Over my 35 years in recruitment I have worked for a number of large recruitment corporations at Director and Senior Management level, making literally millions of pounds working for ‘the man’ so to speak.
Now when you work in recruitment sales, you are only as good as your next month’s figures, no matter how much money you had previously brought into the organisation.
One day, the owner of a leading high street agency I was working for sold his business and, without giving me any notice what-so-ever told me I was out of a job.
I later learned that the reason I was not taken on by the new company was that my wages and bonuses were so high they did not want me on board, and that was it!
Even though I was the one who had brought in the majority of the sales for this previous company I was now surplus to requirements.
I thought enough’s enough; never again would I work as an employee in a company and so started my own recruitment agency.
To begin with, it was a little scary, anxious as to whether I was doing the right thing.
However, for the first time ever in my career, I felt in control, I was in the driving seat and the money that I was now bringing in I was able to keep and not just to receive a small fraction of it.
It was truly liberating.
For everything about being self-employed that is a challenge, there are tons of other things that are WAY, WAY better than working for ‘the man.’
I’m going to share with you 20 of them with you now.
So here are 20 things that are far better about working for yourself than working for ‘the man’:
No aspect of working for a big company can touch the deep satisfaction and fulfilment you experience from being completely self-sufficient. Knowing that you are solely responsible for contributing enough value to the world to earn your keep is one of life’s great rewards. It’s something you have to experience to fully appreciate.
Working for yourself allows you to set your own work schedule, giving you the flexibility to plan your workday around your family and not having someone dictate your daily routine or worse still checking up on you.
People who tell you that you “shouldn’t start a business in this economy” are wrong. Job security never existed, despite the fact that corporations want you to think it does. And in “this economy?” Making it happen for yourself is, quite frankly, your safest bet.
Getting laid off isn’t possible. You’ll never run out of opportunities to make money. And you never have to fear being kept in the dark until a security guard comes to escort you out one day.
Being an entrepreneur is great because you control your own destiny. If you want to earn more money, work harder, work the weekends, work evenings and reap the rewards of your hard labour.
Nothing pushes you to work harder and smarter than the responsibility of having your name above the door. Owning and running a business and in time being responsible for other people’s well-being and income gives you the motivation and discipline to give of your best.
You discover that all risk isn’t necessarily risky – and you learn to stack the deck in your favor. Most people are deathly afraid of risk. Even the word “risk” conjures up images of flashing red lights and high-pitched sirens. But the risk isn’t always risky. As a business owner, you learn how to take what’s called take calculated risks, because even though there’s a chance of loss? There’s an even bigger chance of gain–when you start taking the right risks, anyway.
8. Being an entrepreneur allows you to create your own definition of success, without someone else moving the goal post. You do not have to sit at a desk for a specific period of time, make X number of sales calls and hit specific financial targets, or produce sales forecast for the following month or worse still the whole year which you know are nigh impossible to achieve, but you do so just to keep the man happy.
Being the boss is great because you can respond to opportunities quickly. In my previous corporate life, I had to write a full proposal for any new initiatives that I wanted to introduce. Then go to a board meeting to present my ideas, which was, more times than not, modified and labelled as the company’s own idea.
Your recruitment business is pretty much 100% online, so you have the freedom to live in other countries as you work. It allows you to expand your horizons and look to do business from a country of your choice.
One of the best parts of being an entrepreneur is that it forces you to become a better person. You’re forced to learn, change, adapt, get tough, more resourceful and innovate, and since no one in the world could be harder on yourself than you, you will continue to improve.
You can arrange the work to fit in with your life, rather than arranging your life to fit around work. Obviously, it depends on the hours you choose to work, but as long as you sit and work out when you are prepared to work and when you aren’t, you can work your business to fit into your timetable.
You’re not trapped in pursuing the same career for the rest of your life working for the man. You can continue to build your business and look for other industries to explore and grow.
You can live where you want to. This applies to location flexible situations like working online. There’s no reason I couldn’t be writing this from La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort (Nigeria), Goa, or Dubai.
You can get a real buzz being responsible for your own success or failure. I would much rather be at the mercy of the economy than any “superior” in the workplace. One of my previous CEO’s did not have a clue how to run a recruitment business.
He was the type of guy who if you were at the edge of the precipice his advice would be to put your best foot forward!
16. One of the perks of being your own boss is that you get to choose the people you surround yourself with: employees, clients, suppliers. I recommend that choose people with positive energy whom you respect and trust. It makes the work a lot more enjoyable.
17. The internet makes everything easy. Even starting a recruitment business. A long time ago, starting your own business was a tall order; now, with the internet on your side, you’ve got zero excuses not to. You can get more done in 15 minutes than most traditional businesses can do in three hours. And when you have someone working alongside you, guiding you every step of the way, it is impossible to fail.
You don’t have to feel guilty about doing personal things. Want to leave early to see your kid’s soccer game? How about taking that cooking class you’ve always wanted to that starts at 5pm? What about working out during the day when the gyms are empty? Your schedule is your own when you work for yourself, and there’s none of that worthless office guilt from your boss to worry about.
No aspect of working for a big company can touch the deep satisfaction and fulfilment you experience from being completely self-sufficient. Knowing that you are entirely and solely responsible for contributing enough value to the world to earn your keep is one of life’s great rewards. It’s something you have to experience to understand fully.
Live wherever you want – This is kind of the same as working where you want, but many entrepreneurs take this a step further and live where their heart takes them as well, perhaps the place of birth.
Has your wife always wanted to live in Thailand? Do you think it would be a great cultural experience for your kids to learn Spanish? Well, it’s cheaper to start a business in Thailand or Costa Rica—especially if you’re getting paid USD or Euros. Think of the house you could buy!
Now, if those 20 reasons for you to start your recruitment agency does not move you to do something about getting started, then you would be better off just hitting the unsubscribe link above.
Again, if you don’t want to be reminded with daily emails about being stuck on a treadmill working for the man, and getting nowhere, then again just hit the unsubscribe link above and I promise I will never contact you again.
Now, if you’re still reading this then great I am going to reveal to you how to get free from the ‘Matrix’ so to speak and show you exactly how recruitment business owners are making real money and more importantly what steps you need to take to have your share of this £35 billion industry.
This information is off the grid and not found anywhere else, on or off the internet.
To borrow a quote from Matrix the movie…
“I’m going to try and free your mind, But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.”
Why now’s a perfect time to start your very own recruitment agency…
First of all, Tech has levelled the playing field.
In the not too distant past pretty much all recruitment agencies needed to have a high street presence – a physical office of some description.
Not anymore. Better technology has dramatically reduced many of the barriers to entry and lowered overheads in the process.
The point is, everything I share with you in these emails over the next few months has been tested and proven in the real world, with people from all backgrounds and walks of life.
The key to success boils down to three simple words and, they are activity, activity, and activity. Yes just thinking about taking action is not the same as actually taking action.
In my next blogpost, I will be revealing why people fail with a new start up and more importantly what steps you need to take to prevent you from falling into the same trap.
More about this in my next blog post…
P.S. In the next blog post I will go through with you why 80% of new start ups hit the wall in their first five years in business. Plus, I will also show you why starting a recruitment agency is pretty much bullet proof against this issue.
Stay tuned for the answer…
Thought for the day
Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t,
so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t!