Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Most people who decide at some point to start a business of their own, first have held jobs with someone else. There are some people who might be fortunate, who began their entire work history doing something on their own.

I was a musician and started in bands, mostly self-employed, from 17. I never did really understand working for someone else, until I was a lot older.

But most people begin work as an employee. Then they decide to start a business. Helping Kathy, I’ve noticed some interesting problems that crop up, coming out of very deep psychology, and also from background.

One of those problems is an almost unnoticed tendency to stop after a task and say, “Now I’m done.” Another related problem is to often feel overwhelmed. I got to wondering about that.

Think about working a job, being an employee. You always have a manger telling you what to do. So although you may have a job description, your day is task-oriented. When you complete this, you’re done. Then go do the next task.

What about when you’re the sole owner, though? Let’s say you make shirts. If this were your job, that’s all you’d do—make shirts, day in and day out. At the end of each day, you’re done. Then you go home. In some cases you might possibly give a passing thought to the shirts, but mostly, you’re done.

On the other hand, this is your business now. So you make some shirts. Are you done? No, now you have to start your next job—working in the mailroom. You’ve got to package, label, and prepare the shirts to mail. Are you done? Nope. After you’ve handled transportation to the delivery carrier, you have to be an accountant.

You have clients who need to be reminded about payment, and there’s the daily bookkeeping. Then you’ve got marketing and advertising. You have inventory you have to check.

Then you’ve got warehousing. Do you have enough material to make more shirts? When you worked for a boss, all you had to do was report that, “Hey, we’re about out of material.” Someone else would handle ordering it.

Then there are issues of what happens when you go to buy more raw materials and they don’t show up. Maybe the order’s late, or the company stopped making that line of fabric: What then?

Anyone who’s worked a job for any length of time is going to get caught in this “Okay, now I’m done” mentality. You’re NEVER done! The only way you can be done, when you’re running your own business, is to quit, die, sell the business for millions, or to go bankrupt.

All you can really do is to say, “I think I’m caught up for the moment. Maybe.”

Think of starting a business somewhat like a life-changing trauma, like losing a limb, going blind, or being paralyzed. It takes some time and real therapy to come to terms with the idea that this is the way it’s now going to be for the rest of your life!

Not many people can do that, so they become bitter, or feel overwhelmed, or feel stressed all the time. Isn’t that similar to being an entrepreneur? And yet, running your own business is supposed to be fun!

I think a problem is this accidental belief that when you’ve finished a particular task, you’re “done.” No, you’re not. You’re just caught up at the moment. Instead of doing one job really well, boring as it may get, you have an entire job description for each part of the business.

How could you get caught up in any of them, when you used to spend whole days just staying ahead on a single job?

Think about how often you “feel” as if you’re done, then you get upset because some other damn order comes in! Sheesh, now you have to interrupt your play time to worry about whether or not you’ll get it out in time, whether the customer will like it, what about the quality, and all sorts of things.

There you thought you were done, and suddenly…you’re not! But when you get back from the post office, you might be caught up a bit. Right?

CraigL... You make entrepreneurship sound so difficult. So un-rewarding... I think I will quit! Wait. I can`t quit. I have no boss to give notice to. Damn. Looks like I am onto the next thing before starting the process all over again. 

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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

LOL!! Ayup....you CAN`T quit! You`re doomed to pursue this passion until either you die or become a bazillionaire!! 

Craig, you TOTALLY summed it up.

I`m drowning in to-do lists and I have no one but MYSELF to blame!

Nikole:
YOU`RRRRRRRE FIRED!

I also am never done, merely caught up.

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Craig, you bring this up because of the psychology of "being done".  The thing is, there is a very satisfying feeling of accomplishment that comes with such a mindset.  This I believe is crucial to working, that need to feel like one has accomplished something.  This is important for taking on more tasks.

On the same level, I will argue that it is equally dangerous as an entrepreneur/business owner to feel like they are only "caught up", and to ignore the idea of "being done".  You are correct in that one is never done when you look at it in the physical realm, meaning the actual amount of work.  Yes, the job is endless.

This is where I think feelings of being overwhelmed come from, not from difficulty coming to terms with endless workload as you explain, but indeed from coming to terms with it.  When you look at the big picture, it can be overwhelming!

I think there is a healthy balance between a clear understanding that the job is never done and being able to accomplish things within that understanding so one can "be done" at the same time.  For me, I strive to find such a balance.

YOU JUST DESCRIBED MY LIFE!

I am going to print this and hang it on one of the production or inventory or supply order or time clock or just one of the boards that I don`t even know what they really are for anymore business boards that I now having hanging everywhere to try to keep track of everything going on! Maybe I will hang a copy on every one of them just so I know I am not alone!

Steve,
This is an Excellent analysis, and begins to really bring forth the underlying concepts and points!

What we have to look at, as entrepreneurs, is our psychology as we define "the big picture," and "the details." There`s that "don`t sweat the small stuff" saying out there, and I think it applies.

The problem I began to see has to do with the "feeling" of being overwhelmed. I would say that it`s perhaps one of the leading trouble factors for anyone starting their own business. It`s at the center of many fears, most stress, and leads to an always present worry about maybe quitting. "If I feel this overwhelmed, maybe I can`t cut it?"

What I`m suggesting is that if you walk into the entrepreneur world with the *same mentality* that you developed as an employee, you`re heading for real trouble. Yet at the same time, so many people got their whole training and philosophy of "work" and "job" by being an employee.

Yes, there`s a tremendous satisfaction from completing an order. But it must be viewed differently from completing a "task" or a "project." The satisfaction of finishing an order is much deeper, multi-faceted, and speaks to the overall satisfaction of life. It`s not "just a task" ordered by a supervisor.

There`s another platitude about how enjoyment comes from the journey, not arriving at the destination. Running your own business is a journey. It isn`t a destination. That`s what I`m seeing as something people initially confuse, when they first switch from employee to startup business owner.

Your business is the journey. When you`re an employee, the end of the day, the weekend, summer vacation, or Friday night is the destination. It`s a short-term chain of events, not a long-term lifestyle. But being an entrepreneur is a life-style. It`s "the whole thing" now, not just something that has a bunch of smaller steps that have to be completed.

To the sole owner, putting away a couple of new rolls of Scotch tape is satisfying as a "job well done." Why? Certainly the business owner is more than "just a temporary secretary?" In fact, the owner is EVERY employee, wanting to do a good job "for the boss" no matter how small.

The point is that when you complete even the smallest task in running your own business, it`s part of both enhancing your life and enhancing the bottom line. Even cooking dinner or making lunch is folded into the overall new lifestyle.

Don`t think of it as a "lunch break," where some faceless "boss" is timing you. You PAID for that lunch out of the work and effort you yourself have started to finance with your own hands, your own mind, and your own imagination. :-) You *created* that lunch personally. You didn`t just exchange some work for some money.

Dinner? Lunch? You mean... we`re still supposed to find time to eat in the middle of all this?!

On a more serious note, great posts, Craig and Steve. Sometimes when we are overwhelmed by how far we have left to go, it helps to look back for a moment to see how far we have come. Maybe, just maybe, we have come far enough for today, and tomorrow we will move forward still.

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Rosanna Tussey
Owner
New Mexico Candle Co.
http://www.nmcandleco.com