Couldn’t agree more: they were probably never fully bought into working for themselves in the first place.
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Dan Archer
History is littered with commonly held beliefs which were disproved by a mixture of scientific development, endeavour and bravery. Until 330bc many believed that the planet was flat. Aristotle was amongst many freethinkers who suggested an alternative theory which turned out to be pretty accurate. Nowadays, not withstanding the foundation of Samuel Shenton’s “Flat Earth Society” in 1956, the spherical planetists are in the ascendancy.
In the same way many in the scientific community believed that the pressures created by flight at faster than 343 metres per second would destroy both the pilot and the plane. Then in 1947 along came Chuck Yeager and proved them all wrong by breaking the sound barrier.
So what relevance to self employment does the shape of the planet and faster than sound travel have? I have been amazed in the last 6 months by the nervousness of some prospective franchisees when it comes to starting their own business. I understand entirely that anybody considering self employment will be having a bout of caution induced nerves which feels much the same as MajGen Yeager must have experienced before his sound breaking flight.
I also respect the fact that taking the step into self employment will be as alien to some as the suggestion must have been that the seemingly flat planet that we inhabit is actually spherical. What I cannot quite comprehend are the instances in the past 6 months of prospective franchisees considering self employment and also applying for jobs. I have so far this year heard on 4 separate occasions “Thanks for your help Dan but I have decided to accept a job offer as I think it is more secure at the moment.”
Far be it for me to suggest that people could be wrong and in truth if they were considering employment alongside franchised self employment, they were probably never fully bought into working for themselves in the first place. I do however have to point out some of the practicalities of what this suggests.
If you are self employed, you are fully in control of your own destiny, you are fully responsible for the business that you are running. You can and history tells us will, do more, sell more, make more, better, faster and more efficiently than you would if you were working for somebody else. Franchised outlets are regularly found to provide better service and to be more successful and profitable than corporate owned and employee managed outlets.
If however you work for someone else you are a cog in a gearing system which has to turn at a pace governed beyond your control and with a greater dependency on the actions of others. You will have less control and will be less in a position to influence the direction of your destiny.
Now neither of these options is without risk and neither is insulated from the impact of market forces. But I cannot accept that working for someone else would give anything other than less security than a self employed position where you could stand and fall by your own actions.
So does my view make me the guy holding Aristotle’s scroll as he shares his thoughts for the first time or the guy from the scientific naysayers with a “Go Chuck” banner. Neither, I respect anybody with the drive to take a step into self employment. In uncertain times, which for sure we have at the moment, those being brave are being especially bold. They are however captains of their own destiny in a way that an employee never can be.
The world is not flat and we have surpassed Mach One flight several times over. It is only by challenging these norms that we develop. Employment should not be a default position and it certainly does not provide any more insulation from the effects of the economy than self employment does.
