Investment return is in the eye of the beholder. I'm 27 years old, and have been doing this four years. Aside from the first year, where there was only one route for about half the year, I have broken six figures. This is in an area where the median HOUSEHOLD income is less than $40k. I can go in depth into how that is achieved, but it is the basic idea that you wait for 'fire sale' routes....like, you snag up everything abandoned, anything left by somebody who was terminated, etc....put a truck on it, train a driver, and run it until you have made whatever back you have 'into' it, and dump it for well more than you paid. Then you take your profit and buy something you actually want to run; everything I just sold was urban, high-volume, and contiguous. THEN! After you've reinvested what you've been able to bank off of the idiocy and/or misfortune of others into something that is actually an attractive business (even if only on paper and in terms of cash flow), you throw in a revenue matrix for the next five years or so (like, say, your ISP negotiated numbers) and blam...mama gets new shoes.
We sold for a price that leaves us (my husband and I) with enough cash to live off for a year (we obviously won't do that, Ill start looking for a job soon) and we DID finance 25% of the sale for the next five years at 6% interest...so my mortgage is paid for the next five years to boot. I have no car loan debt and outright own three personal vehicles, no credit card debts, no student loan debt, no personal loans, nothing like that. Just a mortgage on the third house I have owned.
So, as I said, some might not see it as a 'good' investment...BUT, it does make you money.
Was it worth it? No. I've got miles of documented MAJOR contract violations with our terminal management and can prove willful 'ignorance' on the part of both CR and FDX HR. Our SM was investigated for workplace violence and harassment, complaints made by myself, other contractors, and X personnel. Dude got two days suspension, complaining X employees got fired or transferred, including the girls who spent regular time on their knees in his office. Ive got bigger and better things, that I never 'busted out', so to speak, that are going to be sent to our SM, regional mgmt, CR, and Pittsburgh now that I am gone and can no longer be retaliated against. I wish I didn't have to be vague, but at this point I guess I still have to be.
I loved what I did. And I was damn good. But I hate FedEx. I hate them with every fiber of my being. And I fully intend to still be the snarling little dog chewing on their ankles if I can't be the pit bull that rips their face off. Someday that big dog will come along.
