Running a business is extremely difficult IMO. With a lot of people having a similar mindset to you, competition is extremely fierce whatever you choose to do since lots of people would “like” to be their own boss.
As someone who is NOT a successful business owner, I think unless you have an exact advantage (parents, worked in that area and have special insight, connections, etc…), don’t expect it to be fun or easy. Also, do you have kids/wife? Those things take you away from work and makes you less competitive. Why do you see so many startups started by young college drop outs? They can work non-stop, are young/healthy, very little to risk/lose, have wealthy parents a lot of times to support their business, etc…
Most businesses end up failing for a reason and it’s hard to get a mortgage being self employed also for good reason.
Another downside as a business owner is a lot of times, you don’t have the time to do everything so half the time, you are trying to do the work, but should, instead be figuring out where the whole industry/market should go and spend all your time on that.
Your desire is also one reason I tend to support NOT paying off mortgages or things like that (student loans) early. You may need tons of capital…to live off of while figuring things out and to start a business.
As XboxBoy mentioned, you also have to ask why someone would want to sell the business to begin with? The best businesses are ones setup to run itself, but if it did that, they won’t sell or it’d be very expensive. Even a simple franchise can run over a few hundred k to even start (and you are dependent on how great that startup concept is).
I actually have someone in the family trying to sell a business with no takers since it requires them (or someone) to work there full time.
Lastly, I think the amount of work required to make most businesses successful is more than any job so in my current state of mind, I’d be very happy working for the ‘man’.
That said, the “easiest” business is probably consulting in your field of expertise, but that’s probably not specifically what you are looking for and that may only work for certain fields.
– Confessions of a “non” successful business owner.
