Entrepreneurship vs Employment
Morning or Afternoon or Evening to you, from wherever you are listening right now!
In the last episode I updated you that I have started full time employment in April. However, after 6 years of entrepreneurial life I have had some habits that need to adapt to this new lifestyle. Now let’s be honest, due to the Covid we are still working out from home which means not a lot has changed in that area, but there is still some substantial change. In this episode I want to discuss those differences. We will look at what means to be an entrepreneur and what are the reasons behind not doing it, or the reasons for running a business. We also will look at why you may like being employed and some downsides of it, which I am sure you can easily guess. Anyway, let’s dive in!
- Let’s start with the question: Do you need to be an entrepreneur in the first place? The craze of being your own boss (quote on quote), being free and al those blah are definitely the wrong reasons to start a business. Do you become your own boss? Partially. Your boss is the person who pays you, meaning your client and the moment you have an investor on board, they are your boss. Ok, let’s you do not mind that, then what about having more free time? You definitely would be wrong here. The hours you work will almost never be 40 in a week, forget evenings and weekends. Why? Well first you wont have resources to hire a team to delegate and if you got investment to do that, the workload and deadlines for success will be too much for you to handle in 40 hours. Even if you manage that, your mind will never stop thinking about work, your socialisation and view on the people will change and you will start seeing all as an opportunity, things will become different. Sadly you will lose friends and connections if you do it wrong. Lets say you worked super hard, and did not mind being dependant on investors or angry clients, then what? Will you get rich, is it guaranteed? Not at all, 90% of start-ups fail and if you end-up without a debt, count yourself lucky. After putting all my savings, all my salary and time into the company and at the end I ended up without any savings at all and in 2.5K in debt. Thankfully selling company for 3K helped to cover that, and I do consider myself lucky.
- On the flip side, you would ask yourself why you definitely should try entrepreneurship just for the experience of it? The entrepreneurship will help you in lots of way. First things first it will help with the itch of creating something and you will be happy that you pursued the path to answer the questions you had in mind, even if it fails. You also will accelerate your networking and sales skills tremendously, which are super important in the business world, but also will help you boost your confidence. Another benefit, and in my opinion the biggest benefit, is that you learn how to manage finances, business and personal. As you pour all your finances into business and aiming to make it successful, your view on your own spending habits will change. Those habits stay even after you have stopped running your own company and you make your purchases more meaningful, save more cash and have healthier relationships with money.
- So now we know the benefits, how can you get those benefits and get experience of entrepreneurship without actually risking your career and lifestyle. Start with something small, like a side hustle that you do for an hour or two in the evenings/mornings or over weekends. That way you do not risk your finances, but enjoy reaping the benefits of entrepreneurship. If it ends up being successful, then you switch to full time run.
- Ok, we have covered pros and cons of entrepreneurship and being self-employed, shall we chat a bit about employment? So what are the pros? Stability is a single word answer. The salary and finally being able to save gives you such a piece of mind. Knowing that you have your evenings and weekends free and holidays lets you focus on your hobbies, have free time, focus mental health and enjoy social life. Human factor is also huge, you will build a diverse network without looking for business outcome, will enjoy friendship with coworkers. Now some people may say that you are always in routine and that is bad, but it is not. The discipline, forced growth and knowledge are the provided benefits that we do not realise.
- Are there any cons? Of course there are. First of all, no matter how open and modern the company is, you will lack the full autonomy in the decision making. The more stricter the industry and the company is the more rigid it will be. Talking about rigid, lets talk about 9 to 5 schedule. Today many companies are flexible, but stull you will have to have some limitations, which can be sad on very sunny days. Finally, and in my opinion the biggest con is corporate politics and games and hurdles you have to go through. That can drain all of your energy, but again may differ from industry to industry.
Today we talked about motivation, motivation behind starting a company or not starting it and motivation to loving or hating your job. As a summary I would say that the grass on the other side is always greener, so do not get sad with what you have. Use it most to your advantage and try new venues and opportunities as they arise without risking much. While I am drafting the next episode, stay tuned and let me know if there are any ideas. Thanks a lot for listening and as always remember to check Anchor channel for the audio version Thanks for being here, stay safe, talk to you later!
