I work in tech and have been working at a small telecommunications company for 2.5 years. I moved up in the company very quickly and am now general manager. The owner, Jack, and I have agreed to keep my pay hourly instead of salary because I ended up with more money.
Let me tell you a little about Jack. He owns four small but profitable businesses, that together have ~300 employees. He is a very good businessman and a wonderful salesman. Jack and I get along very well, better than anyone he's worked with according to him. He really likes me and I really believe in him and his ability to make a business prosper.
I dream of being a software engineer, or I'd like to oversee a team of developers. Jack loves efficiency and has always seen his future in software development. So naturally, we began developing a piece of software to optimize two businesses of his. From the start he's always said he wants to sell the software to others, on a monthly subscription model. I've been working on this software as the only dev for almost two years. A beta version of the software has been deployed in two of his businesses for about a year now and it's proven it's value.
I've been working on the software at home after working full time at the telecommunications company. Ideally I would work much fewer hours at the telecommunications company to focus on software more, and I've already hired people to fill my gap there.
I get paid hourly for the software development, the same rate I get at the full time job. I'm starting to see a bigger picture here with the software and so is Jack. Not just this software but future projects too. I told Jack I want in on the business side, he said he would bring me on as a 1/3 partner on the software company. If I take the deal I would have to stop getting paid hourly for the software development, which makes sense to me because I'd be investing my own time for the 1/3 stake. Or, we've negotiated 10% ownership and I can keep getting paid hourly.
Here's the tricky part. We're both smart people and know we need each other to make this happen. He said he will give me whatever I want, up to a high limit, to keep me on board for this software company. If I said I needed hourly pay plus 1/3 ownership plus a company car, he would give it to me. But we spoke frankly with each other and asking for all that really effects our relationship and will probably be worse off for us as partners in the future.
I'm generally frugal and I've been sitting comfortable with all my hourly pay. I've been able to save ~50% of my pay. But if I take this partnership, that would change. I would only be getting paid at the telecommunications company but I would need to work less there too. My math works out to 1/2 as much pay. I would still be able to save a little but not much. Best case, it will be 2 years before I can live off the software.
I'm 22. Jack is 40. I have no debt, 6 month emergency fund, Roth IRA, own my car, and have another 20k invested in different places.
TLDR: I've been working hourly but have a chance to be a partner. Taking the partnership would mean less pay now, but great opportunity ahead.
Submitted July 01, 2018 at 01:17PM by UnknownAuthor1 https://ift.tt/2IHLffz
