3) INTRODUCTION PT3 - 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!