Do you get paid for training hours in a new job?

Would you recommend leaving a salaried, well-paid job for a chance to take over a business?

• A little about me: I'm 23, a recent graduate and have secured a job working as a web developer for a small local company. The job is fairly secure working on products serving both the public and private sector. I get paid £24k a year which is pretty good as a recent graduate. I have about £10k in debts I stupidly racked up whilst studying (plus my student loans - £40k). £4k debts are in a debt management plan and £6k is owed to family and friends. Business opportunity: My ex's dad who I still know reasonably well is moving away and is looking to sell his computer repair business. From what I know from the time I was with his daughter he make around £30k a year probably more. Knowing a lot about computers I feel I would be more than capable of carrying on his computer repair business when he leaves. Considerations: The debt I owe to family I could delay paying should I find I wasn't making enough to repay it but my debt management plan would need to be paid monthly along with other regular bills such as phone bill, hosting, car lease and rent. If I took over the business I would have to reduce my time in my current employment either by doing overtime by 2 hours a day to replace one day off or by changing my contract. Note: I have only been with my current employer for 2 months and they may not agree to a reduction of hours. I have no explicit training in computer repair, although I am more than capable of resolving most basic issues, and have a good friend I could outsource hardware issues out to, I am worried I would not be as good as the previous business owner who has been operating for a good 10+ years in the field. I have always wanted to work for myself and don't see myself working for someone else past the next 2 years. I eventually plan on running my own business probably after creating some sort of SAAS web solution and selling that. My question is what would you do in my position? risk it all and take over his business or carry on as I am in my steady job.

• Answer:

  My advice is to pass on this deal, but look for a different business to launch or acquire. Here's how I arrived at that advice. The first thing you should do it take a look at your current role and pay and decide if that's really worth doing for the next 2-5 years. [edited to recognize the salary is in GBP, which is a pretty good entry level salary.] You say "I've always wanted to work for myself," so the next question is, is this repair business the right opportunity? There are two things you need to know to make this decision, and the first is, is it work you want to do?  Really think about this. I sense that the work is not that interesting to you, but the idea of being independent and working for yourself is. That should lead you down a different path. If you decide this work is something you want to do, the second thing you need to understand is the full financials of the business. At a basic level, this is a balance sheet of expenses vs revenue. A good starting point for a business sale is 2-3x revenue. But this can vary quite a bit depending on the situation. Computer repair is pretty niche - most people just upgrade when their computers break. You might have some opportunity on supporting businesses through monthly service contracts, where you're trading risk for regular income. And you have a motivated seller. So you might want to look closer to 1x revenue. If the net income is low - in other words, there's a lot of expenses to offset revenue - that number might get lower. Incidentally, Ken Larson's answer is excellent, and SCORE would be a good resource for you to leverage if you want tactical advice on taking this on. Good luck and let us know what you decide.