Working For Yourself

"Working For Yourself"

My Job Here is Done™ Transcript (for general use only – machine-generated and it may not be accurate.) 

Language Disclaimer - Chuck Fresh (00:01) This episode contains colorful language which may not be appropriate in all situations.

Dave (00:09) You know, one of the effects of COVID all over the world were people, and a lot of them lost their jobs and couldn't find any work.

Kelli (00:17) Yeah, I was lucky. I didn't feel like my job was in jeopardy, but it did cause me to think really hard about what I would do if something happened.

Dave (00:24) Yeah. Entrepreneurship soared after March of 2020 as people started to explore working for themselves

Kelli (00:31) and gig work boomed too.

Dave (00:32) Yeah, you bet. Lots of people jumped into being self-employed, doing gig work, starting their own business, and working for themselves.

Kelli (00:39) It happened to me. As you know, like the intro to the podcast says, I've worked for the man like a dog for decades.

Dave (00:46) You have.

Kelli (00:47) And I decided it was time for me to make a change.

Dave (00:50) Well, opposite your work history, I've been starting and running businesses all my life. It's natural to me, and I can really appreciate the effort, the terror, and hopefully the ultimate satisfaction you, Kelli, and all of our listeners who decided or will decide to work for themselves go through.

Kelli (01:10) Do you have what it takes to work for yourself?

Dave (01:12) I bet you do..don..umm...don..da? Let's see.

Intro (01:17) Hi, I'm Dave, and I've been starting and running businesses all my life. And I'm Kelli, working for the man like a dog for decades. And you are YOU the driven career professional clawing your way up the ladder of success, maybe running your own business, The next 20 minutes or so is just for you.

Chuck Fresh (01:37) Welcome to My Job Here is Done.

Dave (01:42) Welcome. And thanks for taking a break to give us about 20 minutes or so of your time today, maybe a little longer. But I'm Dave, your entrepreneurial therapist for today's podcast.

Kelli (01:53) And I'm Kelli, here to gently curb your enthusiasm, because I know Dave will go all out entrepreneur on you, and that's okay. But working for yourself is not for everyone.

Dave (02:04) Debbie Downer.

Kelli (02:05) No, that's a Kelli Downer to you.

Dave (02:07) Well, you're the Ying to my Yang. So, subscribe or follow us on your favorite podcast app. We don't want you to miss any new episodes or bonus material we publish on career success and entrepreneurial growth.

Kelli (02:20) And you can also interact with Dave and I personally at our website, Myjobhereisdone.com, and on social media at myjobpodcast.

Dave (02:29) This is the one about working for yourself. And today we're going to offer you a special self-assessment test in real-time right here on the podcast that will help you decide if starting your own business and working for yourself is generally a good idea or a bad one for you. So, stay tuned.

Kelli (02:51) Working for yourself is a thought that just about everyone has at one point or another in their career. The idea of working for yourself is often so strong that it's a recurring dream for some people, but few get to realize it. Being able to hang a shingle out with your business name on it and be your own boss is very appealing to a lot of people.

Dave (03:09) Yeah, there's been an uptick in people trying to start their own business, especially in North America since 2008 when we had the last recession and loads of people lost their jobs. Self-employment in some fashion steadily grew over the decade that followed. It was really when the concept of gig work or a gig economy got momentum.

Kelli (03:30) Gig work, along with full-out entrepreneurial startup businesses, got another kick in the pants beginning in March of 2020, when COVID forced the world to change in so many ways. There are some differences between gig work and starting your own business, but in the end, both are viable options for people who want to try working for themselves. Both have many paths to achieve success and at least twice as many paths to crash, burn and fail.

Dave (03:57) Crash, burn, and fail. I don't like the sound of that at all. But before we talk about gig work and starting a business, our goal with My Job Here Is Done is we want everyone listening to succeed in their career, no matter what that career path may be. Actually, we want you to excel and kick-ass and be better than everyone else around you. But today we could sound a little negative here and there and decisively opinionated on certain topics.

Kelli (04:27) Please believe Dave and I when we say working for yourself is not a simple change you make in your life. It's an enormous change that you make if conditions are right and hearing some hard truths about this will actually help you make the right decisions as you think about the possibility of working for yourself.

Dave (04:45) In our podcast episode, my dad ran a business, and my dad ran a company, we told this story. I remember coming into the kitchen one time and he had his head in his hands and he was like bent over toiling over something. And I remember walking up to him and saying, hey, dad, what's wrong? And he paused and he looked over at me and he said, I just want you to remember something, David. If business were easy, everybody would have one. And that has stuck with me all my life. I must have been eight.

Kelli (05:23) It made an impression on you.

Dave (05:24) If business were easy, everybody would have one.

Kelli (05:29) Most people believe that the vast majority of new businesses fail within the first year, making starting your own business and working for yourself very risky. But that belief is not exactly true for entrepreneurs in the US. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only about 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open.

Dave (05:51) Wow, those are not such bad odds, but you have to look into why new businesses fail at 20% to understand if you're in the other 80% that will make it two years. Why do new businesses fail? That's the question. If you Google that, you'll see dozens of reasons from dozens of sources and absolutely no common consensus.

Kelli (06:16) And if you look, most of the top reasons mentioned are things like not enough capital invested, a lack of showing value, poor management, a bad location - location, location, location -ineffective marketing or promotion, expanding too fast. I sense a DaveHard truth check coming on and remember, we did warn you.

Dave (06:42) Hey, all of those reasons are bullshit. And all those reasons are way too late to the party. From my personal experience over 40 years and echoed by my fellow entrepreneurs, the reason why new businesses fail early, including gig work businesses, is because you, yes you, started the business with half a mindset and screwed yourself before you even got started.

Kelli (07:17) I'm going to go check on dinner.

Dave (07:20) Not so fast, girl. You know it's true.

Kelli (07:23) Well, you know, he's right. I do. You know from listening to the podcast that I'm the entrepreneur here. No, I'm not. I'm the intrapreneur here.

Dave (07:34) Yeah, but you're confused because you went from entrepreneur to intrapreneur.

Kelli (07:40) Actually, I'm half and half right.

Dave (07:42) And you're still not used to it.

Kelli (07:43) No, I'm not. But I've worked for decades for other people. But shortly before covid hit a few years ago, I decided to start my own business. And one of the products I wanted to create in my new business was this podcast. And I asked Dave, my favorite entrepreneur, who I've known forever, for some advice. I remember early on telling you about my ideas.

Dave (08:06) Yeah, I remember.

Kelli (08:07) And during those conversations, I got a lot of good advice from Dave and others about things like creating value, understanding the competition, differentiating, and most importantly, understanding the risks of starting my own business. I had no problem understanding any of those things. Wasn't scared of those things at all. You're probably not scared of those things either. But one evening, Dave and I were talking about my idea, and he stopped me mid-sentence and said, you tell them what you said.

Dave (08:36) I said, Forget about starting your own company and keep working for the man like a dog for another decade or two.

Kelli (08:43) Yeah. Do you remember what happened after you told me that?

Dave (08:45) Yeah. You were a little pissed at me.

Kelli (08:48) I was actually a lot pissed at you. The last thing out of that conversation I expected was for you, I mean, you, of all people, the quintessential entrepreneur, to tell me to throw in the towel.

Dave (08:58) I didn't want to see you make a mistake that you could not possibly even know you were making. It was more like; I don't want to see you make a mistake. I wasn't feeling sorry for you. But in our conversations over the few months where you were prepping to start your company, I saw a pattern of thoughts and behavior that I thought would put you in that 20% club of businesses that would fail in a short period of time. I really wasn't happy about it.

Kelli (09:27) Hearing Dave tell me to throw in the towel was so startling to me that after I calmed down, I actually reset my entire personal business plan. He was right. I was only in half-assed. I was second-guessing everything. Like, what if I don't get any customers? Will I ever be able to afford to hire help in this economy? I remember saying to you that night right before you told me to forget about working for myself. I said, what if this fails?

Dave (09:52) Your idea and business plan for your company were perfect. It was genuinely unique. The podcast idea was great, right?

Kelli (10:00) Yeah.

Dave (10:00) And the outlook for success was very positive. But you, and it's not your fault, were sending signals to me that you didn't fully believe you could do it. You were asking questions, and they seemed like valid questions, but questions that really didn't need answers if you thought more deeply about it, the questions were attitude killers, and they were distracting you from declaring yourself the winner and having that 100% positive I won't fail attitude. And you had enough of those questions where I sensed that you didn't have the confidence you needed, and as a result, you are kind of going in half-assed.

Kelli (10:37) Yes, I get it.

Dave (10:38) And going in half-assed at the start of any new business or working for yourself at a gig job is the number one reason why people fail.

Kelli (10:48) Until I realized what you were trying to get me to understand, I just looked at the whole discussion as totally deflating. I remember saying to you, well, then you answer the question, what if I don't get enough customers? And you said, in typical Dave fashion, what if you get too many customers? And there it is, the entrepreneurial special sauce, the right attitude, and confidence to move forward and declare yourself the winner. Successful entrepreneurs flip that fear on its head and use it instead as a motivator.

Dave (11:25) That's it, you get it.

Kelli (11:27) And we can stop right here and break this down by asking, what if I don't get enough customers? Has an obvious and clear answer. In the end, I really never need to ask that question to me or anyone else. If I don't get enough customers, I'm going to fail.

Dave (11:41) It's so simple, right? At worst, it's bad mojo and an unnecessary distraction to worry about because it's not even a worry. What if I don't get enough customers? Is not the right question to ask because it's impossible to not have enough customers. If your product or service that you're selling is great, so is it great? Great. Move on. You'll have all the customers you want, and if you don't think it's great, you should ask instead, Is my product really great enough? Now that's a good question. Kelli, did you ever think your idea for services and products were not great?

Kelli (12:23) No. Never had a doubt. I knew they were great. And after our conversation and a few more glasses of wine to calm me down, I asked myself the question. Yeah, what if I did get too many customers? That was a problem I actually didn't plan for. And you know what? It felt great to ponder that. I can tell you it never felt great to think about, What if I didn't get enough customers?

Dave (12:46) If you want to work for yourself, you have to be in and stay in the right frame of mind. And those around you have to be supportive. And most of all, you have to have and keep a positive attitude. Yes. Declare yourself the winner before you even start. You have nothing additional to lose by adopting that type of an attitude. Good mojo will be in your favor.

Kelli (13:10) So it's three years now with my company. Thank you. Thank you very much. So I beat the statistic of early failure, and I can attribute it to my attitude and a good plan. But I can now easily see that one of those absent, the other can result in failure.

Dave (13:25) Yeah. The late Jim Rohn, who was an amazing influencer and business coach, said, if you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.

Kelli (13:37) And people who want to work for themselves have to risk the unusual, like the lack of that customary work for someone else's stability, or the unusual risking part of your savings to make the needed financial investment. Maybe the unusual act of quitting your job to free up the time that you need to work for yourself, you have to risk some things. If you don't risk the unusual, be happy where you're at because you're stuck there. And that may be just perfect for you.

Dave (14:04) It may be, and it may be the right thing. We mentioned two ways of working for yourself. One is starting your own business from scratch the old-fashioned way, like quitting your job as a salesperson who perhaps sold insurance for a large company, and then kick-starting your own boutique insurance business using the skills that you learned on your previous jobs to make it work for you.

Kelli (14:27) And the other was doing gig work in the new gig economy. Dave and I really like the definition of a gig economy as illustrated by the smart folks over at investopedia.com. We have a link in the show notes. Investopedia writes, in a gig economy, temporary, flexible jobs are commonplace, and companies tend to hire independent contractors and freelancers instead of full-time employees.

Dave (14:52) So look at gig work as doing what you do well today for one company but instead use your talents to do what you do well for many.

Kelli (15:01) Companies on your own terms, yes.

Dave (15:04) And at your own pace. And now as your own boss, not working for someone else, working for yourself. Gig work comes in many different varieties. There are many examples. It's nearly unlimited. And best of all, gig work is growing and being used more and more by businesses to get projects done quicker and more efficiently.

Kelli (15:26) Let's look at a few examples of how success-driven people like you can get into gig work. There are online gig work facilitators that provide everything you need to get started selling your talent. Online companies like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer, to name a few, are perfect examples of this relatively new concept.

Dave (15:46) Fiverr was one of the first gig enablers, and by the way, Fiverr was also a startup just by two people who saw a need and made a great product. And guess what? Customers showed up. Great product. Customers showed up. See, Fiverr quickly grew over the last few years, and today is a publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. It can't get much bigger than that, right? Fiverr gives you, the freelancer, the hobbyist, the talented, a platform where you can showcase your abilities and then price and advertise your services.

Kelli (16:24) These platforms are usually free to set up and get your talents out there for the world to see. They handle the marketing, they give your business a place to call home, and they work to match up customers who are looking for a service or product to those like you who offer them right?

Dave (16:39) And they make money, these gig platforms, only when you do. For example, a gig platform will take a percentage of your fee to your customer, and they'll handle all the money and the transaction details for you. You don't have to worry about billing, currency exchange, or anything. You can do business all over the world. They pay you directly, kind of like through PayPal or something like that. And they take their cut automatically. It's like business in a box. Everything is done for you. You just do what you do best and you make money.

Kelli (17:13) We have a perfect example of how this works. We used Fiverr to find the perfect voiceover artist for this podcast. We found this guy on Fiverr.

Chuck Fresh (17:23) "I'm the announcer guy, and I sound as good as the story you just listened to." "Until next time, my job here is done" "buzzword bingo” “Here are your hosts, Dave and Kelli!"

Dave (17:38) That's professional voiceover actor and announcer, and all-around great guy, Chuck Fresh. We used Fiverr to find and then connect with a perfect voice for our particular podcast. And that was Chuck. Chuck does our outros and our Stingers, and you'll hear them in various locations in the podcast, Chuck tells a story of how he was able to make great money on Fiverr. We'll link his info in the show notes for you.

Kelli (18:05) A big thank you to Chuck for being part of our journey here - yay Chuck.

Dave (18:09) Here are some other gig work examples that fit a gig platform, offering graphic designs or making logos,

Kelli (18:14) proofreading, editing, writing,

Dave (18:18) Documentation and helping others set up SEO, search engine optimization, and ad campaigns for websites,

Kelli (18:24) maybe personal assistant services, writing software code, ghostwriting for books. Really, anything you have a talent for that others may want to buy.

Dave (18:34) And gig work can be part-time or full-time. But remember, you won't be successful in any regard if you go in half-assed. Okay, so we just touched on working for yourself today, and I'm sure you have tons of other questions. But what we wanted to give you was a reality check. And that is no matter what you think you want to do, whether that is to start your own business from scratch or do gig work, if you go in half-assed, you'll fail. And we don't want to see that.  Going in half-assed is the number one reason why people who start a new business fail.

Kelli (19:12) We promised you a self-assessment test that you could take right now as you listen to see if you're ready to begin the journey to self-employment, starting a business, and working for yourself.  We call this, Are you ready to be an entrepreneur in your best announcer voice?

Dave (19:28) Nicely done. I should have gotten Chucked to do that. Listen, and we say this with all kinds of peace and love. It is better than okay to whiff this assessment because if you do trust us, the results did you a favor and now you can work to correct something that might have insidiously caused you to fail. And we don't want to see that. Consider that now may not be the time to risk the unusual.

Kelli (19:58) But if you nailed it, the world is your oyster, you entrepreneurial animal. Don't wait any longer. Let's take the next steps and make a change. Yeah, you're ready? Here we go.

Dave (20:10) Are you ready to be an entrepreneur? There are five questions to answer with a simple yes or no. Don't think long or hard about the answer. We're not going to give you enough time anyway to do that. Just say out loud in the car where you're listening, what first comes to your mind? Yes or no. After we ask the five questions in order, we will give you what we feel are the correct answers. Are you ready? Here you go.

Kelli (20:39) Question number one, more than others, you know, do people ask you a lot of questions? Question number two, financially, have you ever been frightened more than once in your life? Question three, occasionally, do you bet at a casino, wager on horse races or play poker for money? Question four, with consequences. Have you ever made the same mistake twice? And question five, are you giving your current job 100% of your effort?

Dave (21:25) Drumroll, please. No, I'm going to put in the sound effects. I'm going to put in the sound.

Kelli (21:31) I was being funny, like in Vacation.

Kelli (21:35) Christmas Vacation.

Kelli (21:40) ... Remember when he says, Drum roll, please.

Dave (21:42) Okay, I'm going to try it again ... Drumroll, please. (sound effect of drumroll) 

Dave (21:46) Are You Ready to Be an Entrepreneur?

Dave (21:50) If you answered YES to EVERY question, you are, in our opinion, ready to take the next steps to be an entrepreneur.

Dave (22:00) If you answered NO to ANY of the questions, we suggest you wait it out. "No" doesn't have to mean never. In this case, it can mean not right now, you're just not ready. The assessment may show that there's something missing that may cause you to fail, and we do not want to see that.

Kelli (22:23) What do we know? You may be asking, especially if you had a no answer in the assessment fair question, and we do not claim to be psychologists or to have any formal training in trickery questions. But here's what we do now. There are some hard and fast qualities and attributes that are found in most, not all, but most successful entrepreneurs, and those attributes are widely agreed upon. The questions we just asked dive into some of those qualities and attributes. It's just a starting point to help you go in the right direction.

Dave (22:57) If you'd like our reasoning on why we asked those particular questions and what they kind of mean to us, head over to My Job Here Is Done.com. That's our website have a look at the blog article. Are You Ready to be an Entrepreneur and friends? This is one of those podcasts where your feedback is really important. We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Kelli (23:20) Thanks very much for listening today. We hope you enjoyed the story about working for yourself. More and more people listen each week just because of you spreading the word about the podcast. So thank you very much for telling a friend about us.

Dave (23:32) And super thanks to voice actor Chuck Fresh for not just being a vendor to our podcast, but also a supporter as well - and that was after the fact. When you're in business for yourself, like Kelli and I, and like Chuck, you rely on your network to help you grow. Yes, and it's a great source of positive mojo. Chuck is an example of a successful gig entrepreneur, amongst other things. And some of the things he does is just

Kelli (24:00) "Cray, Cray",

Dave (24:01) Cray, Cray. Can you do it too? The answer might be a big yes. Good luck.

Kelli (24:08) Cueing Chuck in three, two, one.

Chuck Fresh (24:12) I'm the announcer guy and I sound as good as the story you just listened to. My Job Here Is Done is a podcast production of 2PointOh LLC. Thank you and your awesome ears for listening. Want to get involved? Have your own special story to share. Tell us all about it and you might get some airtime just like me. Browse over to myjobhereisdone.com, ya squish it all together into one word, and look for the My Story link. Until next time, My Job Here Is Done.