Open my own? No thanks!
I have lost count of how many times I have been asked: "Why don't you open your own bakery, Brian?". Especially by people who have tasted my stuff. But I have absolutely zero interest in opening my own place, and here is why:
With no bakery education in Canada (defined as anything comparable to the Northern European education), it's virtually impossible to find educated, skilled labour (45 years worth of proof of that), which means I would have to do all the work myself, and I have no such intentions at this stage of my life. In fact, never had any such intentions at any stage of my life. It's a very, very simple matter of risk vs. reward and that particular matter is way out of balance, as I see it. Money and all, it's simply not worth it. Have you ever heard of work/life balance? Know what damage it can potentially cause to your health (both mentally and physically)/family/quality of life/happines (which has no relation to money in my case)?
"But you can train somebody, Brian".
Sure, you can. But you will never get off the ground with somebody who don't have the basic comprehension that a thorough education brings. You will be like a Jumbo, a Boeing 747, an Airbus A380 full of people throttling down the runway...forever...not being able to take flight. Well, the runway is only so long, you know. Sooner rather than later, you will inevitably crash, run out of space and time.
"That's a very negative way of looking at things, Brian".
Yes it is, but that's the reality of the situation and I probably know a little bit more about that than you do.
"How about running a franchise, Brian?"
Opening my own business and turning it into a franchise is out of the question for reasons mentioned above...multiplied by a thousand. Purchasing a franchise in somebody else's "kingdom" and sell their crap, become another "McDonald" of baking? Have you completely lost your mind? Have you even ever looked into what's behind the concept of franchising? I have. Initial investment requirement of $ 500.000 (half a million) is common place. And then you don't own anything. You are still working for somebody else, though getting a share of the profits that relate to your own particular franchise. You are a complete prostitute with no control of what you are doing, what products you are making or how you are making them. Your only job is to stand there and push them over the counter and if you don't push enough, hard enough, fast enough, all the voltures of the franchise will be circling above you like the real ones at a sky burial. If I had half a mille, I would open my own gig...and be back to squre one immediately. No thank you. I don't want to be another "Cobs on the corn" and my name is not Tim Hortons. I just want to be Brian. I'm very happy being "just Brian".
If you do a little research - and I have - you will see that that out of all the businesses that open (who don't have a huge, corporate financial system to back them up), 90% of them are dead and gone within three years (numbers from Statiscs Canada). After five years, 95% are dead and gone. This one just being one single example. Only 5% actually survive more than five years and the huge majority are gone withing three. Again; risk and reward...and personal choice. Do you think they might have survived, had they had more field related education? I would say "quite likely" to that.
So while working yourself to death because you can make a buck, often through treating people (employees) like shit, may work for some, it doesn't work for me. While going into huge debts in order to prostitute yourself to others...who don't really give a shit about you and to whom you are just...numbers...may work for some...it doesn't work for me.
I'm perfectly happy working for my two employers, playing them out against each other in order to create the greatest benefits for myself. It's a great situation to be in. It's steady, reliable, beneficial and it ensures I have no problems paying the bills, plus it brings me some advantages I wouldn't find elsewhere. And as a "long term investment" (in my life), I'm way better off than I would have been what would quickly have become a large, short term one.
I apologize if I burst your bubble. But you know, certain things works for certain people, while others...just don't. And thankfully, we're not all the same and we should all accept and respect that.
So I'll stay home...when not at work...and do my own little thing, which is what you see here on these pages. I'm happy like that. And should you want to "get a taste" for something new - literally - try clicking that little white area, top left, where it says "contact form". All you have to do...is reach out and touch.
BGTEO
(be good to each other)
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