Entrepreneurs who regret having ceased to be employees – 09/04/2023 – Market

Sam Schreim has been his own boss for nearly 20 years.

Over his career, he has started a consulting firm, launched several startups, and advised high net worth clients as an independent consultant.

But if the 54-year-old could go back in time, he might never have taken the step to become a self-employed entrepreneur.

“If I had a crystal ball, I would never have taken that leap,” says Schreim, who lives in Boston.

“I regret it all the time. I look back now and I would make a seven-figure income as a management consultant if I was working with the big companies.”

Leaving work to become your own boss has become a very popular option.

In 2022, for example, applications to start a business in the United States reached the highest levels since 2004, with more than 5 million new businesses registered.

But as the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in March demonstrates, which left many small businesses without access to their accounts, being an entrepreneur involves great risks and responsibilities and makes some regret leaving their jobs as corporate employees.

Schreim learned this the hard way in the Great Recession of 2008.

At the time, he was forced to pay wages using his savings for a 15-person team. He accumulated sleepless nights and huge debts.

The last few startups he launched failed, and even now, as an entrepreneur who combines independent consulting with book writing and data-driven product development, he often looks back with regret at not continuing his work at a large management consultancy. in Beirut, Lebanon.

“My friends envy me,” he says.

“But they don’t know what I went through. Every entrepreneur takes risks, and the world needs them. But it’s not an easy lifestyle.”

It’s not uncommon for the reality of running your own business to conflict with expectations, says Ayesha Murray, UK jobs consultant.

unrealistic

“As entrepreneurs, we want to succeed. But we often have unrealistic expectations at the start in terms of sales numbers, revenue or time spent,” he says.

“If you had a successful career before starting a business on your own, you might think that anything you try afterwards will also work.”

Added to this belief is the risk of comparing the harsh reality of your own experience as an entrepreneur with the seemingly prosperous ones we see on social media.

That was the case for Catherine Warrilow, who started her own public relations agency in 2006 after becoming disillusioned with the hierarchy of a traditional workplace.

From the outside, it looked like a move in the right direction.

The agency became a successful business, with seven employees, and large clients.

“But I never hung up,” says Warrilow, 43.

“I felt overwhelmed and anxious all the time. I never felt like things were good enough.”

The stress made her “a total control freak”, always micromanaging her team.

It was not what she had imagined.

“My biggest misconception was believing that being my own boss would give me freedom, that I could come and go as I pleased and set my own hours,” she says.

The reality was that life had to adapt to work, and clients expected her to be always available.

So in 2015, after receiving a job offer from one of her potential clients, this mother of two decided to leave the company.

“The day I decided not to be self-employed was probably one of the best days of my working life,” she says.

relieved to leave

“I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.”

Now managing director of travel company daysout.com, she says she enjoys many of the freedoms she’d come to expect from entrepreneurship.

You can manage your time better and finish earlier a few days to meet a friend for coffee.

As for Schreim, he will remain his own boss for now.

Although he tried to work full-time for a large company in 2017, he just couldn’t make the transition.

“I suddenly realized that I hated having a boss above me, reporting to work and dealing with administrative tasks,” he says.

However, he claims that these elements might never have bothered him had he simply never been his own boss before.

Of course, there are many success stories and many people would never look back.

Still, Schreim is wary of encouraging anyone to follow in his footsteps: “Anyone who wants to make that leap into entrepreneurship needs to be aware of the ups and downs.”

This text was originally published here.