The Great Office Escape

University of Shame: Credit Card Offers for Alumni

Written by Mike on June 10, 2010 — Leave a Comment

Today as I was checking my snail mail I came across a really interesting letter. It looked like a credit card offer, but it had my former university’s alumni association logo on the top left corner. There was a “0% APR” teaser on the right-hand side, typical of credit card offers.

What was going on here? I opened the letter, very curious and a bit astounded, and found that the University of Minnesota (where I obtained my illustrious degree years ago) had teamed up with MasterCard to offer and promote a new 0% Introductory APR card for a year. For years the university has sent letter after letter wanting me to donate to their alumni association. Apparently my 5-figure education was not enough. Since they couldn’t win me over through repeated requests for donations they decided to offer me a credit card instead.

That’s a great message. Graduate, work hard, spend 10+ years of your future earnings on a degree and then go out in to the world and rack up some credit card debt. Become a consumer! This is why you are really here on this earth – not to contribute to your field, but to give more money to large banks in the form of interest because we want you to shop!

I’m beyond disgusted.

If you think for one moment that our education system has not been corrupted by this enormous, pervasive system of credit and debt, think again.

Have you ever seen anything like this? Has this alumni/credit relationship existed for some time? I hadn’t heard of it before today, and I really hope it’s not the beginning of a trend.

Oh, and to the University of Minnesota: I do not use credit cards.

Update: Check out this link. Apparently this is a new practice and universities stand to gain millions from selling students names to credit card companies. Schools can potentially earn more if a student uses the card and has outstanding debt. So it is now a university’s incentive to get students to sign up from these credit cards and maintain a balance.

Posted in Education, Simple Living

The Greatest Predictor of Success

Written by Mike on June 1, 2010 — Leave a Comment

You’ve probably heard of The Law of Attraction. It’s the idea that we bring into our lives what we fear and desire the most by encouraging events through the power of our minds and our preoccupations. Many books have been written about the Law of Attraction and its authors argue endlessly that it’s a great way to get anything you want in life. They also state that if you are terrified of something (being broke, for example) you will end up penniless living with your mother.

This is, of course, crazy. It doesn’t always work :)

For example – if you live in mortifying fear of New Zealand, you can just elect not to go there. You won’t bring New Zealand into your life just by fearing it, unless you are at the market and stumble upon some kiwifruit.

I would say, however that if you keep the idea of yourself as successful in your head you are more likely to find actual success than it than if you beat yourself up every hour of the day. This is just common sense. But the law of attraction pales in comparison to a much greater predictor of success. In fact, I would argue that it is one of the best out there – sometimes even better than socioeconomic conditions.

What is it?

Having a Strong Internal Locus of Control

That’s right. You heard it here first.

But what is this?

A person with a highly internal locus of control believes that they are in charge of their own destiny. They believe that fate, chance and random events do not play a significant role in their successes or failures. If soething goes wrong in their lives, they will look to see what they could have done differently to prevent it, and what they should do in the future to avoid it. If they lose their job, they are less likely to blame the economy, their boss, or their astrological sign.

These people become successful. Because they look at the trials of life as something within their control, they are more likely to believe that anything is possible. They take responsibility for their actions (good and bad) and are less likely to complain. If something goes wrong, a person with a high internal locus of control will look for a solution instead of whining about how unfair life is.

What about the reverse? A person with a high external locus of control believes that life has more to do with random chance, luck, or some kind of guardian angel (or lack thereof) influencing events. They will complain about their misfortunes. If something good happens to them, it was circumstantial. “I got lucky that time” or “the fates were with me.” If something goes wrong they generalize and makes excuses. Having an external locus of control is a sure way to become a reactionary in life. Instead of being the golfer, you are the golf ball. You are letting life smack you around the course every which way until you end up in a sand trap.

Don’t be the golf ball.

Which Locus of Control Do You Prefer?

Check out some of the characteristics below to help determine what your preference is:

People with an internal locus of control:

  • Are self-starters and highly independent
  • Look for solutions to problems
  • Ask for help when necessary
  • Take responsibility for their situation in life

People with an external locus of control:

  • Rely on others for help and advice
  • Look for the problems in solutions
  • Either ask for help all the time (dependent) or never
  • React to what life gives them and goes along for the ride

Take a good, honest look at yourself. Do you have a high external locus of control? If so, the good news is that you can change!

How to Develop a Higher Internal Locus of Control

1. Quit Complaining

Complaining is a self-perpetuating cycle. Instead of shouldering the responsibility for the things that irk you, complaints deflect the issue. If you like to hang out with your co-workers on your break at work outside smoking and badmouthing/gossiping about your boss, girlfriend or the mailman I am talking to you.

A good exercise to try is to give yourself a week. You are not allowed to complain about anything the entire week. If you make a mistake during the first four days, that’s ok but keep track of how many times you slip up. On the final three days of the week if you make any complaints you have to do something about it. For example, if you get a bad apple at the market and you say to your friend, “this apple tastes like sewage” that is a complaint. You have to do something about it. Go back to the market and make them give you the money back or get a different apple.

This works well because it forces you to find a solution instead of assigning blame to life or the market. It is acting like someone with an internal locus of control. Keep doing this until the week ends. I’ll bet you feel a lot better by day 7.

2. Ask for Help Appropriately

If you run into a problem that you are unable to fix, stop and take a breath. Ask yourself the following two questions:

1. Is this something that, given my current knowledge, I can fix on my own?
2. Is this something that someone else with more knowledge could help me with?

If the answer is yes to the first question, stop and take a break for 10 minutes. Come back to the problem at hand. If you still can’t solve it, ask yourself the second question. If the answer to number 2 is yes, don’t feel bad about asking for help. Most people with knowledge about a particular area will be more than happy to offer advice.

This is another example of taking control of your life. You will be successful much more quickly if you put the art of appropriately asking for help into practice. It is perfectly ok to ask for help! You are not a failure if you don’t know everything. I’m a web developer with years of experience and a very strong natural design and programming ability. But I ask for help at least 3-4 times a week, either by consulting internet sources or talking with developers that might have more experience in a certain area than me. This is ok.

3. Trust Yourself

This might be one of the most important lessons of all. In order to be successful you need to believe that you have a working brain. If someone does not agree with an idea of yours, that is their opinion. If you know in your heart that a decision is the right one, why not leap at that decision? You don’t need to consult with people who you perceive as stronger/more experienced than you make a big decision in your life.

People with an external locus of control have trouble making decisions on their own because deep down they feel like life will lead them on the correct path naturally.

And this idea takes us full circle to the very principal of The Law of Attraction. If you believe that money is just going to fall from the sky by thinking about it, you are not taking control of your life. If you believe that a perfect relationship will come along when the time is right you are absolving yourself of any responsibility in making it happen. You are merely a golf ball being smacked around a golf course by some hack who you perceive as having a lot more experience or brains than you could ever have.

This is not a healthy way to live your life. Instead of waiting for things to come to you, make them happen. Turn the Law of Attraction into The Law of Proaction and make your life something wonderful. You have the power.

Posted in Lifestyle

Advantages of Leaving the Corporate World

Written by Mike on May 31, 2010 — Leave a Comment

It isn’t easy to make the leap from a 9-to-5er to an entrepreneur. Obviously there are many challenging and time-consuming steps in-between. But it’s possible that you don’t even need to make all of these steps or free the rat race in order to find a more peaceful and fulfilling work life. Maybe all you need to do is find a job outside the corporate straightjacket.

A Personal Story

As many of my readers know, in the Fall of 2007 I was fired from my job as a records and administrative assistant at small financial firm in Portland. (You can read more about this miserable job here) While this job was not technically part of a large corporation, in a sense it had many of the elements of working in corporate America without the fancy titles. I had to kiss the feet of a much larger conglomerate of financial firms and I needed to keep immaculate records. There were very tight deadlines. Our clients depended on my accuracy and timing. If their needs didn’t get met, it affected our company and they could get into trouble with the higher ups which we represented.

In other words, it felt like a corporate job.

Fast forward 5 months

I was working with a great non-profit learning web design as an intern and getting to know some truly interesting and passionate people. They were committed to a cause, (helping connect low-income people with technology) intelligent, and happy to help me learn. Even today I occasionally write to some of the friends and colleagues I met in this company for advice when I have a web-related issue or question. I am convinced that if I had not worked with this great non-profit, I would not be where I am today.

They helped pave the path I took from a depressed, angry administrative assistant at a financial firm to a web designer and internet entrepreneur with wonderful clients and a great portfolio in only a couple of years.

Was it just that the company was better? Was it the people?

No. It was that they were a non-profit. And this isn’t the only example. I’ve heard this story countless times. Working in a corporate environment is more stressful, more deadline-driven and more traditional than working for a non-profit or small, independent company. In a corporate environment, if you are low on the totem-pole (ie: your job title contains the words “assistant” or “entry-level” or “staff”) you are there only to do a job, not be heard. You are not there to make a difference. You can be replaced. This is immensely stressful, as people are not meant to be put in cages.

Still, there are some advantages to staying in the corporate world versus working for a non-profit or private company. Here are a few:

Pros

  • The pay is consistent and usually higher
  • There may be slightly more stability
  • The workload is sometimes a bit less

But here are some cons:

  • The people tend to be less creative and less willing to try novel ideas
  • Any new idea needs to go through a great bureaucratic filter or avoid some obscure antiquity of a rule before it is taken seriously
  • As an employee of a corporation you will have less opportunity to grow beyond your skill set
  • Because there is more “imperative that you follow x to the letter” protocol, you will feel more stress
  • You are more likely to be treated like a job instead of a person.

If these are not reasons enough to consider contacting your nearest non-profit to see if they need help, I don’t know what else will convince you!

If you are struggling with a lot of stress, little reward and feeling like a cog at your corporate job, perhaps you just need to escape corporate life for a better office. Sure it probably isn’t The Great Office Escape you have been dreaming about (which certainly involves some kind of tropical island and your laptop) but you’ll get there one day. In the meantime, this is a great first step!

Posted in 9 to 5 Culture

Charting Your Voyage Out of the Rat Race

Written by Mike on May 12, 2010 — Leave a Comment

It’s all in the finances.

If you want to escape from your day job, all it really takes is an ability to earn more than you can reasonably expect to live on per month. Part of making “The Great Office Escape” is having an understanding of your financial picture, and in order to do this, you need to first figure out your magic financial number.

What is this number for you?

Simple. This number is the after-tax dollar amount you need to earn per month in order to feel comfortable quitting your day job.

Before you just scribble down a number in your head, give this some real thought. Sure, you might be able to get by on $1,700 a month, but will you be able to put money away for savings? What about unexpected expenses? Pick a number that makes you feel that if you earned that corresponding amount monthly for the rest of your life (ignoring inflation) you would feel relatively secure. And when I say relatively secure, don’t factor in potential divorces, volcanic eruptions or catastrophic national financial collapses. Think in terms of today’s scenario, but project it into the future.

Got you number? Good.

Making the Journey

Start small. A business takes time to build, and good business ideas are a dime a dozen. No… actually, good business ideas are a penny per thousand.

The good news is just because your idea has been tried before (a thousand times) doesn’t mean it will not be wildly successful! In the end, it’s far more important to work consistently, develop a good plan and not give up.

Let’s say that you have decided that $2,000 is your magic number. Let’s also say that you have gotten very good at e-commerce (from your day job as an entry-level web designer) and have developed a few good leads through your day job. But it seems like such a lofty goal, reaching $2,000 a month in revenue from clients outside your job and working from home. This is why it’s important to start small.

The First Few Months

You shouldn’t plan on booming overnight success, or even booming success in the first year, especially if you also have a full-time job. There just simply isn’t enough time to make it big right away. But, a little bit can eventually go a long way. The chart on the left represents your financial picture in the next four months after you have your first regular client. It is a graphical representation of your “Great Office Escape.” The orange line is your actual monthly revenue and the purple line at the top is your goal.

Sure seems like a long way away, doesn’t it?

Your first client is happy with your work, however, and is more than willing to pay you $200-$300 a month to keep his website and net presence strong. By June, 2010, he refers you to a man who owns a small fishing business (hence the spike in income in July.) The fishing business goes under (no pun intended, I swear!) in late June, so it’s back to your original client only.

These rises and falls in projects and available work when you are starting a business are quite common. You should get used to them.

Things Looking Up

In September you get a referral from the same first client to a small marketing firm in the UK. They decide to hire you on a contract basis, and soon you are getting a lot more work!

In the coming months your workload has increased, but the consistent work from the marketing firm in the UK plus your day job is giving you more work than you know what to do with. Your Saturdays are booked, your girlfriend threatens to leave you and your dog doesn’t get fed.

There is only one option.

One cold, rainy November night in late 2010 you quit your day job. Cold turkey. You have made The Great Office Escape. It was a risk, however, as you now have to rely on your new e-commerce business! Your income immediately drops in November (as evidenced by the chart) but as luck would have it, your company in the UK refers you to another marketing firm in Portland, Oregon. You now have two sources of very steady work, plus many other clients on the side.

The chart below shows your financial progress into 2011. Incredibly, you are making more than your goal by the end of the year, and making more than you did in your day job by April, 2011!

It can be done.

Sometimes it takes a lot longer than this to be successful. Many small businesses (and solopreneur ventures) take years before they provide enough income to escape the rat race. The rewards are well worth it, though.

When I started my web development business two years ago I was making about $200 a month. Now I am earning more than I did in my last 9-to-5 job and have some very steady clients after only a couple of years in the business. If I can do it, so can you!

Posted in Escape Routes, Self Employment

Knowing What to Charge Clients for Freelance Work

Written by Mike on May 1, 2010 — Leave a Comment

When you get a new job, the whole money thing is laid out for you in a nice, little package called a salary.

$40,000 a year plus stock in the company.
$55,000 a year and benefits.
$8 an hour and pennies from the tip jar divided six ways with your fellow barristas while serving coffee-starved, bleary-eyed customers.

Sure, you might be able to negotiate a bit with your employer, but for the most part, the dollar value of your work is predetermined. This couldn’t be further from the truth when you are a freelancer. So how do you go about determining what to charge for your services? How do you know what the going rate in your area is for an independent videographer? Or for a dance instructor? Art teacher? Interpreter? Chess tutor? Web designer?

The truth is, there isn’t really a “suggested rate” for any of these freelance professions. There is, however, a great formula you can use that will help you make a determination about what is not only fair to charge your clients, but also good for your business.

The First Step: Do the Research

This part will take a little bit of research. Go to Salary.com and type in the profession that most closely matches the business you are starting, or freelance work you are performing. I chose “Web Designer” for this example.

On the next screen you will get a list of occupations that the site thinks is the closest to the profession you have entered. Choose the one that most-closely matches yours from this list. I chose “Web Designer 1″. For the record, the number following some of these profession titles is simply your skill level in your profession. A “Web Designer 3″ would be a designer with about 5-10 years of experience.

(for the record, were I actually doing this, I’d choose at least web designer 2, as I’m not a beginner ;) )

A new window will pop-up showing the national salary averages for your profession. In my example, the 50th percentile (where the bell curve in the diagram is closest to the top) is around $47,000 per year. For the purposes of setting your hourly rate, drop the final three digits. This leaves us with 47.

The Second Step: Do the Math

Take the number you got above and divide it by 2. This left me with about 23.

Now, ask yourself how much work you can expect (in hours) per week. If you expect to get close to full-time work from your clients (40 hours per week) round this number up to the nearest multiple of 10. This is your final hourly rate to charge for your services. In my example, it would be $30 an hour.

If you expect to get less work early on, consider adding another $10 an hour to the final total. This would leave us with $40 an hour to charge as a level 1 Freelance Web Designer.

The Third Step: Consider Other Factors

There are other factors that might dictate that you raise or lower your rates a bit. These factors include:

  • Working in a location with a lower cost of living (lower your rates)
  • Being a complete beginner in your field (lower your rates significantly or consider doing some work pro-bono)
  • Being highly specialized in your field with little competition (raise your rates)
  • Offering multiple services (vary your rates depending on service offered)

In the End, Who Determines Your Rates?

You do! And… so do your customers.

The truth is, for any freelancer, business owner or entrepreneur, your appropriate rates are whatever makes the most sense for your business. If you charge $450 an hour for trombone lessons, you probably aren’t going to get many clients. On the other hand, if your rate for Spanish lessons are $1.75 a class, you won’t be able to cover your basic expenses! Your clients also might see you as a beginner or a talentless hack if you undercharge. Don’t undersell yourself!

In the beginning when you don’t have many clients, it’s ok to experiment a bit with your rates (as long as you are fair to your current clients!) There are no “shoulds” in the freelance world. Hopefully the formula above gave you some idea about what to charge for your services – but it is meant as a guide only! You could have a very successful business charging twice the amount the formula gives you.

Posted in Self Employment

How to Stop Compulsive Web Surfing

Written by Mike on April 27, 2010 — Leave a Comment

“If I only had more time in the day I could really make headway on this project…”

I’ve heard this one before. I’m sure you’ve even muttered words similar to these. WIth the explosive birth of social media (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, iPhone Apps, Blogging etc.) it’s becoming more and more difficult to focus on anything. This is especially true if you are doing the majority of your work on a computer, where the net is just a click away. This description likely fits you, as you are reading this post online. And since this site is called “The Great Office Escape” you probably are also looking for ways to improve your professional life!

I have a great suggestion for you: stop surfing the web. If this means closing this browser after reading this post, so be it. In fact, I’m actually going to tell you to make this your last web-surfing activity of the day. But more on that later.

Why You Should Quit Surfing

1. You’ll save a lot of time – This goes without saying. If you only surf 15-20 minutes a day, it isn’t a big deal. But 15-20 minutes a day is 2 hours a week. That adds up. What could you be doing with that time otherwise?

2. You won’t retain much of what you read – Most idle surfing is just a replacement activity for boredom. While it may seem like you are learning or taking in information, studies show that you are likely to either forget most of what you “learn” or never have much of a use for it anyway.

3. It drains your energry – How many of you seriously feel like doing work on your computer after you’ve spent an hour looking through Facebook photos? Not many, I’d assume. This is because you’ve already spent a lot of your energy staring at your screen. Your reserves are taxed, and you haven’t accomplished anything. It’s best to do your work first, then surf if you must.

Methods to Quit Surfing

1. Replace idle surfing with active surfing – Idle surfing is surfing the web without a purpose. This is akin to going downtown and driving around aimlessly, wasting gas and looking at all the storefronts. It’s much, much better to use the net to learn or to obtain useful information. If you are doing research on how to escape your 9-to-5 job, that’s active surfing because it has a purpose. (I hope that’s why you are here!)

So drive back home with your head held high and think about what you need downtown before you go there again.

2. Schedule a time to surf – This actually works wonders. When you get up in the morning and you have the urge to go through all your favorite sites, tell yourself “I will not do this until noon, and then only until 12:30.” If you force your surfing time to a certain time of the day, you’ll probably find that when the time comes you’ll do more active surfing (instead of passive surfing) because there are likely things you will realize that you need to do as the time gets closer.

3. Check and respond to your e-mail only twice a day – 9am and again at 1pm. These are good hours to check and respond to e-mail. Any more than this and you are probably just looking at an empty mailbox and driving yourself batty.

4. Do pushups – Yup. You heard me. Every time you view a webpage that is a result of passive surfing, do 5 pushups. If you view 10 pages, that’s 50 pushups. Soon you’ll be so tired that you won’t be able to type. This goes under the self-punishment category, but it works!

5. Close your browser – After you are finished reading this post I want you to try something. Exit this website (after bookmarking it, of course!) close your browser, and your computer, and don’t go online the rest of the day. If you have honest-to-goodness work to do, go ahead and do your work, but if not – turn it all off.

I know this sounds a bit extreme, but if you can train yourself to stop the surfing process instantaneously the middle, you can break the habit.

Ready? Go!

Posted in Lifestyle

Eating Out is a Great Way to Save Money

Written by Mike on April 13, 2010 — Leave a Comment

Gwah? Are you serious, Mike? But everyone says that shopping for groceries, “buying in bulk” and cooking at home are the best ways to save!

Well, guess what? If you follow my advice eating out can actually be cheaper.

So put the 6-pound bag of rice back on the shelf and hit up your favorite Olive Garden instead! There are a few catches of course, but if you follow my handy guide to eating out like a pauper you may end up saving more than if you had gone to the market and thrown a couple of steaks on your Foreman grill.

The Rules to Saving While Eating Out

1. Don’t Dine Alone

If you take your girlfriend, brother, mother, in-laws, ex, you stand a very good chance of saving a significant amount of change while dining out.

Why?

No, not because you are going to con them into paying for your meal. (Although that is one possibility with this arrangement, especially if it’s your ex and they left you)

It’s actually because you can share a meal. If you order an $24 filet mignon with a side of rice, potato and veggies, I promise you that you won’t be able to finish it on your own anyway. You could probably split that sucker with three people. And do you know what that means? It means $8 per happy person with slimmer waistlines and a lot more savings.

Let’s be real here. These days almost nobody can actually finish some of the portions they throw at you at most restaurants (especially in America, where there is often more cream cheese than bagel.) You’ll not only be richer if you share meals, but you’ll also be thinner.

2. Waiter, can I have some Water?

That’s right. Hold the soda. Soda makes you fat, and adds a couple of bucks to your final bill (with tax and tip.) The water is free, and you get unlimited refills. This holds true with wine as well, but if you are going to drink it isn’t a requisite that you do it while you eat out. In fact, you might just enjoy your meal more without the alcohol.

If you do want something fruity/sweet that is alcoholic you could always share something with a couple of friends. You’ll still get the taste to go with your meal but without the swaggering after-effects. And you’ll be able to drive home.

Less is more.

3. Entrees are Buffets and Appetizers are Entrees

This is an important lesson. As I said earlier, portion sizes in most restaurants are enormous. You don’t need that much food, I promise you! Most appetizers are enough for anybody, and sometimes you can even share these! If you are looking to save a few bucks, consider ordering an appetizer as your main meal. One of the best ways to do this is to get an “appetizer sampler” which is actually more food than some main courses but usually a bit cheaper.

But don’t expect to use this technique at a fancy place. This is only useful if you are eating at Applebees, or something similar. If you order only an appetizer at a fancier restaurant you’ll end up with a huge plate, a tiny bite of caviar in the center and a growling stomach 13 seconds later. You’ll need to order more food. Bad idea. In fact, I would go so far as to say that you shouldn’t order an appetizer at any restaurant that has more than 3 “$” symbols next to the restaurant’s review guide under the “cost” section.

4. Ride the Coup(on)

If you are choosing to eat at a nearby restaurant it is not uncommon to find great deals and discounts at your local supermarket. There are often “coupon” books available to patrons of restaurants that are popular in town, where you can sometimes get 15-25% (or more) off your entire meal! Do a bit of research and load up on these restaurant savings options. I tend to keep over 100 of these little miracles at home. (Actually, I don’t. They expire. I have a couple.)

Sometimes you can make a game of this! See which restaurants in your area are offering discounts. If it’s one that you have never heard of, it can be a new adventure, and you’ll save a significant amount!

Eating Out Like a Pauper Can Be Fun, Too

If you follow some of these tips and hints you will save money, and you’ll still get all the perks that come with eating out. After all, the whole experience of dining away from home is about the company, the food, and the atmosphere. If you save $10 on your meal you’ll still have fun!

Ironically, eating out for less can actually be healthier, as you won’t be tempted to have the enormous elephant-like portion sizes that are pushed on everyone else. So at the end of your meal while you are satiated for $6-$10 you can watch your friends loosen their belts, complain about how full they are, throw down $26.95 and go into their food comas after dinner.

Side note: Just make sure not to skimp on the tip. Servers are underpaid for the difficulty of work they perform and the rudeness they have to put up with.

Posted in Humor, Money, Simple Living

Are you an Entrepreneur, or are you “Just” Self-Employed?

Written by Mike on April 12, 2010 — Leave a Comment

Entrepreneur. Solopreneur. Self-Employed. Small Business Owner.

I throw a lot of terms around that, when looked at objectively, might mean something similar. But in many ways an entrepreneur is no more a small-business owner than a pig is a slice of bacon. A slice of bacon once was part of a pig but a pig does not have to become a slice of bacon. And it takes a long time for part of a pig to get there (and many argue that it shouldn’t get there in the first place!)

All oinking aside, there is a big difference between a true entrepreneur and someone who is self-employed. The latter can become the former, and generally speaking, the former is almost always the latter! If you understand this confusing relationship, you’ll understand more about what these heavily-misused terms actually mean!

But Which One am I?

An entrepreneur is someone who creates new business in an untested new area. Entrepreneurs seek new opportunities through often unexplored business ventures and often create a new market. Bill Gates is an entrepreneur, because he created Microsoft, which was more than just a software company. The guy started by programming non-stop in his garage as a Harvard drop-out because he had a vision and an idea. Entrepreneurs need both.

A self-employed individual, by contrast is simply someone who replies on himself to create his own income. They also run a business. This is really an umbrella term than can include freelance writers, photographers, journalists, salespeople, web designers, plumbers, doctors and lawyers. These people are “self-employed” because they don’t collect a monthly paycheck from their employer. Their pay comes from their clients.

But your average doctor is not an entrepreneur! The notion of this actually seems kind of silly, when you think about it! A Doctor may have patients (and a lot of patience) but unless he patents a cure for Hepatitis-Q, or some other disease, he’s generally not doing anything groundbreaking that hasn’t been done before. He’s there to make your leg feel better. :)

There is some overlap between terms, of course – entrepreneurs are self-employed by definition! This article explains it all quite well too, especially the differences between building a business and simply running a business.

For Comparison

Entrepreneurs

  • Have an idea or vision
  • Find a way to create income that is unusual, untested, or in a new market
  • Build an “empire” or at the very least, build something that is uniquely their own
  • Design and run a system that they have created
  • Do something groundbreaking and different

Self-Employed Individuals

  • Have clients
  • Work for themselves, but are doing work that others have done before
  • Might have a unique business model, but are not straying too far from a proven system
  • Work and specialize in a certain industry
  • Often run a business that require them to be “at work” in a similar manner to a standard job

Employees

  • Collect a steady paycheck
  • Apply for jobs (when unemployed)
  • Have benefits, 401k etc run by their employer
  • Work on company hours and company time
  • Sit in a desk all day and slowly rot (kidding! :) )

Becoming an Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs are a rare breed. The leap from a self-employed individual to an entrepreneur requires a certain amount of risk, vision, and ability to truly think outside the box. It also requires a person to stop thinking about their professional life as a “career” and more as a means for the expression of a great idea or business venture.

Not all self-employed individuals want to becomes entrepreneurs. Many are perfectly happy running a small business, or being an attorney with some well-paying clients. It’s really a matter of personal choice and ability. But the romantic term “entrepreneur” sure gets thrown around a lot, doesn’t it?

You like bacon, don’t you?

(Actually, I don’t, but I do like entreprenurs!)

Posted in Self Employment

The Courtesy of a Rejection Letter

Written by Mike on April 11, 2010 — 2 Comments

As a fresh-faced recent college grad excited about his entry into the “real world” in the spring of 2005, I encountered one of my first soul-crushing obstacles that helped set me on a slow but sure course toward the entrepreneur I am today.

I would send out job applications and never hear anything back.

This sounds pretty silly, if you think about it. Obviously if I was never getting a response it meant that the employer I had submitted my application had chosen a different candidate. But it wasn’t the obvious nature of the rejection that bothered me. It was the fact that I never got a response. Compounded over the course of a couple months and ten job applications later I began to doubt the strength of my resume (and I lost some faith in the very institutions that I was applying to.)

My First Rejection

That spring I got one rejection letter. Though I changed the name of the company and position, it looked something like this, and it came by email:

Dear Mike,

Thank you for your application for the position of Giraffe Cleaner at Bats R’ Us. Unfortunately we have elected to go with another candidate for the position. Best of luck in your job search.

-Chas

I was incredibly confused. I had just been rejected, but it actually felt good! Someone had given me the time of day and had actually taken a few minutes of their life to write a letter, albeit brief and likely a template.

Employers, take note. If you want to not only contribute some good to the lives of many unemployed people looking for jobs, but also build your reputation as a “nice” company, send out rejection letters. It’s the least you can do. Yes, this can be difficult if you have a lot of applications, it can be frustrating for you to try and reply to all of them. But it’s also a courtesy. Even if you send a standard rejection letter that you downloaded from a template site online, it’s at least a response. This way you are not keeping hopes alive. It also makes your company look better.

As for me, I will make you this promise: if you apply to an ad for a job that I have posted, I will get back to you, even if the news isn’t all that rosy. I know how it feels.

Posted in 9 to 5 Culture

New Workplace Trends: 9 to 5 is So Last Decade!

Written by Mike on April 10, 2010 — Leave a Comment

I have an old friend who works as a software engineer. He holds the same position with the same company as he did over five years ago. His salary has increased steadily each year. Coming from a traditional family where his father valued hard work ethics, integrity, and professional stubbornness, my friend was ecstatic to land his first job right out of graduate school in the Fall of 2004.

At the time, I was in my last year of college as an undergraduate. I’ll never forget the night I came home from my evening class and he told me the good news. His job had benefits, (dental and medical) 401k, a share in the company and a salary in the mid-60s. Every college grad’s dream.

He is still with this same company today. His story is becoming increasingly rare.

And this is a good thing.

Really, Mike? A Good thing?

Yes. Our economy is struggling, and workers are getting laid off at an alarming pace. People are desperate to find work. (If you are one of those people, I’ll be my friends’ position sounded pretty good, didn’t it?) It seems like we are all underemployed. But what are we really struggling to find? My friends’ work. The work of yesterday. The paid benefits, the salary, the company car and the whole shebang.

The sooner we wake up from this “dream” the better off we will be! Why?

Because 9 to 5 is Soooo Last Decade

And this is a good thing. It’s your time to shine.

What is happening is that a new, more flexible workforce is emerging. This is a workforce that is not run by the power of the corporation, or the middle manager. It isn’t run by the clock or the benefits. It’s run by you.

Your talents, skills, and abilities are valued. These talents are a piece in a large jigsaw puzzle that when put together with the talents of other individuals can make great things happen. Project work is replacing bean counting. We have computers for this now. “Pay by the project” work and “billed hours” are replacing the 40-hour workweek. And the idea of one person working in one career for his whole life is going the way of the dinosaur. And this is all great news.

It’s great because more than ever before we have the ability to grow professionally. If you are a great web designer without a full-time job and you land a project that requires some graphic design, you can either call a graphic design colleague to do that part of the work, or you can do it yourself. And as a web designer, adding graphic design to your repertoire is a very useful thing.

If you work 9 to 5, it’s very difficult to grow in this way. Try telling your manager that you want to take over his duties because you want to “grow professionally” or “learn” or “earn a bit of his income.” He’d laugh at all you all the way to the unemployment line!

The disappearing 40-hour workweek is also a good thing. Most people don’t actually work 40 hours a week. They are just scheduled to be at their desks, behind their counters, or in front of their computers for this amount of time each week. A majority of the time, workers aren’t doing anything job related. (One study suggested that the average office worker actually only puts in about 3 hours of work in a given day!)

I don’t know if this statistic is true for my friend, the software engineer, but I sure wouldn’t want to waste 47,000 hours of my life doing nothing. Human brainpower is a valuable thing. A whole lot of it is going to waste. The transition from an employee assigned to performing a task while collecting a paycheck to a self-motivated individual with talents and a skill to offer the world is an important step in professional evolution.

What to do if you Want my Friend’s Job

Instead of fretting over your lack of benefits, a decent salary, or a job, ask yourself what you are good at. What skills do you have to offer the world? Who would be able to make use of these skills? Are your skills valuable where you live?

The 9-to-5 job is slowly becoming a thing of the past, as more employers are wising up to the fact that freelancers, contract workers and home business owners can often to the same work without the benefits and the hefty salary. Even if you want this kind of job, in 10 years it may become so rare that it is more of a pipe dream.

You don’t really want a 9-to-5 job. You want to become part of the new workforce: the land of the skilled professional. You may have a lot more fun doing it, and you’ll feel valued as a citizen of the planet, not just a member of your company.

Perhaps instead of lamenting the increasing unemployment rate and the lack of “fair wages” we should embrace this brave new professional world! What do you have to offer?

Posted in 9 to 5 Culture, Self Employment, Society and Culture
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