Setting up my own company has been an interesting experience. It is something that I have always wanted to do but have never found myself in a situation where I got round to it. That sounds like an excuse yet circumstances change and here I am, director of my own little firm.
Getting the company in place was easy enough. For a small amount of money and a small amount of effort I arranged everything I needed online in a day, except for the bank account which is another story. I set up the company on one day and on the next it was incorporated. I have the certificate to prove it.
That was when the fun begins. Being in business and doing business are two separate things. It is fine to go around looking busy but until you have money coming in through the door then it is not. Cash is king and until I have some then I am just a busy fool.
I have had to learn to sell again. Properly this time, in an environment where those people in front of me have a say in my future prosperity. It has been such a change from working in an organization where everyone knows what you do to being in an environment where you have to justify yourself. There is no resting on your laurels. Every opportunity is a new chance to shine or to fail. I have had to reinvent myself.
I have thrown myself headlong into meeting and talking to as many people who will listen. Some conversations have been difficult but all have been worthwhile. I am getting to learn so much.
It is tempting to bark at any passing car, anything that looks like it might pay or any passing caprice yet that is not what I am waiting to do. It is the interesting and perhaps unusual that I am interested in and I am biding my time. Otherwise I might as well go back and work for someone else. But I am not going to do that. I have my own little company.
As Kate Chopin wrote – The door which accident had opened is open still but the cage remains forever empty.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 