Anyone start their own business because they are sick and tired of the increasingly broken employment world? (collect, transaction)
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Junior doctors and many younger people on wall street and in BigLaw work those hours. None of them are entrepreneurs.
My neighbor is a electrical engineer working for a Electrical contractor. They have 5 Engineers. All of them work 60 hrs /wk..10hr per day 6 days per week. The sad thing is that there is no work. They go in and just sit around. If call comes in for sunday, they work Sunday too. Salary 65k.
As an employee, I cannot be forced to work more hours than I desire. So, I just work 40 hours and go home. The incentive for me to start a business is near zero, since my objective is not to spend more time working/at work.
Being an employee sucks for many reasons, but being a business owner sucks for many other reasons.
The biggest reason being an employee sucks is your life is in the hands of someone else literally. One day you can walk into work and get fired out of the blue and lose your home, car etc...
That could also happen running your own business it could fail, but at least you are the one that was in control of that. Not some a hole boss that fires you just because he has a bad day or you looked at him wrong.
No better feeling then being in control of your own destiny. Some people are just clock watchers clock punchers and others enjoy running a business and never look at the clock because they love it. I can easily and willingly get out of bed every day working for myself but not working for someone else. When i work for someone else i'm miserable getting up in the morning. When i work for myself some nights i can't sleep i'm so anxious for the next day to start.
I have never been much of an entrepreneurial type, though I've had good business sense and ideas. Problem was, my dad owned a business and I saw his struggles. Working 60-80 hour weeks for nothing more than the privilege of being his own boss. He didn't even like his work and maybe only paid himself 45k a year. I saw business owners (and still do) in similar situations, working ridiculously hard for very little gain. Work as a business owner became your life. I always felt strongly as a kid and young adult that I just wanted to work for a big company, do my work well, and everything would fall into place.
I'm 28. I've been working professionally for six years now. Every year it gets worse.... In fact, I think my first year was the best since I worked for a cool tech company for a year before getting laid off. Since then though, it's all been downhill. I've been appalled by the corruptness and just plain ****ty practices at most companies. It is an absolute rarity to find a company worth working for these days. I've seen employers gain near unlimited power and control, and most employees are treated as disposable and worthless. Positions are being combined, wages going down, benefits and pensions are disappearing, work is being off-shored, and very few jobs offer even a shred of stability of these days. Working for an employer is just NOT the picture perfect utopia I imagined it would be!
Just in my short six years, I've witnessed and encountered:
- nepotism/favoritism (preference towards "friends" rather than skills and qualifications)
- embezzlement/fraud by managers/officers
- violence/sexual harassment in the workplace
- corrupt/unethical business practices and managers
- seen people thrown under the bus for stuff they didn't do (happened to me once too!)
- people fired for literally no reason, or frequent layoffs
- the emergence of permatemp and contract jobs (low pay and no benefits with a "promise" of permanent employment that never happens)
- Management directly lying to employees, misleading them, using them.
- RIDICULOUS hiring practices
- abusive bosses. Employees treated like garbage.
Really the list could go on and on.... All that matters to a lot of these companies is the bottom line and filling the pockets of the top dogs as deep as they can. Employees of today are just getting all stepped over and no one is stopping anything. I honestly almost feel like going into a trade because unions (while ridiculous sometimes) are at least garnering some respect for employees. All and all, it's harder than ever to get hired, no job is stable, wages/benefits are going down, and employers will step all over their employees.... What's even the point anymore?
All this being said, I'm highly reconsidering my stance on starting my own business. I'm very nervous about it and not sure what I would even do... I also am not fond of potentially working 60-80 hour weeks. Not only that, but they say 4/5 businesses fail in the first year, and another 4/5 fail in five years, That leaves us, what, a 4% chance of long term success? Definitely scary. But six years in the corporate world and I don't think I can stand another year with the way employment is trending. I think I now understand why my dad worked so hard and long just for the privilege of being his own boss.... Unless you are one of the lucky people who can get in with one of those very rare good companies (and even then nothing is guaranteed), it is simply not worth the struggle of being in such a rat race.
Anyone here start their own business because they were sick of trying to work for an employer? What helped you get things off the ground? How did you handle things like health insurance or retirement savings? Are you happier now with your own business? Thanks for any of your responses!
I suggest that you read the book the 4 Hour Work Week.. also, the attitude could change.. if the only reason you're going into business for yourself is because you HATE the employment world so much, it'll show up subconsciously when you're dealing with others, especially clients, which will sabotage your success.
So Grimace, what you're seeing from all these replies is that there is no greener grass on the other side. So, the bottom line would appear to be - find what you really like to do (sales, coding, designing, etc.), then the joy will be there to offset the pain, cause some pain will be there regardless of which path you take. But tolerating pain, together with a miserable job that you really don't like, is a death spiral.
But, you're still young enough to try different things and see what really sticks. But as another person wrote, it's not just one way or another. You can mix and match. I know people who don't particularly like the job they have, but they have something else on the side that completely fulfills them (online business). The online business can take 5 years or longer to build up to the point of being able to quite the "job" if you wanted. But if you can handle both, why give up the job if they're paying your health benefits or whatever. Just make sure that each side gets 100% of your attention while you're doing it so you can continue both. Have fun .....
I have never been much of an entrepreneurial type, though I've had good business sense and ideas. Problem was, my dad owned a business and I saw his struggles. Working 60-80 hour weeks for nothing more than the privilege of being his own boss. He didn't even like his work and maybe only paid himself 45k a year. I saw business owners (and still do) in similar situations, working ridiculously hard for very little gain. Work as a business owner became your life. I always felt strongly as a kid and young adult that I just wanted to work for a big company, do my work well, and everything would fall into place.
I'm 28. I've been working professionally for six years now. Every year it gets worse.... In fact, I think my first year was the best since I worked for a cool tech company for a year before getting laid off. Since then though, it's all been downhill. I've been appalled by the corruptness and just plain ****ty practices at most companies. It is an absolute rarity to find a company worth working for these days. I've seen employers gain near unlimited power and control, and most employees are treated as disposable and worthless. Positions are being combined, wages going down, benefits and pensions are disappearing, work is being off-shored, and very few jobs offer even a shred of stability of these days. Working for an employer is just NOT the picture perfect utopia I imagined it would be!
Just in my short six years, I've witnessed and encountered:
- nepotism/favoritism (preference towards "friends" rather than skills and qualifications)
- embezzlement/fraud by managers/officers
- violence/sexual harassment in the workplace
- corrupt/unethical business practices and managers
- seen people thrown under the bus for stuff they didn't do (happened to me once too!)
- people fired for literally no reason, or frequent layoffs
- the emergence of permatemp and contract jobs (low pay and no benefits with a "promise" of permanent employment that never happens)
- Management directly lying to employees, misleading them, using them.
- RIDICULOUS hiring practices
- abusive bosses. Employees treated like garbage.
Really the list could go on and on.... All that matters to a lot of these companies is the bottom line and filling the pockets of the top dogs as deep as they can. Employees of today are just getting all stepped over and no one is stopping anything. I honestly almost feel like going into a trade because unions (while ridiculous sometimes) are at least garnering some respect for employees. All and all, it's harder than ever to get hired, no job is stable, wages/benefits are going down, and employers will step all over their employees.... What's even the point anymore?
All this being said, I'm highly reconsidering my stance on starting my own business. I'm very nervous about it and not sure what I would even do... I also am not fond of potentially working 60-80 hour weeks. Not only that, but they say 4/5 businesses fail in the first year, and another 4/5 fail in five years, That leaves us, what, a 4% chance of long term success? Definitely scary. But six years in the corporate world and I don't think I can stand another year with the way employment is trending. I think I now understand why my dad worked so hard and long just for the privilege of being his own boss.... Unless you are one of the lucky people who can get in with one of those very rare good companies (and even then nothing is guaranteed), it is simply not worth the struggle of being in such a rat race.
Anyone here start their own business because they were sick of trying to work for an employer? What helped you get things off the ground? How did you handle things like health insurance or retirement savings? Are you happier now with your own business? Thanks for any of your responses!
That is exactly how the best businesses are formed.
We didn't feel the way you do, but we did recognize some of the same problems that you have mentioned.
It took us a few years to organize our manufacturer's rep business. We started by using a corner of a spare bedroom, then a closet, then a whole room and closet, then the garage and a room, then a rented warehouse, and then a bigger one.
You'll find out that it doesn't even much matter what business you go into. If you make that business your passion everything else will fall into place.
We operated our rep business for about 20 years.
Retired now. Just got back from Key West on Sunday.
Then don't take that job.
"You want me to work 60 hour weeks? Hmmm That means OT, right? No? Ok then I won't be taking this job...."
I know a lot of people in a lot of industries. I've been working a long time. I know ONE person working 5- - 60 hour weeks...ONE: the guy that owns his own business.
(*Disclaimer...he's also making $225,000+)
Unfortunately, if you refuse to work 60 hour weeks, you won't get hired, since there are plenty of people who will gladly work 60 hour weeks. So how do you suggest people live if permanently unemployed?
Unfortunately, civil engineers in NYC are expected to work 80 hour weeks, and are not paid nearly as much as Wall Street or Big Law.
Boohoo. Truck drivers are forced to live on the road and work well over 80 hours a week for low pay in some cases and they keep America running.
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Just got back from Key West on Sunday.
