NOTE: I haven’t written here in a very long time and I’ve missed it. I found this piece as I was looking for something else. Of course … isn’t that how you find everything these days? I go shopping in my own closet all the time, but I digress. I wrote this for a magazine column in 2007 when I had just started my own consulting shop and life was most uncertain. It’s now seven years later and I find it truly interesting to look back and, based on a project I’m working on, I’m thinking that this is a good starting point for upcoming articles because I have to tell you … if what’s happening now continues … I promise … truth is absolutely stranger than fiction and most certainly … funnier (if that’s even a word?)
Life as a Sole Proprietor in these Economic Times
I love your column. I’ve learned a lot from the people who have shared their stories. They feel like friends and indeed, I’ve been surprised to find out that over the years I have actually known a few people who have written a column or two…which has prompted me to think about writing a few words of my own.
So here I am. Like so many people in this excruciating economic business climate I too am an independent business person caught in the quicksand of the self-employment/un-employment struggle. On the outside everything looks fine, I can say to my friends, business is fine, I have my clients and business is going on as usual, but I know that it’s a struggle keeping afloat from month to month. Where I used to be able to go to the grocery store whenever I wanted and buy without looking at the prices on each loaf of bread…life has changed and the $2.10 loaf of whole wheat looks more reasonable than the $3.53 loaf of 12-grain. It’s become a game…a game that should have begun a long time ago for a lot of us…the game that would have kept more dollars in our pockets and perhaps safer from the storm.
But would it? Is that really the issue? I don’t think that the differential in this can of tomato sauce or a particular type of ground beef is really the core of our problem. Buying smarter helps these days, certainly. It will be human brilliance and the ability to think differently that will see us through this trough.
As I’m writing this, I know how fortunate I am to have my clients that bring in enough income to keep me in my home, cover my basics and allow me to pay the utilities and go to the grocery store. My cat has kibble and enough litter to last a very long time. I’m safe in my house and no one will hurt me here. I have my ideas and my friends and the freedom to know that I can live on a lot less than I previously thought I could, which opens up a tremendous number of career opportunities I never before thought possible. And while I will continue to work to grow my start-up business, we can do so much we never really considered before…which is the crux of my discussion.
I have friends who are giving up their high-octane business world lives and going into teaching in the primary and secondary universe because they want to give back and know that’s where the action is…and they’re doing it because they can and want to. The not-for-profit world can’t pay the salaries that business can, but it shouldn’t have to and if we realize that we don’t really need as much personally…well, then…perhaps we may get a second chance at life in a world that needs us too.
I think what I’m trying to say is that as the country looks to re-tool itself for the challenges we face, perhaps we too can regroup in our own small way and if we’re lucky, perhaps find answers to employment in our own backyards that we might not have been looking for. I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m not that naïve. But maybe we haven’t always considered the obvious. Why not look at working for not-for-profits that need help? What about getting teaching degrees and going back to the schools? If we’re all competing with each other for the same commercial jobs…only a few will be employed….we need to broaden the pool, because the number of those swimming will only increase…so we need to consider where to play and who else needs us.
I heard an expression the other day… that we’re turning into a “gig” society… that we all have several “gigs” at once… that we’ll cobble together enough projects to make a full-time job…there are already so many people working two and three jobs to make ends meet… perhaps creativity can make the workload more manageable and hopefully more profitable. New business models will emerge from this time, entrepreneurs will find a way to help make sense of this madness and build new organizations we’ve never dreamed of…and it will come from out of nowhere. It could be any one of us. It could be you. What do you want to do? Why not do it now? What’s stopping you? There’s nowhere to go but up. Start it on the side, who knows, you may be the next great thing!
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