Small business / Start-up / Alternative Income ?

[[Z]]

Name: Kris
Position: Large Telecommunications Company Intern
Tasks: Costing models, re-programming macros to make them work, emailing people, drinking shitty coffee
Favourite aspect of Job: it only lasts 2 months

Ok so I have been here 2 weeks, working from a desk in a very bland and emotionally constricting office space , and I have since pledged to myself that this is not something I will allow to go on for a long time (aka make a career of climbing the corporate ladder). Both for my happiness and my sanity.

I'm only interning at the moment to get some experience and add some credence to my commerce degree however I am certainly not interested in walking this path much further.

Here in lies the million dollar question;

Has anyone left the corporate world behind to start their own business or income generating project and made it work? Does it create more or less work?

or

Have I just got to look elsewhere? Small business maybe? different roles?

Is anyone here happy with their office / business job and can recommend a different angle to take?

Sincerely,
concerned rotorburner

 

[John U]

Don't rate your entire potential career path on just one job. Some companies, and even different teams within a company can give an entirely different working experience.

Free coffee from your workplace is always shit. Find a decent coffee shop near your work, pay for it and enjoy it. If you're not enjoying it it's not worth doing.

Small business = hard yards but probably much greater satisfaction in the long run if it survives. I'm only basing this on what I've observed.

 

[Kind_cir]

I just started up on my own.
Bit different to what you would probably do. (water truck)

I found working for someone was not to my liking as I like to do the job right, with the right tools.
Now I got the right equipment for the job.

Get in a truck after another driver and something would be broken / missing, or a mess.
Now I just got myself to blame, and not getting the blame for others mistakes.

I enjoy what I do and if I did not, my business would not survive. It gives you the freedom to choose your environment, the way you do things, and what to take on.
I find organizing my jobs to be the hardest thing to do. Everyone wants me to do a job all at once, then I could be doing not much for days.

I would like to do a bit more to the truck to make it more enjoyable to drive, but I know that time will come, as I have to build up the business first to have the $'s to do things. If I was working for someone I would have to change jobs on a regular basis to get something half good, but it would always be a compromise.

Once the hard yards are put in, it can become very rewarding (just starting to see a glimmer of this now after 5 months)

Do what makes you happy and let the good times roll.

 

[[Z]]

Yeah I do agree that I shouldn't project an outlook based on this measly job. Have you ever noticed a trend appear in the workplace, particular departments having a better time? Particular roles?

I suppose something basic to start with would be a side project that earns a bit of income to act as a buffer. Something arbitrary like selling boutique blue ray dvds to star wars aficionados (read that on the internet somewhere). Know anyone that has little things like that going on?

 

[[Z]]

Wouldn't be prepared to start a labour based business, have spent a fair bit of time labouring already. Would be cool to come up with a product

 

[John U]

Yeah I do agree that I shouldn't project an outlook based on this measly job. Have you ever noticed a trend appear in the workplace, particular departments having a better time? Particular roles?

I suppose something basic to start with would be a side project that earns a bit of income to act as a buffer. Something arbitrary like selling boutique blue ray dvds to star wars aficionados (read that on the internet somewhere). Know anyone that has little things like that going on?

From my experience, how much you enjoy a role has a lot to do with the manager you have, the people you work with, and the communication within the team. A job with bad work but all of these other things lining up can be quite enjoyable (for a while). A job with great work and none of these things lining up will not be enjoyable.

Selling shit is hard graft. I tried that on the side, bending over backwards to try to get people to come and try stuff (mtb stuff). I could rarely get people to come and try the stuff out. Guess I must not be much of a salesman.

 

[Calvin27]

Whatever you do please don't join a pyramid scheme. Something about people wanting to start their own businesses makes a lot of people convert to these schemes. if you ehar the words 'passive income', 'lifestyle', 'financial independence', 'health' in a business proposal, run fast.

 

[Flow-Rider]

From my experience, how much you enjoy a role has a lot to do with the manager you have, the people you work with, and the communication within the team. A job with bad work but all of these other things lining up can be quite enjoyable (for a while). A job with great work and none of these things lining up will not be enjoyable.

I believe in the same thing, some jobs can be soul destroying with the wrong type of people around you. Your persona must suit the job or you just end up hating your life, some people are happy to tell someone all the BS under the sun to make a sale, while others will not and make 1/3 of the sales. All the manager looks at is the end results of profit and doesn't really care about disgruntled customers that come back, that becomes someone else's problem.

Not many people start off at the top in job roles, so somewhere along the line you have to eat humble cookie as they say. Running your own business is a lot harder than working for someone else in my experience, it can be many hours of unpaid work in the beginning and you always hear of successful business more so than the failures where people put their tails between their legs.

I would try working in a few jobs first and get some first hand experience, take the best of what you have learnt from the workplaces and then look at starting your own business. By then you would of hopefully made some good contacts also.

 

[[Z]]

Would you say that working in a small business is a better way of gaining experience as your responsibilities have a wider range?

 

[John U]

Would you say that working in a small business is a better way of gaining experience as your responsibilities have a wider range?

It depends on the small business you are working in. The above might be the case or the opposite could be the case.

Getting a wide range of experience is probably best served by working for a few different employers. Every job you do you can learn what they do well and what they don't do so well. You can then take this knowledge to your next job and apply it there and also see what they do well and what they don't do so well. I worked as a contractor for a few years and found this process invaluable. I moved jobs regularly. You also learn different things by staying in the one place for a while and attempting change. It is easier to move jobs while you have no responsibility. Harder when have responsibilities. You should take this into account also.

 

[Flow-Rider]

Would you say that working in a small business is a better way of gaining experience as your responsibilities have a wider range?

I would say yes, you get exposed to more than you would in a large corporate firm unless you are something like a CEO.

 

[pink poodle]

Wouldn't be prepared to start a labour based business, have spent a fair bit of time labouring already. Would be cool to come up with a product

Why be the product? Sure it's a little labour intensive, but it wouldnt be often a hard shift lasts more than a few minutes.

I bailed on office world. Couldn't be happier. I do miss the air-con sometimes.

 

[Hamsta]

Alternate Income you say. Though about share trading? I started again in 2013 and haven't looked back. I started small (minimum trade with Comsec is $500.00 plus brokerage) and started regularly funnelling surplus money into promising ASX listed shares. This involved a bit of reading and research via the internet. Once I had built up a reasonable amount of capital in the trading account, I subscribed to 2 managed funds that have exposure to US markets. One fund seeks to give long term growth (the joy of compounding interest) with low to moderate exposure to financial risk whilst the other offers higher returns at the cost of moderate to high exposure to financial risk. Now I simply pay a prescribed amount each month into the fund and periodically log in and track the fund performance, which has been pretty good to date, much better than any 'high' interest bearing savings account or term deposit could offer or the interest savings if I were to simply pay off my mortgage.