Short Stories of Career Changes
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 expert (from Michigan State Univ) on business start-ups, concludes that the covid pandemic accelerated the new business boom in two ways: (1) entrepreneurs saw opportunities to serve millions of people were 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 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 that a craving for independence, the ability to manage risk, self-confidence and a sense of determination are among the top characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.
The following three people left jobs to go out on their own, launching a cooking show, a home decor business and a board game company.
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 and soon replaced his former employment income so I declined an offer to return to Disney; 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 and 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 do something with this.
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 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.
