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Entrepreneurial Chronicles: Working for Myself for 3 months!

Last Sunday (September 15, 2019) was the official three month-mark of my entrepreneurial life, of working for myself!   As in any still-quite-new phase in life, being an entrepreneur comes equipped with a myriad of new learning opportunities.  These learning opportunities come not only with a look to the future, but also a look back, while being completely engaged in the present moment.

After working for the same organization for over 21 years, being able to enjoy life as an entrepreneur feels nothing short of a great feat and accomplishment. However, I don’t want you, readers out there, to think that this is not hard work.  I actually feel that I’m working more than ever!  The difference, however, lies in the fact that I work doing what I absolutely love, and I don’t have to settle for any less.  As a matter of fact, doing what I love keeps me quite busy these days!

I think it is important for anyone contemplating the jump from employee to entrepreneur to contemplate all the pros and cons of this decision.  At the three-month mark, these are the ones that I think about the most:

PROS

  • Your time is yours:  Yes, you own your time, and you get to distribute it the way you want to.  Want to work 15 hours today?  You can do that.  Want to take off so you can catch up on your reading?  Go ahead.  You don’t need permission to do as you please with your time.
  • You get to express our own thoughts and professional opinions:  As an employee, I was forced to say things that I knew were misguided, inconsistent, and sometimes plainly wrong.  As a matter of fact, in my last position, I endured a great deal of bullying from my supervisor/s for standing up for what I believed.  When you work for yourself, you represent your business, and your opinions matter.  Being free to express myself is one of the most precious gifts of being an entrepreneur.
  • There is virtually no limit to your professional growth:  Your work is what you make of it, and you can take it in any direction that you want.  In my case, I’m moving towards a more mobile alternative, so that I can basically work from anywhere, most of the time.  You are able to design the type of work, and the type of work/life balance that you want.
  • You get to interact with the people who matter to you the most: Every day, I get to experience the triumphs as well as the challenges of the people that I serve, and I do so intimately.  I get to establish a mutual working relationship of trust, as people entrust me with what they value the most:  Their children, their families.  This makes my heart shine like a thousand splendid suns and there is simply no better reward than this. 

CONS

  • PTSD is real!  Learn to recognize the signs, talk to your doctor, talk to a therapist. You may have left your job behind, but the triggers are still there.  I get a very automatic reaction every time something reminds my body (not conscious “me”) about a particular place or experience.  Don’t think that only veterans can suffer from this condition.  People who are or have been bullied can suffer from this too.  If you are experiencing bullying at work, please seek help!
  • It’s hard to STOP working:  Just because you can work as many hours as you want, does not mean that you should work every waking hour, but when you are an entrepreneur, it is hard to say no!  I have been growing exponentially for the past three months, and there are days that I think I can work from dusk to dawn.  It is important to recognize your limits, listen to your body, and take care of yourself! I’m learning to do this, little by little, and every time I do something just for myself, it feels GREAT!

If you have any questions about entrepreneurial life, career or work issues, or would like help building an exit plan that would work for you, drop me a note.

Working from anywhere!

Cheers!

Dr. Klimek

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Entrepreneurship Chronicles: Month One Reflections

“A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for,” John A. Shedd

I can’t believe that it has already been a month of working for myself.  To be perfectly honest, this past month just flew by.  I have been BUSY.  One of the most common fears (and should I say, widespread myths?) of an employee is that if they leave the employer and work for themselves, there is a chance that that steady flow of income will be gone.  I was not an exception to this type of fear.  After one month of working for myself I can say that this is not entirely untrue, but it is mostly blown out of proportion.  As a matter of fact, in the past month, one of the most challenging aspects of working for myself has been to schedule clients and make time for office hours. I simply feel that there aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything that I want to do. 

The biggest question though, as I was preparing to leave my life as an employee and preparing for my life as an entrepreneur was, how will it feel?  I envisioned feeling nervous, anxious about having taken this huge responsibility on my own and leaving the comfort of a secure paycheck.  Will I have enough clients?  Will my income decrease?  I am happy to say that those fears were unfounded.  My income revenue is strong, and I have been expanding on a daily basis.  Life is pretty good on this end.

As I revisit my decision every day, I can say that I have NO REGRETS.  I am the owner of my time.  My income is directly affected by my own efforts and capacity.  I have the immediate possibility of growth.  I dictate the rules and regulations of my business.  And most importantly, I PUT MY CLIENTS FIRST.  I was raised by the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you,” and my previous employer did not live by this rule.  I could no longer bear the agony of having to put my own judgement aside to deliver policies that were not conducive to the principles I live for:  Social Justice and Equity.

Today, I live the life I want to lead.  I am a true professional, a true educator, an advocate and coach for families of special needs.  I no longer feel like a highly paid pencil-pusher.  All I can say is: I wish I had made this decision earlier!

Girl sitting under a tree.
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I Did It!

Exactly 2 weeks ago today, I left the world of working for someone to enter the ranks of those who work for themselves.  How does it feel?  Exciting! I think my husband summarized it best when he gave me this card on my last day of employment.  It read:

“Imagine Doing what you Love, and Loving what you do, being happy from the inside out, experiencing your dreams wide awake, being creative, being unique, being you—changing things the way you know they can be—Living the life you always imagined”  He nailed it. As I’m writing this post, this is exactly what it feels like.

My first day as an entrepreneur felt challenging but also exhilarating, full of possibilities.  I moved from a job that as my last days approached I found intolerable, to one that made me excited for Mondays.  What led me here?  Let’s just say that this has been years in the making.  I always had the entrepreneurial bug within me.  I think I inherited this from my dad, whom everyone called “buscavidas” (hustler), as I always had a hard time conforming and allowing the status quo and bureaucracy make things difficult for those people who need help. 

Then, a chain of events started to happen.  Let’s just say that it was as if the universe was telling me it was time to quit was I was doing in favor of what I was always meant to do.  I could say that it was a series of both, unfortunate, and fortunate events that got me there, but in essence, I left a world that felt fake, uncaring, and every-man-for-himself type of world, where everyone spends and unreasonable amount of time covering their butts, for one where not only my butt, but my heart and soul are exposed for everyone to see.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

I decided that from now on I will utilize this platform so that everyone out there can understand and realize that when they think they don’t have a choice, what they are really referring to is that they don’t like the choices they have, and they choose the one at hand because it is the safest, rather than expose themselves and choose what’s right. 

There is always a choice!

freedom entrepreneurship work space
My new Work Space!