By Philip Kossoy

Freehold NJ

So you think you want to own your own business.  You really think you have what it takes to make it a success.  It couldn't be that hard right?  Just start with a good idea, buy some equipment, rent some office space, set up a phone system, hire a few employees and that's it right.  WRONG!!!

Philip Kossoy of Freehold NJ owns and operates a small business which has grown to a very large small business for sake of oxymoron's, and Philip Kossoy can tell you that if you like working 80-90 hours a week, don't like to procrastinate and can be told time and time again by others that you are wrong then you might just be able to cut it.  However, if you are not the type of person who can deal with 20 different things going on at once, most of which are bad things (fires that need to be put out) then Philip Kossoy advises you to keep your day job.

First there's dealing with employees.  Employees who may not follow instructions and procedures that you have carefully put into place.  Broken equipment that nobody tells you about.  Philip Kossoy recalls getting into a company vehicle one day and hearing the engine rapping, only to find out that his employees have been hearing this for weeks.  It turns out that the van has 2 quarts of oil in it.  Frustrating huh?  It only gets better from here!

Your business is now thriving.  You get over 100 phone calls a day.  Too bad you get an additional 25 calls each day from telemarketers that you need to fend off while placing your real customers on hold.  That's always fun to deal with.

How about those high operating costs of running a small business.  Philip Kossoy can read them off like they are burned into his memory.  (Yes I'm writing in the third person again).  First there's liability insurance which runs $10,000 - $20,000 a year.  Then there's workers comp insurance which in Philip Kossoys industry is 15% of the gross payroll.  That's right 15% of gross payroll.  Oh, and speaking of payroll, how about for every dollar you pay your employees, the government gets another 15-20% in payroll taxes from the company. Of course there's health insurance (Got $7,500 every year to spare per employee)?  Petty Cash, Taxes, Accountants, Bookkeepers, Lawyers.  Are you getting the picture?

Then there's advertising.  About $100,000 goes to yellow pages, and maybe $75,000 to build a decent web site where your customers will find you when doing a Google search.  Actually Philip Kossoy chose to spend 10 hours a day for 6 months to build his 400 page web site.  "There I go again writing in the third person".

OK so now you get the idea.  Demanding customers tell you that you have to come out today or I'm cancelling.  Or better yet they tell you that you are wrong, and you have to suck it up and listen, even when they are clearly the wrong ones.  Employees that have a mind of their own, telemarketers' interrupting you all day, the massive overhead of running the business,  making sure payroll doesn't bounce this week.

So you think you want to own your own small business.  Well, Philip Kossoy says "You had better think twice before jumping in.  If you don't have the work ethic, the mental toughness, the stomach to deal with a plethora of drama and conflict every day, and the ability to manage all of these moving parts all at once then it's not for you" 

Philip Kossoy

Freehold NJ