Employee to Entrepreneur
The following brief stories profiled, within the Philadelphia Inquirer on 3/6/22, three individuals who changed their careers from employment by others to starting their own businesses.
OVERVIEW
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 5.4 million new business applications were filed in 2021. One business start-up expert (from Michigan State Univ) concludes that the covid pandemic accelerated the new business boom in two ways: (1) entrepreneurs saw opportunities to serve millions of people who were working and learning from home; and (2) a historic number of people quit their jobs in 2021; many started their own businesses out of economic need.
Experts and academics offer this advice to rookie entrepreneurs: There are always highs and lows. If you’ve lost your passion for your new business or reached the point where you can’t stomach the financial repercussions, it’s time to ask hard questions about going on.
Gallup (a long-established public opinion business) has found the following are top characteristics of successful entrepreneurs (people who start their own business):
* Craving for independence
* The ability to manage risk
* Self-confidence
* Strong sense of determination
The following brief stories illustrate three individual’s experiences after they left their employment jobs to go out on their own.
FILM DISTRIBUTION & SALES TO YOUTUBE COOKING CHANNEL
Old job – employed by a major film production company.
New venture – a YouTube cooking channel: “Tasting History”; start-up costs of about $2000. for a camera and related equipment; quick success, hitting 150,000 subscribers in just 4 months; soon replaced my employment income so I declined an offer to return to former job; I had no experience in setting up a subscription business, so I found an agent whose guidance is well worth her 10% commission; now I have over a million subscribers and am full up with sponsors.
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE TO HOME DECOR BUSINESS
Old job: Account executive at a commercial design firm
New venture: “Candice Luter Art + Interiors” – several years ago, I saw an ad for a local farmers market; had never “upcycled” anything (taking old furniture and decor to make it better) but had seen it on Pinterest; bought power tools and asked for help using them; started upcycling anything I could; a month later, I believed I really could make this into a profitable business.
The biggest challenge was no initial business sense; I didn’t set out to be a business manager and lead people; my best fit is in design, so I’ve added people with different skill sets to help with marketing and shipping. I also outsourced personnel and accounting tasks. I’ve hired a business strategist to plan goals for 5 years in the future.
TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANT TO BOARD GAMES PRODUCTION
Old job – consultant with a major technology company
New Venture – “Pegasus Games” – Several years ago, quit my desk job in an office to “do my own thing” – learned coding and launched a website with my brother; two years later, burned out from coding so sold the website to a competitor; wanted to do something with my hands so created a board game about corporate life; not trying to get crazy rich, just wanted to know if it was possible to earn a living while making something I was proud of; I posted a “Kickstarter” campaign that raised about $18,000 which was enough money to order 1,000 copies of my invented / designed board game from a manufacturer; recently shipped over 100 games and in the end, broke even with the Kickstarter money.
Recommendation – next time I’ll have a marketing campaign in place before launching another Kickstarter campaign to raise money.
