Me, An Entrepreneur….?
I’ve never really thought of myself as an entrepreneur before, until this week. Despite being self-employed, that term always had a negative connotation to me.
But a question was posed on Facebook that changed that:
Do you think high unemployment rates are contributing to an increase in entrepreneurship and start-ups? Answer: YES or NO or MAYBE
Simple question, really. But the answers surprised me, especially this one, which shall remain unattributed and anonymous:
No. How would that work? If someone is unemployed, they are probably tapping their savings, paying exorbitant insurance premiums, and unlikely to qualify for a small business loan.
You see, there are a massive amount of people in our society who just cannot think ‘outside the box’. Income, to them, means you work for someone…or that starting a business requires huge sums of money or a loan, which is why they never could do it.
Not much has changed since the times of sharecroppers, or lords and serfs in feudal times. So many people are stuck in their thinking, and because of that, stuck in their actions.
For that reason, I’m ok with being an entrepreneur.
I’ve never really thought of myself as an entrepreneur before, until this week. Despite being self-employed, that term always had a negative connotation to me. But a question was posed on Facebook that changed that: Do you think high unemployment rates are contributing to an increase in entrepreneurship and start-ups? Answer: YES or NO or…
I see this attitude a LOT being the recruiting manager at my office now. People just expect others to hand them things (jobs, clients, etc) and don't take personal responsibility for building their own business. Entrepreneurs ROCK!!!
In today's business climate, entrepeneurship is necessary to survive if your a small business owner. With the hurdles of increasing taxes, government regulation, and increased competition in pricing, you need to think differently or creatively just to make it. You melded your skills and knowledge and passion to make something for public consumption (that people are willing to pay for) – that's entrepeneurship dead to rights. I remember when you were working for "the Man" and now you're doing your own thing with your own abilities on your own dime. Good for you!
My husband is in IT and I would love it if he would work for himself. He is smarter than most people in his office and has better ideas of how to run things. He is a hard worker. Most of them do their 8 hours and leave. He's the one that picks up their slack. The only problem we have is that we have 2 kids with special needs and insurance is outrageous. Right now we don't pay much for insurance compared to what we would have to pay if we didn't have any. I worry if he started up his own company that we wouldn't be able to get them the therapies they really need. I know 2 other people that went in to business for themselves and their wives hated it. One was because of the insurance and the other was because they were always getting calls and had to run whenever the client wanted them to. My husband gets calls when he's on vacation. He even got called the day I had my son. So I don't really see this as a big deal. I go back and forth on the issue, but it sometimes seems like it would be a better fit for him instead of working for someone who knows a lot less than he does and making less too.