Self Employed???

I own my own auto repair shop for 3 yrs now. I started working on cars in 1980 in high school. I went at it a different way, I bought my boss's business. It was already established so I didn't have to worry about bringing the business in...initially. You still have to do a good job and think of creative ways to retain (yes alot of it DOES depend on how much you charge these days) and gain new customers.
If your not sure of what you want to get into- as far as WHAT type of business, think of this scenario. Actually, you just think of economic times like now. What will people NEED even during hard times? Likely not a new restaurant to go eat being they can't afford to go out. Not likely a Hot Rod ONLY shop (unless your THAT good and people are already beating down your door for your quality work), Just think of things like that.
I saw a nice ART store open up last Spring in our town, I even used them to frame a cool A-body print that I bought. They closed last month.
Another pseudo- mechanic shop just closed up 2 weeks ago- they only wanted to do oil changes.

On the other side of the coin, a Pawn shop opened up and they are BOOMING. Just think outside the box. I tried the transition phase- It'll wear you out. I was working for a wrecking yard and trying to start MY OWN mech shop out of my small 1.5 car garage. Imagine you working two separate jobs, well, that exactly what your doing. If your single , that's one thing- but if your married, have a pair of matching kids to go with, your gonna be lacking in one dept. or the other. Either your business is gonna suffer cause your not putting enough time to get it going or your marriage and family are going to get the big empty from you. AMHIK!!!
I could go on.... lastly- get a good bookkeeper!! Forget about doing all your paperwork. You have a job to do, customers to service. Unless you like staying up late doing paperwork and pulling your hair out trying to get figures to jibe. I hope this is some help.
It CAN be one of the most rewarding things that you can ever do in your life OR it can keep up up nights, give you health problems from stress and suck the life from you if you let it. Oh- one more thing. If your not conservative- you WILL BE. You'll have a different look at the gov't when you see how much crap they put you through with red tape and taxes.
I wish you the absolute BEST of luck and please feel free anytime to PM for any questions!!
Mike- 4fortyDemon