Education Short List

Aside from being a licensed teacher and tutor – I’m an entrepreneur.

When the time came for me to be able to be my employer I did a large amount of reading and research beforehand. Some resources were extremely helpful – others not so much. Yet what I noticed that most lacked, where questions on how to deal with the day to day, as well as, the larger view of how my life was going to change. Below are, in my humble opinion, the ‘Top Six Questions’ you should be asking yourself before going it solo.

1. Can you go months without a paycheck? Health Care benefits? A 401K?

This is the most obvious – for obvious reasons. But not really. Most books and guides will want you to ask yourself – ‘How long can you go without a paycheck?’ What they forget to add, is how long can you go without health insurance? Or how are you going to make your 401K payments? So how long can you go? How much money have you saved up? Do you need medical insurance right away? Is your retirement investments going to be alright without you adding to it for a while? Furthermore, think about how you are going to pay yourself, and what is your salary going to be? For me, I get paid as a tutor – not the owner of the company; and with my other company I haven’t been able to get paid at all. It’s all investment work right now.

2. Can you handle having your pets, kids, plants, etc… as your daily partner to talk to?

Many people think – I get more done when I work at home; which, in several cases is true — but only for a day. I read a blog once, where a self-employed woman said that she used to think how great it would be to work from home, how she was going to save SO MUCH money by making her lattes at home. But, after a few months she would gladly hand over $4 for a beverage just to be able to have someone to talk to. I would laugh – however, it’s true. The quiet can be deafening. I have daily chats with my border collie, asking her if this portrait is better than this other one (she always just licks my face). I love to IM with people; not because I have nothing to do, but because I am so desperate for a ‘grown-up’ conversation, even if it is typed. The whole point is – really ask yourself if you can handle it. If not, maybe taking four hour coffee breaks at your local coffee shop is what you will need to do.

3. Are you an expert at what you want to do?

I’m lucky, in that I AM an expert in education. I’ve had a variety of roles in multiple different settings. When I talk about education, I feel fortunate in knowing I am an expert. Which is the real reason, that when I did start working on my own, that it was going to be education based. That, and the fact that if I went with my true passion of idolizing David Bowie I would drive my family and friends insane.

Here, the point is, ‘Do what you know.’ Don’t do what sounds like fun. If you are thinking that this is the time in your life that you want to pursue your passion for gardening or knitting – and have never done either – you are in for a lot of heartache. It’s not that I’m saying you can’t garden or knit; what I am saying is that while you are learning how to own your own business and learning how to be self-employed, you’re also going to be learning how to do your skill. Give yourself an ace in the hole when going into business for yourself — do what you know.

4. Can you stop yourself from watching TV all day?

This one is related closely to the second question. Again, we think, “Well I’ve worked from home before and I got work done, why would it be any different.” First, be honest, we ALL know that working from home means waking up later, running errands, doing work, AND watching some TV (or whatever home vice you have). But, when it’s only you at the ‘office’ all day long – it’s going to be more difficult to pull yourself away from the television. However, I’m not saying that you can’t do that. What I am pointing out, is, find a balance. Give yourself a break, watch TV, or go for that walk during the middle of the day — but find the inner strength to pull away and get back to work.

5. Are you alright with setbacks? Small ones? Major ones?

Building off of the knowledge that you will not be making the same amount of money as you did in your prior job; comes along the knowledge that you will have setbacks in creating your own company. How many can you handle? How big of ones? Will your company crumble if no one buys your cookies for two months? What if it’s two years? If you start out with a business partner, or a few, what will happen if one has to bail (happened to me twice)? Can you still function? Or do you need to fold?

Filling out a business plan model will help to address most of these thoughts. Yet, what I am focusing on, is the emotional toll it can take. How much emotionally, can you handle in setbacks? That is a completely different thought than the financial one.

6. Will it upset you to know that you are being copied?

When you start out you have to realize – you’re not Pepsi, or Starbucks or Xerox. You don’t have a huge budget. If you’re lucky you’ll be able to find cheap or free ways of marketing yourself, or your company. Hopefully you will do a great job of creating unique ways to get your potential customers to notice you. And with that, will come competitors who want to maximize their financial gains by building off of what you’ve done. As the old adage says – don’t reinvent the wheel.

So what I’m asking you is this: Are you going to be okay when you are copied? Will your company and its financial future be secure even when you find out that Coke, or Peets, or Kinkos built off of what you made? It can cause a great deal of frustration, anger, and headaches if you can’t. It’s definitely worth the time to ask yourself – how much can you handle.

Working on your own can be liberating and exciting – as long as you take the time to create the big picture of your goal, while focusing on the finer details. By using this list of ‘Top Questions’, combined with materials that are in your area of expertise – you should be able to make that self-employment a stable and successful reality.