Are you still doing that?

[Markverhyden]

I think too many small business owners like ours tend to get caught up in the technical aspects of executing the solutions. People buy these things to do what they need in their lives. Not for us to fix them.

 

[HCHTech]

"When things are going GOOD, I look in the mirror and say I did that. When things are going BAD, I look in the mirror and say I did that."

So much THIS. If you f&ck up as an employee, you hope you don't get fired, and you hope that you didn't lower the company's opinion of you enough to affect your wages or review. You can do 99 things right, but if the 1 screwup is big enough, it will erase all of that. If you save the day as an employee, you hope your boss or her boss notices, and remembers that when review time comes around.

In my corporate life, I've had bosses that wrote down and filed every damned mistake, but not the good things. Then he would review each one in excruciating detail for your annual review. You know, to help you be a better employee. It was demoralizing. I also had a boss that remembered nothing, but if we were having a good month when your review was up, you got a raise. If the company's fortunes were down that month, then you didn't. Then you had to wait a year to try again. It was maddening.

Basically, you are never directly in control of your own fortune. All of this goes away when you work for yourself. You are definitely and irrevocably in control of your own fortune. Sure, it's not all roses and moonbeams, but I sure prefer it.

 

[fencepost]

On the employee side there are also advantages to being able to go home and fully separate from work - If you're in the trades, it's not like you're bringing a lot of work home with you (except continuing education, etc.), but by the time you get to senior/management/owner levels there's some level of always having to at least think about things.

On the computer business side, particularly serving businesses, it makes a big difference how you envision and present yourself. There's a huge difference between "the computer guy we call when we can't print" and "the business continuity and compliance company that keeps everything working."

 

[callthatgirl]

You can answer many different ways depending on the person and their status. For example, past co-worker, you can say "I still run my tech company" or something more on the ownership level or "Systems engineer" still is sexy too. I have gotten "you still doing that little freelance stuff" and I laugh and say yep. For new people I meet I tell them my title of what I do, not that I own a business. Owning the business comes later in conversations sometimes.

People in the corporate or education can't wrap their heads around entrepreneurs sometimes. I'm starting school in the fall and I am 100% sure all my fellow students will be FT employees of the big company in town. Most will not understand how I think I'm sure.