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Poll: Should you work for yourself or take a full-time job?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: Should you work for yourself or take a full-time job?

#71

Post by spywaregorilla »

masterof0 wrote: post #58
strogonoff wrote: post #10

You are always working for someone—whether you have one big customer, a few medium-size ones, or many tiny ones. More customers is in some ways more sustainable, because losing a single customer is less of an impact and you are more likely to have a well-oiled up-to-date process for getting new customers. Perhaps a bigger differentiator is not employment vs. self-employment but whether you can do something you enjoy…

Is not about who do you work for, is about what you own. Running your own show makes you the owner of your work, you could sell your business, pass it down to your family, etc... when you work for somebody else, you are contracting your time, without any ownership, you can't leave your kids your Senior Engineer position at Google, but you could leave them a profitable business. Is like renting vs buying, sometimes ma…

I'd rather my parents leave me a bundle of cash rather than saddling me with their startup.

Re: Poll: Should you work for yourself or take a full-time job?

#72

Post by spywaregorilla »

tstrimple wrote: post #70
gruez wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens if you need capital? If employee A only has $1k to spare, but employee B has $10k to spare, should everyone's contributions be capped at $1k? Your model could work for businesses that aren't capital intensive (eg. consulting shops), but won't work for anything that requires a runway.

That capital doesn't have to be reflected as a percentage of ownership does it? What if they were structured as loans to the company which are paid back with interest separate from dividend payments from ownership? Then people who "invest" financially into the company still get rewarded for it, but they can't just buy up all the profits with an ownership position. I'm not deep into this area, so I don't know what sor…

It does not. You can make whatever terms you want. You don't need to contribute any capital to get a share.

Re: Poll: Should you work for yourself or take a full-time job?

#73

Post by mxuribe »

jdmoreira wrote: post #69

If you are employed you are trading stability for upside. When you work for yourself and specially if you work on products that are not capital intensive and have insane economies of scale (as in Software) the upside is gigantic. I'm employed and I regret every minute of it. The only reason why I'm still employed is because I'm the sole provider for my family and haven't been able to take time off because I realized…

@jdmoreira Some of your comments resonate so much with me! I was a web dev in the early 2000s, and was too scared/conservative to join startups or go into business for myself back then...So, for decades i've moved away from develpment and into tech mid-level leadership and/or project management, and always working for medium/big enterprises. Nowadays, i have tons of regret, and wish i could be better at sales in order to have my own *sustainable* business. A couple of years ago i did have a side business for tech consultaning but could not generate enopugh business to sustaion it as my main job...so, here i sti still employed for anoither faceless enterprise using me like a small cog in a big system. I too am the sole provider for my family...so while you and i might have different circumstances and likely different origin stories, YOU ARE NOT ALONE! If there's any silver lining for you and i and others like us....i hear that statistically, contrary to the news/headlines about young folks being the majority of business owners/startup people, actually most people who go into business for themselves do so later in life (in U.S. 50~55). At least i hope that stat is true! Good luck to you and all of us who dream!

Re: Poll: Should you work for yourself or take a full-time job?

#74

Post by spywaregorilla »

In high school I would do the bare minimum to get an A- (a 4.0 GPA).

A well paying full time job is the adult equivalent. I've not much interest in being super wealthy so the higher possible earnings on entrepreneurship is irrelevant. A stable well paying upper middle class job is a sweet deal.

Re: Poll: Should you work for yourself or take a full-time job?

#75

Post by mxuribe »

sjducb wrote: post #60
silent_cal wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds awesome, thanks. It just seems so hard to make this work when you factor in the huge costs of insurance, etc.

I'm spending less than $400/year on liability insurance in case a client sues my company, or if I cause a data breach/loss for them . What insurance are you planning on paying for?

@sjducb Would you be willing to kindly share the type insurance that you referenced here, as well as the name of your provider? If you wish, find my email address in my profile and feel free to share that way. Thanks so much!

Re: Poll: Should you work for yourself or take a full-time job?

#76

Post by mxuribe »

controversial97 wrote: post #50

I'v done both. I'v nominally worked for myself, as half-owner and company director. I'm a huge geek, with mental health symptoms that could be mistaken for autism and ADHD but are actually due to trauma from having terrible parents who I removed from my life decades ago. The customers were clueless disorganised nitwits. Their upper management was out playing golf, so we had to try to get their disgruntled office staf…

> ...Sales is a totally different skill set...

Its not just that - though i agree with you - it is also that the sales skillset needs to be to a degree of closing deals/sales. I have been a really great wingman/second banana when it comes to sales...I'm actually the person in the room who helps win over customers almost 100% of the time in both influencing as well as technical competency...But as a partner...If i'm left to be my own sales person, to generate new leads, new business, etc....well, then, i suck terribly. What i need is a topnotch sales person, where i can join them as second banana/tech sales...and then i can build a crazy good business. Closing sales on one's own is hella hard!

Re: Poll: Should you work for yourself or take a full-time job?

#78

Post by jdmoreira »

mxuribe wrote: post #73
jdmoreira wrote: post #69

If you are employed you are trading stability for upside. When you work for yourself and specially if you work on products that are not capital intensive and have insane economies of scale (as in Software) the upside is gigantic. I'm employed and I regret every minute of it. The only reason why I'm still employed is because I'm the sole provider for my family and haven't been able to take time off because I realized…

@jdmoreira Some of your comments resonate so much with me! I was a web dev in the early 2000s, and was too scared/conservative to join startups or go into business for myself back then...So, for decades i've moved away from develpment and into tech mid-level leadership and/or project management, and always working for medium/big enterprises. Nowadays, i have tons of regret, and wish i could be better at sales in orde…

Thanks. I appreciate your follow up and you are right. There is time for sure!

If you ever want to reach out and just bounce some stories or ideas just mail me at joao@$hnusername.me

Re: Poll: Should you work for yourself or take a full-time job?

#79

Post by dieselgate »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #71
masterof0 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is not about who do you work for, is about what you own. Running your own show makes you the owner of your work, you could sell your business, pass it down to your family, etc... when you work for somebody else, you are contracting your time, without any ownership, you can't leave your kids your Senior Engineer position at Google, but you could leave them a profitable business. Is like renting vs buying, sometimes ma…

I'd rather my parents leave me a bundle of cash rather than saddling me with their startup.

This made me laugh because of the frankness. I interpreted the above as being more “sustainable small business” than a startup but maybe it’s irrelevant.

Re: Poll: Should you work for yourself or take a full-time job?

#80

Post by gruez »

tstrimple wrote: post #70
gruez wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens if you need capital? If employee A only has $1k to spare, but employee B has $10k to spare, should everyone's contributions be capped at $1k? Your model could work for businesses that aren't capital intensive (eg. consulting shops), but won't work for anything that requires a runway.

That capital doesn't have to be reflected as a percentage of ownership does it? What if they were structured as loans to the company which are paid back with interest separate from dividend payments from ownership? Then people who "invest" financially into the company still get rewarded for it, but they can't just buy up all the profits with an ownership position. I'm not deep into this area, so I don't know what sor…

>That capital doesn't have to be reflected as a percentage of ownership does it? What if they were structured as loans to the company which are paid back with interest separate from dividend payments from ownership?

Why would anyone want to invest in a highly risky venture (ie. immature tech companies) with capped upside? It's the same reason why VC companies want equity, not debt obligations in return for their investment.

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