Looking for some opinions

[JNagtegaal]

Hi guys,

Currently i'm struggling with what decision to make and I could use some advice from people who think out of the box ( that's you ). I am 21 years old and I work as a plumber, november this year I will probably graduate from school and I want to move out of my parents house. Since I was 17 I have been working on e-commerce businesses and I have yet to get any real success from it. Lately it feels like i'm just desperately trying to find "the next good product" and I keep on getting the same results over and over again and my hunger for e-commerce is fading away.

To save you a big part of the story i'll get to the decision I am struggling with:
Do I get a good job (50k a year net salary) in the new city that I am going to live in and save some money till i'm 23/24 years old or do I keep pursuing some simple business idea in the hope that the next thing will work?

The job that i'm thinking about is offshore as an engineer, I really like the technical work and the challenge in this job really excites me. I would be working on an oil rig in the North-Sea for 2 weeks and then I have 2 weeks off. In those 2 weeks off I would probably get some freelance work or a simple job for 2/3 days a week since I can't sit still. The idea of owning my own company in the technical sector excites me, take @Sirrom for example who has a solar company. My thought is that the barrier of entry in this market would be that I need to get better at technical work and when I have between €50/70k saved up when i'm 24/25 I would then start my own firm in what ever field is "booming" at that time. Currently solar is really big in The Netherlands and airconditioning etc. has a lot of work. I know myself very well and I wont ever get caught up in the ETF bullshit/invest till your 80 and you'll be rich so I believe that things will "fall in place" (with hard work ofcourse).


I won't get too caught up in all the details, I have been thinking about this for the past few weeks so I could write pages about my thoughts. But I'm happy to hear some (very) honest opinions/questions.

 

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[Sirrom]

So you work as a plumber currently? Have you considered starting a plumbing business? I know it’s not glamorous, but I will happily invest cash if you need it haha.

Starting something blue collar is almost a 100% guaranteed profitable business these days. No one is doing it because everyone wants to be the cool dropshipper. In the meantime owners of blue collar businesses are making solid bank.

I started my solar business with a partner who was an electrician. He did the work while I got the customers so we could go double speed, but we have to split profits.

What you can do is work a short while for the plumbing company and then ask them if you can work as a freelancer for them. If it’s a no then f them and start working as a freelancer for another company. This way you can save up quite a lot of money as plumbers are getting paid crazy hourly rates in the Netherlands.

As soon as you have some money saved up (or get outside investment) I would start my own company. You lease a van and rent a small warehouse for storage. You can then go on werkspot for immediate customers and go the referral route while you build your website, socials and ad strategy to take bigger jobs.

(check out the dutch company RRS. The owner(s) are raking in cash). Besides that they helped me with a problem once and I am so so thankful they exist. Plumbing is dirty work but when you solve peoples problem they will love you forever.

I will guarantee you will make €150k/yr within one year if you start today. And if you push I think you can triple that in the year after.

There is another route you can take. I know that there is crazy money going around in the off shore sector. I’m not deep into it enough to see the needs in that sector. But if your heart lies in off shore you can also decide to work there and promise yourself that within one year you start a business in the off shore sector or else you go back to plumbing.

IMO starting your own plumbing company is a solid bet.

If you don’t want to work in plumbing for the rest of your life then just do it for a few years. Start, build and then sell the company. You can then take your profits and business skills to start something else.

 

[JNagtegaal]

Thanks Morris for the reply, well this is basically what I was thinking. My current colleague wants to start working as a freelancer and he would happily do it together with me. Maybe my business is right under my nose but i’m making excuses to do it.

This man is one of the best plumbers I know since his dad taught him from a young age and we have basically become friends throughout the last 2,5 years of working together. He also talks about hiring other people etc. I have thought about this but i’m mostly scared that him and I do would not see the same future for the business. I’ll write down the things that I think we differentiate in and I will ask him about this.

I know about RSS, the guys are indeed just solving peoples problems and everyone is happy to pay them. I mostly work in new construction (nieuwbouw) as you and I know it, so I get to skip most of the real dirty work. Thanks for the insights!

 

[Ties.]

Hi guys,

Currently i'm struggling with what decision to make and I could use some advice from people who think out of the box ( that's you ). I am 21 years old and I work as a plumber, november this year I will probably graduate from school and I want to move out of my parents house. Since I was 17 I have been working on e-commerce businesses and I have yet to get any real success from it. Lately it feels like i'm just desperately trying to find "the next good product" and I keep on getting the same results over and over again and my hunger for e-commerce is fading away.

To save you a big part of the story i'll get to the decision I am struggling with:
Do I get a good job (50k a year net salary) in the new city that I am going to live in and save some money till i'm 23/24 years old or do I keep pursuing some simple business idea in the hope that the next thing will work?

The job that i'm thinking about is offshore as an engineer, I really like the technical work and the challenge in this job really excites me. I would be working on an oil rig in the North-Sea for 2 weeks and then I have 2 weeks off. In those 2 weeks off I would probably get some freelance work or a simple job for 2/3 days a week since I can't sit still. The idea of owning my own company in the technical sector excites me, take @Sirrom for example who has a solar company. My thought is that the barrier of entry in this market would be that I need to get better at technical work and when I have between €50/70k saved up when i'm 24/25 I would then start my own firm in what ever field is "booming" at that time. Currently solar is really big in The Netherlands and airconditioning etc. has a lot of work. I know myself very well and I wont ever get caught up in the ETF bullshit/invest till your 80 and you'll be rich so I believe that things will "fall in place" (with hard work ofcourse).


I won't get too caught up in all the details, I have been thinking about this for the past few weeks so I could write pages about my thoughts. But I'm happy to hear some (very) honest opinions/questions.

Isn't it maybe smarter to start a company in a field that didn't boom?

 

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[Sirrom]

Thanks Morris for the reply, well this is basically what I was thinking. My current colleague wants to start working as a freelancer and he would happily do it together with me. Maybe my business is right under my nose but i’m making excuses to do it.

This man is one of the best plumbers I know since his dad taught him from a young age and we have basically become friends throughout the last 2,5 years of working together. He also talks about hiring other people etc. I have thought about this but i’m mostly scared that him and I do would not see the same future for the business. I’ll write down the things that I think we differentiate in and I will ask him about this.

I know about RSS, the guys are indeed just solving peoples problems and everyone is happy to pay them. I mostly work in new construction (nieuwbouw) as you and I know it, so I get to skip most of the real dirty work. Thanks for the insights!

Where do you live? Maybe I can get you your first job? I have a friend that needs a plumber for his real estate project.

 

[jclean]

Take the advice from @Sirrom.

Start your own plumbing company.

You can google Charlie Mullins from pimlico plumbing. So you can see what is possible in this industrie.

He exited the business at £140 million.
( he regrets this)

You can make a regular businesses fastlane without a doubt !

 

[JNagtegaal]

Where do you live? Maybe I can get you your first job? I have a friend that needs a plumber for his real estate project.

I’ll shoot you a text

 

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[JNagtegaal]

Isn't it maybe smarter to start a company in a field that didn't boom?

Yeah I get what you’re saying, it’s probably better to just start the company and adjust on the way since we’ll be starting out small.

 

[Ties.]

Yeah I get what you’re saying, it’s probably better to just start the company and adjust on the way since we’ll be starting out small.

Meant it more like in a market that hasn't boomed yet or that is still easily scalable (because it didn't boom yet or has been steady for ages).