I'm your friendly neighborhood bill collector.
Started working part time while going to college. Mom and Dad were paying for school and this was a job to get office experience. Started making $3.75 an hour as a collector + bonus when I was around 22 or so and a sophmore at Canisius College.
Well, by the time I was a senior I was making more money than my dad, who was a high school teacher with 30+ years experience. I had all the beer money in the world and was driving a new IROC Z-28 Camaro.
Got into management when I graduated, then eventually left my original employer after burning out doing 80 hours a week (they drove their managers like nothing else I've seen). But, the experience I gained there was immeasureable.
Got my Masters Degree while floating around as a collector so I could do the school stuff, then got into the Sales and Marketing end, selling the collection agency services to various banks and other lenders. I couldn't believe what a great job that was, as within the first month of taking the job, here it was a weekday afternoon and I had a gold club in one hand, a beer in the other hand, and had a client meeting on the golf course. Are you kidding me? This is a job? So, for almost 10 years I got paid to take people to lunch, dinner, golfing, fishing, strip clubs, etc. Wow, I couldn't believe it.
I started with the firm when there was 13 people and we grew it to over 800 in those 10 years. Well, the owner sold the place for $48 Million. I realized building a collection agency wasn't rocket science, so I told him I would stay on for 1 year after the sale to help with the transition but after that I was done and was going out on my own.
1 year and 1 day after the sale I left. I sat on the sidelines for 6 months then started my own place. Now, I do anywhere from 30 hrs a week to 90 hours, depending on whats going on. When I started the place it was 90 hours a week no matter what, but now that we're established its more around 50 - 60 hours a week. I'm getting on the road a lot more now and getting back to sales, as I've finally got a staff around me that I'm comfortable with. Now, it's grow, grow grow and let the $$$ fall in.
Still got loans to pay-off from starting the place, but we're doing better than we ever have and are up to almost 60 employees. Plan to get to 100 by the end of the year, then have another few years of growth and get the place to around 400 or so people, at which time I should be making a great buck, all the while having the employees in place to handle 99% of the work for me.
Still have a lot of hard work to get there, but I can see it now. It's taken an awful, awful lot out of me to get here, but in the end it's going to be worth it when the final cash out comes.
From there, who knows. I'm not the type to be able to retire, that's for certain. I will most likely work til I die, but work doesn't have to mean 80 hours a week - it can mean 30 hours a week while spending time gardening, fishing, etc.