Career Crossroads: Blue Collar Business Owner or IB?
Hi Guys,
I'm currently at a major career crossroads in my life and I wanted to bounce some thoughts off you all.
I'm a recent college grad and have been at a boutique IB for the past few months. The money is good and I don't hate the work. I do, however, hate kissing ass, having dickhead bosses and being belittled/disrespected on a daily basis. I live in NYC and am having a great time, but the bar scene is starting to get old. This is my life today.
Here's the other side of the coin. My family owns a small blue collar business (think HVAC, plumbing, AC etc.) doing about $4MM in annual sales with 15 employees. EBITDA margins are 12-15%. The business could be much larger but the family has intentionally kept it small to limit stress/hours. It's located in a rural town 1hr away from the closest city with not much going on. Also, the employees aren't the most interesting and the work is much more dull. I have the opportunity to take over the business, grow it, and be the CEO in 5-8 years, but I have 1 year to decide if I want to be involved. If I don't, the business will be sold and the opportunity forever lost.
To give you all a sense of what my goals are, I would like to:
1.) Make $1MM a year by 45 (currently early 20's) 2.) Eventually not have to answer to a superior 3.) Be in a leadership position
WSO Community, I summon your wisdom.
1.) Is missing out on fun/girls/social scene in your 20's for the pursuit of wealth worth it? 2.) How viable is making millions per year in IB, really? 3.) Put yourself in my shoes... what would you do and why?
Thanks everyone, I appreciate you guys.
From the economics side...I would do a comps analysis in excel on:
A. How much revenue would the company have to gross and net out in order for you to clear $1m a year and how long it would take to get there, along with any capex to reach that level.
versus
B. How long you think it would take to reach MD @ a MM/BB/EB, and how much you need to clear in order to make $1MM a year. Also, I don't know if you mean net(after taxes) $1MM a year or gross. May go against what you stand for(your username?) but your tax at the highest rate as an employee which means you have to gross $1.5M to $2M to net out a $1M. This is especially true in New York where they'll take 10%+ (city+state taxes) off the top while uncle same gets his cut as well.
You'll get leadership experience in both positions however the business provides the opportunity not to answer to any superiors(except you will answer to your customers/shareholders).
If I were you.. looking back as someone someone in my late 20s I would take the business and expand it and fuck the whole party life in your 20s. You can always do that on the weekends when you have time and more importantly if you can get the biz to 20MM a year and sell it you will have way more freedom to live it up while your peers will still be slaving away models in desk jobs.
That's helpful, thank you!
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