As a new entrepreneur, I often wonder about my motivation to step away from corporate employment and start something “on my own”. Throughout my corporate employment career of 8 years, there have been several points when the urge to take the plunge into entrepreneurial waters was overwhelming. Scary though it seemed, I somehow imagined that the sheer freedom to do my own thing would be enough to help me cope with every other challenge. But I was waiting for the right time. And the right time for me turns out is perhaps the wrong time in many a person’s book – I turned entrepreneur just after I became a mother ( I did wait till my daughter was 9 months old!).


So now I have two babies – Mekhala and Inception Business Services(IBS). Motherhood and Entrepreneurship apparently have a lot in common, just as Employment & Entrepreneurship have so many differences. Thankfully for me, the novelty of being a start up and the many positives that accompany it are too precious and I have no real complaints. But I do sometimes wonder about this contrast and chuckle about how I have changed. Maybe you will chuckle too – irrespective of whether you’re employed, self-employed or unemployed. Here we go:


1. Work from home – I ve done this as an employee & do it now as entrepreneur too. Considering my struggle to find my tiny piece of office real estate, this is really not an option but necessity right now. I always thought distractions at the office were external but some days when I ve just worked on my own from home, I realise that being a lone horse working at home has worse distractions. For starters, many people just think that being at home means well – you ‘re available. Then, you have to cope with door to door sales people (I love sales people and end up chatting with most of them to know about their current performance levels – not good for MY productivity).
2. Dress Code – my tussar sarees are mostly in hibernation. My new status has liberated me from the rather strict corporate dress codes I used to follow. Its not that I work in my PJs but I do find myself considering many more options as workwear. Flipside – I do miss my saree days. Maybe I will start wearing them more often anyway 🙂
3. Multi functional exposure: In employment, this is a feel good event when you step in to help someone in another department or participate in a HR run to promote multi functional moves. But as a entrepreneur with zero staff, this is the way of life. I am the partner, founder, sales person, consultant, errand boy, HR manager, accountant, driver, flunkee and admin manager. I hope this will change as IBS grows…
4. Pride: I always respected the brands I worked for and took pride in my corporate identity. Yet, pride takes on a new meaning when you’re a starter-up. I had tears in my eyes when I finally held my IBS visiting card in my hand. I don’t recall any previous business card of mine (not even when I could say VP) evoking this level of emotion in me
5. Payday: I miss this the most 🙂 Every entrepreneur guide book says don’t think about the money you should be making at first- but it is not easy. IBS is not a capital intensive business,so atleast I am not really in the red. Still as an economics major, thoughts about imputed cost, opportunity cost do pop up often enough. I can only imagine its harder for entrepreneurs without a spouse to support finances and I thank God I am a woman whose needs (& occasional indulgences) are paid for by a supportive hubby.
6. Tolerance level: As employee, a power cut, slow network speed, office interiors – all these were things to complain about. As entrepreneur, you develop tolerance and learn to deal with such circumstances. Struggling to set up mail and deal with domain issues, I often miss the “IT help guy” and regret every time I may have been impatient with my helpdesk folks. I would do anything to have someone to call to just fix my issues (without me paying extra or signing up for the Premium account!).
7. Value for Money: This one’s a toughie. For one, I am impressed by my previous payscale (now that I don’t earn it:-)). Also, I find my standards for expected productivity are much higher now. I can no longer imagine or digest paying someone good money for anything but the best that the money can buy – be it service or product. I also face a different VFM challenge – which is how to charge for my services ? Since I don’t sell a product, I am suddenly at a loss on how to charge for my time. When I was an employee, I had no difficulty doing this !
8. Office space: Every time I check the rent for my requirement of 500 sq.ft, I end up doing mental gymnastics wondering how much of a cost it is and how much my revenue growth will need to keep up. I still want a fancy office (just like I still want my BMW) – but I am able to now say, this is not so important now, there are other things to build first (such as clients, paying clients, reputation,etc!). As an employee, arhhmmm…office space had a totally different connotation.

9. Profit & accountability: I often think back and wonder how on earth any organisation survives without pushing down profit accountability down the line (support functions are okay, but I mean to the frontline like a bank branch or sales team). I now feel that working without worrying about the overall profit was an unpardonable luxury I enjoyed as an employee. Well, not any more I guess 😉

10. Accounts & Finance: I ve always been happy letting someone else do the accounts bit. Hell, I was terrible at just filing my expense claims as an employee. Now, I find myself forced to look for tips from my CA hubby, online tutorials for basic accounting, just so that I m prepared to handle IBS finances. I just realised that as a wealth management expert, I was just too happy investing surpluses and never bothered with worrying about “wealth” creation from scratch. It s so much easier to make money with money (if you know what I mean!)

Anyway, I am going to end this post now. Despite all these differences, there are so many wonderful things about being on my own. And on a lighter note, writing this post at 4pm on a weekday without someone looking over my shoulder or without guilt – is definitely one of those pluses.

2 thoughts on “Employment vs. Entrepreneurship”

  2. Hi paviVery well written.Here is an inspirational quote for you"Find a want, you’ve found a market. Find a market, then fill the want. Fill the want, you’ll fill your wallet." – Ryan P. Allis, entrepreneur

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