Advice on what trade to enter?

HVAC or truck driving

Mr. Obvious wrote:

Here's an example of a guy who may be a good HVAC man but is not at this point a very good businessman.

To the O.P., you definitely want to consider if you want to be a businessman or be an employed tradesman. There is nothing inherently better or worse about either one, there are just different trade-offs and skill sets involved. It should definitely influence what trade you would choose though. Stringing utility line, climbing towers, and welding would all be fields where you could do well working for someboyd else.

Well, it's interesting that you think you know my husband well enough to evaluate his worth as a businessman.

We have considerable debt from second mortgages taken partly to survive when he started the biz. I'd say he earns 90K per year, but that is not enough, given our debt load, to hire people. We pay about 1/4 of our income to non-mortgage debt. I'd still say that is pretty damn good for someone who cannot afford to hire someone. Basically he earns with his hands on his own.

He is awesome, if you must know. I admire him more than anyone I have ever known. He is amazing. What he is able to accomplish on his own never ceases to amaze me.

The problem is that you have to have money to make money. And, if you don't, the trades can be challenging in terms of really getting to the next level financially. OTOH, he loves his job and he is free--no one controls him. And he has a degree just hated working in corporate situation.

Sounds to me like the bank own him.

And yes, you may love him, the the description you gave before was not that of a good businessman.

Plumbing. Everyone needs a plumber and they need him NOW.

Although reports are that the plumbing industry is not as glamorous as the porn industry depicts. YMMV

http://www.theonion.com/articles/the-plumbing-business-is-not-as-glamorous-as-the-p,10841/

Umm, yeah wrote:

Sounds to me like the bank own him.

And yes, you may love him, the the description you gave before was not that of a good businessman.

Agreed

Do either of you own businesses? How about businesses in a trade? If you do not own a biz working in a trade, then you are just talking out of your backside.

People have pie in the sky idea of business ownership, particularly in the trades. Unless you have money to start, or investors, it is exceedingly difficult in a trade to get to the next level of hiring employees, unless maybe you are a single guy when you start with no family responsibilities. How many tradesman do you think earn more than 90K per year with their labor alone? That's a LOT of labor.

The non-mortgage debt includes household debt, such as car payment, etc. Also most ppl are owned by banks when you include household debt.

I do not know your husband at all. It really has nothing to do with admiring him or not admiring him. I'm glad you do. It's also not a moral judgment.

What I wrote was merely a reflection on what you had stated. What you described is somebody who does not know how to price his bids. He is, by your own words, pricing low. Starting a business can indeed be financially challenging. It has to be managed right, including not servicing too much debt and also (optimally) being able to hire other people to do some of the labor. Some struggle to get to that level is certainly not uncommon--you did not say if your husband is in his third year of owning his own business or his 20th. If in his 3rd, this is probably par for the course and to be expected. If in his 20th and still struggling, well, that's not a good sign. It is possible that I have totally misread the situation from what you wrote and he is a brilliant businessman.

I have seen this is many other situations. My (now ex) brother-in-law is a tile and marble guy. He worked for somebody else for a number of years learning the trade. He went out on his own after that. He really, really struggled with accounting and pricing bids. He was barely making ends meet even though he was working very hard and was a good technical marble and tile layer. After about 3 years of that, he went back to working for someoby else. He is making more that way then he was making working for himself and I think he is happier because he is not dealing with some of the headaches of a small business owner. He is not, though, making nearly as much as his boss is. His boss at one time laid a lot of marble and tile but now only does it a few hours a week. Most of his time is spend bidding jobs, accounting, hiring, and monitoring his employees. Different skillsets. I've seen a friend who opened his own restaurant because he liked cooking. He was a great cook but a lousy restaurantour and went out of business in two years.