NationStates Jolt Archive

Just curious. Going through that process myself. Most of the posters on this forum seem to be young and idealistic; yet I know there are a few entrepeneurial spirits on here. Any of you been through the failure of your enterprise? How did you deal with it? Anyone bounce back relatively well?

Curious...

I was a subcontractor for a cleaning company when I was 18. I learned from that experience that I didn't like being the boss of my own company. Sometimes I think about trying to open a bar or a small restaurant, but I don't like being tied down to the job. That's part of the reason I went into academia--I can have the summers if I want them, and I have a good bit of flexibility in my schedule.

I never had my own business, I wouldn't even know what service I would offer lol.

I am 16. Me and two friends (one 16 and one 17) do freelance live audio for small venues and are entirely self-employed. We also work in our school system, although we are employed by the schools business office for that.

I have been self employed in one form or another for a long time. I had my first actual business (tax returns and all) when I was like 6.

I have seen many failures, I just dust myself off and try something new. Although I am pretty good at living on next to nothing and always have been good with money.

My dad's business went down the tubes in the early 90's though and I saw him go through chapter 7 bankruptcy, I have been a little more cautious since then.

Hmm, do writers count as self employees if they just work through a publisher?

Hmm, do writers count as self employees if they just work through a publisher?

what do you mean "work through a publisher"?

I wrote a book, I didn't "work" for anyone, the publishers are like a business partner, sorta....like when I go to kinkos to print up catalogs for one of my businesses, it's not like I work for Kinkos, more like I use them to get my catalog out.

what do you mean "work through a publisher"?

I wrote a book, I didn't "work" for anyone, the publishers are like a business partner, sorta....like when I go to kinkos to print up catalogs for one of my businesses, it's not like I work for Kinkos, more like I use them to get my catalog out.

What I'm asking is would authors be considered self employeed?

What I'm asking is would authors be considered self employeed?

I would suppose it depends on how they get paid, and whom they work for. From a tax standpoint it almost makes sense for the publishing company to make sure they aren't employees. I would suppose that some author somewhere works for a publishing company as an employee, but most of the writers I do taxes for are sorta like independent contractors, they get paid if the book sells, sorta like working on commission, not really like a salary.

It's like Avon sales people are self employed.

What I'm asking is would authors be considered self employeed?If a publisher is paying them for their work, then yes. You're generally paid in royalties, so you're responsible for the taxes, social security, all that stuff. I have a couple of friends who are published writers and have had to deal with book contracts and all that crap. They teach to pay the bills. ;)

I owned a little vending machine business for about 4 years. Eventually it did go tits up, but even that worked out well in the end. I have nothing but good memories and experiences from that.

Take the oportunity to go your own way if it presents itself. Aim for success but dont cry over failure. What you learn from failing is exactly what will make you more successful the next time. Just keep trying. Get up, dust off, and hatch a new plan.

Just curious. Going through that process myself. Most of the posters on this forum seem to be young and idealistic; yet I know there are a few entrepeneurial spirits on here. Any of you been through the failure of your enterprise? How did you deal with it? Anyone bounce back relatively well?

Curious...

I've never been self-employed, but my dad is.

It's purgatory before death.

Everyone assumes that because he has no boss (which isn't true: he has to be his own boss) that he can do whatever he wants, take off whenever he wants, and he must be rich. I laugh because, he works from 8am to at least 8pm. And Saturdays. And he hasn't been able to take vacation time for the past three years, except for religious holidays.

And we are at the very bottom of middle class, and that's with my mom working, also.

I would never recommend that anyone become self-employed. But someone has to, because there needs to be someone to hire the rest of us.

I've never been self-employed, but my dad is.

It's purgatory before death.

Everyone assumes that because he has no boss (which isn't true: he has to be his own boss) that he can do whatever he wants, take off whenever he wants, and he must be rich. I laugh because, he works from 8am to at least 8pm. And Saturdays. And he hasn't been able to take vacation time for the past three years, except for religious holidays.

And we are at the very bottom of middle class, and that's with my mom working, also.

I would never recommend that anyone become self-employed. But someone has to, because there needs to be someone to hire the rest of us.


That's really similar to my situation. I have to work my bookings around classes etc. and then I have to work my free time around my work schedule. I'm actually in my slow season and thankful that I'm still a teen with my parents, cause I'm currently broke. I haven't worked for a few weeks on my school-employed job and my check hasn't come yet for that. Although I do have a gig next weekend.

Certainly Its not for everyone, but if its so terrible, why do it?

Certainly Its not for everyone, but if its so terrible, why do it?

I don't think it's that terrible when I am working and am getting steady income. I enjoy what I do and I get paid well for it. (Self-employed I make at least $100 for each gig).

That's really similar to my situation. I have to work my bookings around classes etc. and then I have to work my free time around my work schedule. I'm actually in my slow season and thankful that I'm still a teen with my parents, cause I'm currently broke. I haven't worked for a few weeks on my school-employed job and my check hasn't come yet for that. Although I do have a gig next weekend.

I'm in the live sound business myself, and am actually finding myself getting more offers of work than I could possibly do. Unfortunately it's a case of never raining, but pouring. Weekend nights I'll be covering one gig myself and passing on work to someone else, but still hitting quiet patches on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Of course, the sudden cancellations don't help either, but hey, there are much worse lines of work to be in. I'm obviously retarded because the thrill of watching live music six nights a week still hasn't left me.

I'm in the live sound business myself, and am actually finding myself getting more offers of work than I could possibly do. Unfortunately it's a case of never raining, but pouring. Weekend nights I'll be covering one gig myself and passing on work to someone else, but still hitting quiet patches on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Of course, the sudden cancellations don't help either, but hey, there are much worse lines of work to be in. I'm obviously retarded because the thrill of watching live music six nights a week still hasn't left me.

I'm in a quiet stretch right now. I'm off until the weekend, and then I'm pretty busy for the winter theatre season/various local concerts.

BWO, that sounds like an oportunity to raise your rates.

Adversity is something to be charged over, barged through, or gone around.

I'm self-employed. Employment (by others) is the Living Death, and I don't want anything further to do with it (I made several attempts at tolerating it before going into biz). So no matter what happens, I'll do *some* kind of self-employment or other rather than resort to it.

I've never been self-employed, but my dad is.

It's purgatory before death. That's exactly what I think of jobs. Wasting my life away doing other people's work, on their schedule, and obeying their orders, has less than zero appeal to me!

But, those who like employment will eventually be useful, I suppose. After all, there will come a point when I need to hire, and it wouldn't be too bright to hire someone who thinks (like I do) that employment SUCKS irredeemably!

Everyone assumes that because he has no boss (which isn't true: he has to be his own boss) that he can do whatever he wants, take off whenever he wants, and he must be rich. I laugh because, he works from 8am to at least 8pm. And Saturdays. And he hasn't been able to take vacation time for the past three years, except for religious holidays.It's a matter of which industry a bossless person is in. I gave a LOT of thought to it before jumping in, and chose endeavors where I CAN do whatever I want and take off whenever I want, most of the year.

The "rich" part hasn't warped into existence yet, but I made damned sure I wasn't just setting up some glorified job. When enough orders come in during the off-season that there's always something to do, that's what employees are for.

No, I wouldn't be for various reasons, though I may have to change that if writers and musicians are considered to be self-employed.

{{{hugs}}} for Mikesburg. Hope things work out well in the end.

I like the romantic ideals of being self-employed, but seeing how the successful ones are around here, I realise I could never be one.
There's hundreds of privately-owned after-school tutorial centres in this town, and I've worked for a few of them. Even including the betters ones I've been in, I've seen first-hand just what being boss of your own company in a very competitive area does to a person.
Frankly, it turns them into assholes.

Quite understandable, to a degree. This isn't just your job, it's your entire livelihood that you've sunk a lot of time, money, effort and a big part of your life into. Not something that you can walk away from at quitting time and forget about.
That makes you much more harder and inflexible towards people than I think you would be normally. You tend to start taking everything personally.
And that, I've seen, can easily flow on into, and corrupt, your personal life and attitudes towards others.
I'm just too easy-going to be that hard.



Call me a coward if you like, but I much prefer suckling at the teat of Public funds and remaining a teacher. I get more holidays than is practicable, am extremely well-paid and work less hours in a week than I was doing in a day prior to this.

Self employed man whore doesn't garner much money anymore. Stupid big time sugar daddies man whore are running us small businessmen out of work. And I was beginning to get somewhere in life too.

Self employed man whore doesn't garner much money anymore. Stupid big time sugar daddies man whore are running us small businessmen out of work. And I was beginning to get somewhere in life too.<Waves $10 at Zilam.>

I am self employed and have been for some time. I currently own two restuarants. They both do well but one of them is very well known and does very good by restaurant standards. Also am a partner in a financial firm. That particular business is very lucrative.

I would suggest that anyone that is going in business for themselves think long and hard at what they are going to depend on for income. Make sure it is something that has a better than even chance at making money. Just because you open a business and with good intentions does not equal a positive cash flow. Do your research and be very careful at what you get yourself into. Other than that I would suggest being your own boss. It is very rewarding.

i was for a bit, now iam sitting on a nice sum of money. i have no complaints in my current state of retierment :)

Well, I'm an artist so self, yes definitely. Employed, maybe not so much.

I have a pattern of taking and quitting day jobs. I'll work in an office for two years, get as high a wage as I possibly can, live like a pauper and save every possible penny. Then I quit and don't have to work again for another two years, sometimes three.

When I'm not day-jobbing, I make and show art, sell some stuff, get good press, and work on my book.

When I am day-jobbing, I'm frigging miserable, drink more, and need constant pep talks from friends and family to keep me going.

I also spend more time on NSG when I'm day-jobbing because if I just had to think about my job all day, things would not go well. When I'm not day-jobbing I have too much work to do to spend all day here.

Right now, I'm blessedly not day-jobbing. My goal for this period of freedom is an experiment in increasing art sales. If it works, I won't have to go back to the salt mines -- at least, not full time.

Just curious. Going through that process myself. Most of the posters on this forum seem to be young and idealistic; yet I know there are a few entrepeneurial spirits on here. Any of you been through the failure of your enterprise? How did you deal with it? Anyone bounce back relatively well?

Curious...

i went to the bank and started my own company the day after my 16th birthday (tried before and they said i legally couldn't own a company or something). i ran my own website and graphic design business up until last year or so, and it went ok. i was a full time student all the while so it wasn't really my own enterprise, more just a way of earning some good cash (though as a result i only accrued 4 grand of student debt, rather than my friends with 15-20+)

i stopped with my own business as i went to full time employment in the not-for-profit org i work at now.


my parents, however, have run their own business for about 20 years now. things went tits up pretty bad when i was about 7 in 1992, in the recession (largely because they had many european clients who had to pull out of doing business with a british-based agency after black wednesday), and have struggled to get back on track since.


personally my take is that its a matter of preference. if you work for yourself, expect to have no time off, work all the hours god sends, live-to-work (rather than work to live), be very stressed and have constant worry about things. however if it all goes well for you then the rewards of taking this extra risk can be astounding.
myself, i'm not going to work for myself again, after seeing what it's done to my parents and my family. i will work to live, and live and have a life, rather than being all about money and my business and work (because there's more to life than that)


i am however building, on the side, a great and unique market research tool deployed in a gap-in-the-market sector, and am building up a unique-to-the-world knowledgebase and database that i hope to be able to sell for profit one day...

I'm self-employed and my boss is a freakin' lunatic. :)

Thank-you everyone for all of your perspectives! (Jello in particular :) ).

It's not that I regret going into business; I've learned a lot that I would never learn in an academic environment. But here are some key points I would like to point out to anyone ever thinking of getting into their own business;

- Never partner with someone without knowing exactly where all the money is going, even if it's a family member (perhaps especially if it's a family member.)

- Don't start a business with large numbers of employees in a seasonal occupation unless you have deep pockets to begin with, and are able to take the hit if things go sour.

- Know your costs. Sounds pretty simple, but I've seen in other businesses as well as ours, that spending can easily outstrip revenue if you don't keep track of every dime.

- Never make the assumption that because you did X number of dollars in revenue this year, that you will do X + 30% next year, and spend like the money's going to come. There are no certainties.

- If you're getting into a business that involves vehicles, don't buy used. If you can't afford a new vehicle, don't bother getting into a vehicle-based business. The headaches and costs of constant vehicle breakdowns and subsequent emergency rentals will catch you in the long run. What seems like a bargain today, will become a financial headache when you're trying to make the vehicle pass safety a year from now. Far better to have a brand new vehicle with predictable payments and warrantied maintenance.

- Be careful not to 'overborrow' when you need money. All that money you borrow today to pay off yesterday's bills will have to be paid tomorrow, and if things don't pick up, you'll be worse off than you are today. And for God Sakes, don't borrow from the type of people who break kneecaps if you don't pay up. (My kneecaps are fine, ;) )

- Pay your taxes. Set money aside for it. Do it.

That's it for today's session of Mikesburg's School of Business Failure. Next Class; 'You're not your own boss; the customer is.'

I was self-employed until the sexual harrassment suit ...

I was self-employed until the sexual harrassment suit ...

:eek:

:p

I'm self-employed and my boss is a freakin' lunatic. :)
http://www.section.at/img/smiley/party.gif

You need'nt just jump in with all feet in regards to self employment, nor does it always involve tons of work. It is possible to make very good coin with little time/effort.

There have been several posters that pointed out that they are students as well as self employed, and of course, there are types of self employment that dont need your constant presence.

In fact, it is probably best if you ease into self employment. Test the water before diving in. Many services can be offered on a limited basis until you know that you can risk a little more. Start out with 5000 dollars instead of 50 000.

A couple years ago when my dad's employer got bought out and fired a load of people, he decided to become self employed. Designed a few technical devices to do with tachographs, along with doing consultation work. It did get a bit close in terms of running out of money at one stage, but by then enough people were interested in it. Now he's thinking seriously about hiring someone specifically to handle sales, besides having ideas for more products. (It helps that he make devices that the big companies NEED, not just nice thing to have. And they aren't completely new designs, but improvements on available technology. Other companies make similar devices, his is just a bit better :P)