According to my sources, the weather in the Northern US states is downright awful. Wind chills are bone chilling and snow is falling on top of a layer of ice. Tomorrow, when Phil the groundhog pears out of his burrow, many will be rooting for him NOT to see his shadow!!! Meanwhile, my conversations with those on the frozen tundra tend to begin with an accusatory, “What’s the temperature down there?”
In Port Saint Lucie, Florida on February 1, 2008…. it’s 81 F and it feels like 81. It’s sunny outside my window right now. The sky is blue and there are thin wispy white clouds, which in the Sunshine State officially qualifies as “partly cloudy”.
Now, before you begin cursing my “luck”… you should also be aware that living in Florida has its downsides as well. That snow and ice you Northerner’s are complaining about? That’s killing your insects so they don’t grow big enough to fight back when you step on them.
Let’s skirt over the obvious “them bugs is BIG in Flo-ri-da” and the “we don’t swim or ski in any pond or lake because of the alligators and water snakes” and move directly to the wildlife that I have encountered WITHIN MY NEWLY CONSTRUCTED HOME.
First, there was the bathroom snake incident of 2006… when my daughter stepped on a baby snake on her way to the shower. We’ve only had that happen once… on the other hand there are the jumping spiders, critters don’t spin webs because they feast on prey that is too big to be caught in a web. It takes almost a full large can of insecticide to stop one in it’s tracks. (Screaming in terror just seems to draw them towards you as well!) We’ve had multiple run ins with these 8 legged predatory beasts.
They say you “pay” for the sunshine… and my budget includes a nice hefty “pest control” entry as just one of those many payments. Incredibly high insurance premiums combined with ridiculous property tax bills are also part of the “sunshine payment package”.
Now, for those who are already sick of the snow respond with, “Those are a small prices to pay indeed! It’s WORTH it to not deal with snow and ice!” Meanwhile others respond with, “UGH! I guess snow isn’t as bad as that!”
Life is FULL of trade offs and compromises. It’s not whether the weather is better here than there… it’s a case of “Is is worth the price?” More importantly, it’s a question of “Is this a price you’re willing to pay?”
The same trade offs and compromises are present when one decides to pursue the “self employment” path. Just as some are more than willing to “pay the price” of ample Florida sunshine, some are more than willing to “pay the price” of self employment than others.
The same “trials and tribulations” of running a business will energize one person and while totally draining another.
Which do you value more? Is independence important to you? Do you find being master of your own fate (good OR bad) appealing? Do you RAIL at the thought of doing things someone else’s way simply because they’re the ones who are signing your paychecks? Then perhaps you’re cut out to be a business owner!
On the other hand, if you DESPISE making decisions and hate even more to be held ACCOUNTABLE for that decision (by the universe, your spouse, the bank, your creditors, etc.) then perhaps self employment is not your calling! If you treasure your “off the clock” hours and think of evenings and weekends as “your time”…. then perhaps that’s another reason that self employment may not be a great option for you either.
An essential part of self employment is marketing. If all you want to do is:
- accounting
- arranging flowers
- counseling troubled youth
- etc.
and the thought of doing anything outside of your passion drains you, then think twice about self employment as an option.
At the very least, invest a lot of time before hand building a team of experts to with whom to surround yourself. After all, it takes a village to build a one person business!
Various questions seem to pop up in groups within my practice. This past week, the topic that is poking its head above ground like a crocus in early March is the topic of Google Adwords.
for a step by step process you can follow to figure out the who, what where and most importantly WHY customers buy.
The results were immediately evident. Traffic rose sharply as did comments to her “unsanitary” posts. Some of the comments were positive, some negative but the point is… she had motivated her readers to take action by taking off the kidskin gloves and “getting real”.
I should have been bold. I should have been daring and I could have done so without being belligerent. I missed an opportunity to attract more readers to my blog had I done so. Instead… I put my head down and got back to work. My opportunity to be bold passed as quickly as it presented itself. The opportunity to remain a part of the ” crowd of the mundane” is relentlessly persistent.