Call me crazy but I decided to become my own boss at age 55 – leaving a relatively comfortable, 20-year career at Chrysler. Those of you who are following my story know why this switch came about; that is, a change from being an employee of a large corporation to becoming my own boss. This was a major step, one that drastically changed my life as well as my life style.
I grew up during a period when such a switch was unfathomable, especially so close to retirement age. From kindergarten through the MBA program, I did not even realize that I was receiving education solely to become an employee. I was not smart enough to ask why I was doing what I was doing. For the most part, I was simply fulfilling my parents’ expectations. Today, I realize that those who had developed the educational system, both in Japan and the U.S.A., were interested in “training” students to become employees, NOT entrepreneurs. What explains the similarities in the respective educational systems between the two countries? You can find the answer in the footnote, below.
When deciding to go solo, I did not realize how unprepared I was for what was to come. I based my decision solely on what I perceived needed to be done before I was way too old to address the issue. I knew that what happened to me was happening to millions of others; i.e., facing the threat of losing retirement income in old age.
Since 2012, I have been blogging about what I have been learning and experiencing as I have been attempting to make it as a business owner. This month, I am addressing one of the toughest re-adjustments I had to go through as a solo entrepreneur; and, even to this day, I still experience this same situation every so often.
When you’re hired by an established company, chances are that you’re agreeing to perform a specific set of tasks. And, as I wrote about it in “Technology Culture Shock,” you’re spoiled in a corporate environment in that you can focus on your assigned tasks. Should anything go wrong with your PC, for instance, you have people who are hired specifically to address these tech issues on your behalf. Lost productivity is usually limited to about 30 minutes at most. Not so when you are running your own show and not in a position to afford an employee who fixes your tech issues.
There are two types of tech issues:
- Internal: Those related to your PC.
- In the “Technology Culture Shock,” I wrote about how David and I began addressing these types of issues. As time goes on, it becomes easier to deal with them because you can learn to correct them yourself.
- External: Those over which you have no control.
- We notice this primarily in banking and, especially with QuickBooks Online Edition, from neither of which there is escape – because you run a business. QBOE, by the way, is not quite a monopoly but a leader of an exclusive group of companies which make up an oligopoly. Whether you like it or not, by default, they are an integral part of most small businesses.
- Here is what happens. Often, without notice, these entities (that are involved with your finance and accounting) implement “improvements.” To be brutally honest, as customers (entrepreneurs who PAY to receive these services), we could care less about “improvements” – unless they truly help improve OUR operation with little extra time required. Our focus is on OUR business. We simply want to get transactions completed and move on to the next task. Nothing more, nothing less. Here is the reality, however. Contrary to these entities’ good intentions, these “improvements” end up creating loss of productivity on our end. Often, it becomes an ordeal that takes anywhere between two to four hours – or even longer – of our precious time, dealing with those “improvements” that we did not ask for nor understand. At the risk of sounding cynical, sometimes I cannot help but wonder if some of these programmers are simply trying to justify their existence by constantly creating changes without any regard whatsoever to their clients’ real needs.
- Robert Kiyosaki – to whose radio show David and I listen every week – is a strong proponent of hiring professional bookkeepers, especially if you’re serious as an entrepreneur. I recognize, therefore, that it is important to offload this task as soon as practicable. When first starting out as a business owner and/or having to conserve cash, however, it is easy to fall into the trap of handling this task ourselves. Therein lies the risk of losing focus away from our core business.
- In contrast to bookkeeping, when “improvement” issues involve our own bank accounts, we have no choice but to address them ourselves – for an obvious reason; i.e., too much risk for potential fraud.
In conclusion, making a switch from being an employee to an entrepreneur is much easier said than done. I write these blogs to, hopefully, help those who are following in my footsteps. That said, I’m actually glad that I did not know much about any of these potential obstacles before taking the plunge. With as many lessons as I had to learn the hard way, short of memory loss, the knowledge I gained as an entrepreneur is something no one can take away from me.
Happy investing!
Footnote: Japan, in 1945, surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Forces, headed by the U.S.A. This marked the end of World War II. The U.S. helped rebuild Japan from the devastation of the war – remaking the country modeled after its own system with one notable exception: keeping the Imperial family intact; i.e., not a truly democratic society. (The impact this decision has had for post-war Japan is a whole different topic in itself.)
