Working for Yourself

The Psychology of it all

Colorado Boy Ridgway

I’ve hardly ever worked for anyone, with the exception of being a seasonal park ranger for about ten years, but that was for fun. I suspect that a motivation for a lot of folks wanting to open their own brewery, other than making beer, is that they just don’t want to have any bosses. I thought I might go over some of the pluses and minuses I have experienced. First the minuses.

Employees

The single most difficult part of being self employed, is that you also have to employ others as well. I remember working in a restaurant in my teens and there was a sign posted as employees came in through the back door that said “Hang Your Bummer Here”. In other words don’t bring you personal problems to work with you. That’s wishful thinking because employees will. I could not begin to count the times I listened to an employee cry (literally) in the office about this or that. Being the owner you also become a therapist.

Employees put on their best faces when you hire them, but after about two weeks the real personalities show up. Psychosis, drug addictions, anger issues, oh my God.

On the flip side I have made some life-long friends who were employees, people I love and some have gone on to do amazing things with their lives and we have stayed in touch. It’s a mixed bag for sure.

Responsibility

It all falls on your shoulders. You are responsible for all the taxes that need to be paid. For that matter you need to keep your local government happy and they will throw all sorts of weird things at you. For example the town broke a water pipe, but never told any of us on our block. All of a sudden customers couldn’t use the restroom and we were scrambling to find out what the problem was. We had to close down and miss sales not only on a busy Friday lunch but dinner also. Oops sorry about that. There is no compensation from the town.

The roof leaks on a busy night, the walk in cooler fails in the middle of a shift, and employee cuts off a finger, a customer starts a fight with another customer, at the most crushing busy time of the night, the internet goes out. Oh just a few things that can happen - all on the same night. It’s up to you Buck-O to figure it out and solve the problems.

Now the pluses.

Freedom

Oh sure you are tied to your business, but it’s your business! You make the rules, you make the schedule, you decide what to serve and how much to charge. You decide how you want to decorate, what swag you want to sell, what music you want to play, what uniforms - if any - you want your employees to wear. You get to decide if you want to expand and grow or keep it simple with just your one brewery. You are only limited by your imagination. It’s your place and I can’t emphasize it enough - it just feels VERY satisfying.

Wealth

You probably aren’t going to become a gazilionaire but you are going to build wealth. Unless you are a brain surgeon, or a highly paid engineer or lawyer, you aren’t going to get rich off a paycheck. But by owning your own company you will get all sorts of financial advantages that a paycheck earner doesn’t. Much of your income is not subject to payroll taxes. Also a lot of your expenses can be business expenses. Cell phones, computers, travel and so on. Your accountant can tell you where that line is.

As your business grows and pays off its debt, your equity increases by a multiple. I covered this in a past article. For example, if you can show a net profit of $100,000 for the year, your business could be worth $500,000. At some point you may wish to sell the business and move on, but you have increased your personal wealth quite a bit while you were running your brewery.

I only showed two negatives and two positives to owning your own brewery, and there are plenty of other things involved. A book could be written on the subject. Here is the bottom line however; I have (almost) always wanted to go to work. If there is only one life you get, why spend most of it going to a job you hate or don’t care about? Life is much more rich and satisfying if you are happy to open the door and go to work in your own place.