I ran a small contracting business for 10 years early in our marriage, with marginal success and it ultimately failed. I want to start up again after 8 years of employment in the same industry, during which I learned a ton about how other successful businesses were run. BTW I am currently unemployed, however we are on good financial footing.
I could have 3 months of work signed tomorrow if I committed, with more in the pipeline. Over the years I’ve developed a long list of contacts to sell to, 20x more than I ever had the first time around.
My wife says no way, and I do understand why, mostly because of money. She gets edgy when I try to talk about it, and I get that I’m putting her in the position of being the bad guy. But I don’t see any other way of spending the last 20 years of my career without hating my job.
tl;dr I’m afraid to talk to my wife about a sore subject.
5 comments
If you have all this knowledge, why are you unemployed for SO long? I’d suggest getting an actual job and doing your own business on the side until it can support itself.
Maybe ask for like a probationary period. You get to give it a go for one or two contracts and if those work out you can try a few more and so on. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing right?
I agree with other comments suggesting you get a stable job and start a business on the side. Then it has time to grow and prove out before you are reliant on it.
I don’t want this to be mean, but I worry that if you’ve struggled for 6 months to find work in this industry, owning and operating the business may be harder than you’re expecting.
If you already failed once, I can understand her not wanting to do that again. You’re asking her to risk a lot here, which isn’t very fair. You’ve been unemployed for 6 whole months, your wife is earning all the money and barely keeping you guys afloat, and you’re asking her to potentially risk everything in a start up after your last one failed? Sorry man I’d be super against this too. I’d more more inclined to support a business if it was just a side business and you had a stable full time job
Why can’t you get a job and save up money and then use that money you earned for your business, instead of relying on your wife’s labor to support your dreams?