knew nothing other than this business and at the time it felt like it was the end of the world, however, little did I know, that it would be the best thing that could have ever happen to me for both my career and my health!