Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Last week I answered an ad on Craigslist for a part-time desktop publisher. I was thinking a part-time job would offer some schedule & income stability while I get my entrepreneurial project up and running.

But now they want me to come run the marketing department. 100% no referral medical; 100% matching 401k. And the product line looks interesting to boot... it would be a chance to put my tech-comms training to everyday use. The office is about 10 minutes from my apt. I could bike there in warm weather.

In my heart I do not want a full time job working for someone else, no matter how much they want to pay me and how often I can go to the doctor for free. But am I stupid to insist on part-time so I can do this other risky thing? I haven`t had benefits like that since the 1990s. Nor steady income, for that matter... it`s always boom-bust, and sometimes cash flow gets pretty desperate. (but that`s okay since it`s my own thing, you know?)

I`m torn. I have every confidence I could do the job they want to hire me for. I do not have every confidence that my idea will take off, though I`m pretty sure it will at least be viable.

Has anyone here been faced with this decision? How did you decide?

—paula

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Natalie Berrett
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A portion of the profits goes towards helping abused kids and fighting illiteracy.

People often think, these days, that philosophy really has no practical purpose. That`s mostly due to the totally ridiculous nonsense academic philosophers have been babbling for the past century or so.

Your philosophy determines the "why" of things. (Science focuses on the "how" of things.) On the surface, the conflict of interest seems to be just a momentary issue. But if you really think about it, the underlying question is "Why should I continue to struggle, starve, and have a lot of anxiety as I try to work for myself in my own business?"

That philosophy will include your position on independence, self-fulfillment, the purpose of life, meaning of life, quality of life, and so forth.

Oh I dunno doctor visits can be fun...!
Another possibility raises its ugly head - do both. Look at the roll-out plan for your launch. Are there tasks that you can outsource to someone with some skills to contribute - let them do some of the legwork/grunt work, pay them from the earnings you generate in your job, and you contribute what only you can on the off times. This reduces the risks that you take turning down the job. Often you can get someone to tackle aspects of particular tasks that you would otherwise do yourself. This is a form of work design that disaggregates the steps of a specific task, and assigns someone with more time available to do them. Its fairly common when you are crashing a schedule under project management - it is also a standard technique in industrial engineering.
There is more than 1 way to get the job done.
A last word - remember that resumes and skills sets have a shelf life - protracted time out of the work force can lead to employment problems later. Bear that in mind, too...
Mike


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Resumes and skill-sets only have a shelf-life in relation to an employer. Certainly the resumes have a shelf-life, since a résumé ONLY applies when dealing with an employer. However, skills have no such person-relative shelf life. The only thing limiting skills is the general functionality of the skills. So a skill such as making horseshoes has a limited market today.

Skills are objective, in other words. If you know how to bake, you can sell yourself as an employee to a bakery, or you can open your own bakery. If you try to be an employee, then you`re *also* subject to the biases and preferences of the owner of the bakery where you want to work at a job.

So I don`t think one should factor in the shelf-life of resumes or skills in a decision like this. Rather, it`s more important to know the long-term gains and what short-term gains. However, without any way to compare benefits of those gains to "what you want in life," then the entire exercise is a bit pointless.