Then too, there is the need for expert accounting and legal advice if the increasingly complicated laws of our land are to be dealt with effectively.
Marketing your service or product is perhaps the biggest problem. To be done properly, marketing will demand as much or even more of your time than the actual business you have gone into.
Starting your own business is not to be taken lightly.
One way to enjoy many of the rewards of running your own show without most of the inherent risks is to work for a large company that fosters the entrepreneurial spirit. The number of such companies is growing as top management recognizes how many valuable products, services, and ideas can come out of a small, independent unit within the larger structure, particularly in high-tech areas. In these situations, bright men and women are, in effect, given their own mini-company to run, with the backing of the corporation. Naturally, the monetary rewards generated by the small unit's success belong to the corporation, not to the individuals, but all the psychic rewards are there-freedom from bureaucratic restrictions (though never total freedom, of course); determining day-to-day work schedules; functioning with a small, compatible staff; satisfaction at pursuing a smaller personal project rather than being involved in much larger, more diffuse corporate pursuits.
The popular term for men functioning within large corporations is "entrepreneur."
One of my favorite stories about entrepreneurs came out of the 3-M Company, where an individual was given his own staff and the resources to develop a super glue. He and his staff failed. The glue they were developing barely stuck at all.
But, having the classic entrepreneurial mentality, this bright fellow saw a whole new market for glue that didn't stick very well, and the very successful Post-It line of note pads was born.
If becoming an entrepreneur won't satisfy your urge to function on your own, or your company doesn't encourage it, you will have to consider the riskier step of starting your own business. The number of data processors who leave corporate jobs to go into business will undoubtedly grow as the management pipelines become increasingly clogged. DPers are impatient; they respond to growth and challenge, and to opportunities to advance in their careers. Stymied because of the field's having attracted so many talented, creative, and bright men and women, those who find their upward business mobility hindered will look elsewhere-to themselves and to their own initiative outside the corporate structure. Because a number of them will become successful, they will create small businesses that will attract others from larger, more established data processing jobs who seek the same freedom and opportunity to develop and implement their own ideas. That's a common trait of entrepreneurs, attracting small teams of young people who believe in the idea behind the entrepreneur, and who are willing to risk the security and comfort of a job in order to achieve faster growth and success.
Learn Before You Teach
I recently was served in a restaurant by a delightful young man who, through the course of our conversation, indicated that he was working toward completion of his undergraduate degree in computer sciences at a local university. I asked him what sort of job he intended to go after once he graduated.
"I want to work for myself. I have some people who'll back me" was his reply.
I pointed out to him that he might be better served working for other people for a while before thinking of branching out on his own. "There's a lot to learn," I said, "and the best way to learn it is to be working for people who've been through it and who can pass on valuable information to you."
Whether my comment had any impact on him is doubtful, but I hope it has on you. In what has often been called the "Me Generation," instant gratification has come to be expected by many young people. Solid apprenticeships are avoided by those wanting full status too soon in their lives. The spate of insider-trading scandals on Wall Street points to bright, talented, and educated young people wanting too much too soon. We seem to have become a nation of people expecting instant success, instant wealth, instant recognition, and, most sadly, instant happiness, which, in reality, comes only from having achieved those previous things through hard work and dedication to a goal.
Perhaps that unfortunate truth is at the heart of the eight failures out of ten attempts to start one's own business. We hear a lot about small businesses failing because of inadequate start-up capital to sustain the business through its initial lean times. It might be more appropriate to question the sufficiency of knowledge, training, and experience on the part of those who leaped too soon at the American dream and who did not have the inner resources to sustain themselves through those lean times.
What underlies the failure of so many new businesses is the belief on the part of individuals starting them that knowledge of the subject or product being offered is sufficient for success. Certainly, there are millions of you in data processing who know your stuff when it comes to hardware and software. But unless you have been exposed to the business world and have come to learn and understand it beyond the confines of your role as a data processor, your chances of succeeding are low when you open the doors to a business that bears your name.
