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I'd like to hear from people who have made the transition from employee to entrepreneur/business owner. I'm currently making this transition and I'd like to know what to expect and how to prepare myself.
I'm interested in learning about the attitude adjustments required, how you funded your business, how you managed your personal finances, how the transition affected your personal relationships, how you motivated yourself and any other problems you faced. What would you have done differently?
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I've been working for myself since 1999 doing web development for clients that are mostly US based. At first it started off as a hobby. For about 3-4 years I just helped people solve their web site problems. Prior to 1999 I started getting sick from the dust at work and laser surgery did not cure the problem as promised, but only made it worse. So I needed to do something else. Plus it was always our dream to move across the country.
So I emailed most of the people I had worked for (free) and told them I would have to start charging for my work. I lost about 85% of them, but the ones I kept started referring others to me. My business was born.
Obviously, I was making money, but didn't know anything about running a business. So I took some business courses in the evenings to bring me up to speed on things like working with accountants, taxes, leasing, lawyers, marketing, registering a business, etc...
Attitude and motivation were not really issues. One is always motivated to work at your hobby. However, my wife never supported my business idea, even if she loved spending the money. We eventually divorced.
As far as the business goes... I wouldn't do anything differently. No sense spending a whole bunch of money and time on something that won't make you any money.
Of course, over time I've learned a little more about running a business. For example, after I moved across the country to a small eastern town, I couldn't find a used car to buy locally.
So I did some market research to see if I could find clients for a website that I would build that sold advertising to used car dealers. I don't care what anyone else says.
Market research is all about finding where your prospects are and what they are willing to pay YOU for your product or service.
Anyways, after I visited a few used car lots and spoke with the owners, I realized that
if I could help them sell cars they would be happy to be my clients.
So I built the website, and put 3-4 thousand dollars into advertising it, and a second business was born. It was doing great, but I made the mistake of hiring enthusiastic, but unexperienced sales people. After I ran the business for a while, it was taking too much time away from my primary business. My sales people wanted me to travel around with them and close sales for them.
I eventually had to get out of it, as I didn't want to spend my time on the road. I wanted to be at my home office building websites for my clients. And the car business was taking off too fast. It went from $0 to $3000 in 90 days and continued to grow. I had people pulling me over driving through town and giving me their orders. (They saw the car magnets and recognized the name of the business from advertising in newspapers, radio, car publications and many advertising joint ventures I had setup.)
Of course it was a great experience... and it would have been better had I hired only experienced sales people. Still, all wasn't lost, because I wrote an eBook about how you could do the same thing, and it is still making sales.
My advice: take it or leave it -- your time is your most important commodity, and this includes your free time.
I like to goof off a lot. I give myself 3 day weekends every week through the Summer so I can spend my time at my cottage on the beach. I don't have a telephone or the Internet there.
I spend my time mountain biking, clam digging, wandering the beach or inviting friends over for a BBQ and a beer or two.
Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan