General Discussion

I have not received a paycheck as an employee since that year.

I have started up several businesses. One, which is marginally like a manufacturing business, was my small software company, OsoSoft, that I started in 1990. It was successful, but was no Microsoft. Like many small businesses, it was a one-person operation from the beginning. I designed and coded the software. I tested and debugged it. I wrote the user manuals for it. I did all the marketing operations. I produced the finished product, duplicated the disks, printed the manuals, stapled them together, packaged the products and shipped them to my customers. I was the customer support department, as well. I did every single task required to produce, market, sell, and support my products.

My primary products were reviewed in major publications and I sold thousands of copies to end users. It was very good software, indeed, for Windows-based PCs.

My company was successful enough that I carefully considered scaling up the company. I decided not to do that, though. While I enjoyed being a one-person software company, my careful analysis showed me that scaling it up would not result in financial success, due to the high costs of hiring employees, paying for a facility, and shifting every aspect of the company into a larger business. The result would have been more headaches and not more profits.

While that company operated as a one-person company, it generated an average of $50K per year in profit. I liked that. I worked about 20 hours a week on average running it, and did other entrepreneurial things the rest of the time. I wrote articles for one of the largest computer magazines in the country and operated an online retail business that sold mineral specimens to collectors all over the world. Each took about 20 hours per week. So, I made good money through hard, personal work.

So, I am an entrepreneur. Retired now, though. I closed down all of my businesses when I retired.

So, what is your business? Do tell...