Chose between staying with the union crew or going out on my own back in 2011
I had 14 years in with a big outfit out of Sacramento doing tilt up panels, steady pay, benefits, the whole deal, but a guy I knew offered me a shot running my own small crew on driveways and patios. I took the steady check for two more years, then the housing bust hit and I got laid off anyway, so I ended up going solo at 44 with a wheelbarrow and a used screed. For the guys who made that jump, was there ever a moment where you knew it was time, or did it just happen to you like it did to me?
Read a thing a while back about guys who went solo after getting laid off in the bust. Said most of them never picked the moment, the moment picked them. That was my deal too, laid off in 09 and the phone just stopped ringing for steady work. The ones who made it were the guys who already had a truck and a name people knew, not guys waiting for a sign. Sounds like you had both.