I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. As early as high school, I won first place in a competition for the best business plan at the University of Michigan. And I offered public relations’ services as a freelancer throughout my college tenure so that I was able to work on my schedule, determine my salary and do only the work that I wanted to do.
So it was only natural for me to start my business upon graduating from Michigan State University. The birth of 360 Event Management was a very exciting time for me. It allowed me to reach out to companies in a different tone than before. It enhanced my business sense, grew my analytical skills and allowed me to evaluate friendships, business relationships and more.
Now I am at a crossroads and I need your help. I am seriously considering starting a career with another company, and contracting my services out only as needed to continue the relationships I have with the clients I have obtained. Here are the pros and cons as I see them, then you can let me know what you think.
Pros for going to work for someone else:
- Collaboration. Working for yourself, it is hard to bounce ideas off of someone. It is no one to tell you your idea sucks or your idea could be a best practice if you add this element to it. The power of a team, different levels of expertise and experiences all working toward a common goal is irreplaceable.
- Element of Learning. I am in an ever-changing market. I read the newspapers for current events, assess blogs for trending ideas and consult with mentors. However, this can get overwhelming when you are trying to reach out to new clients and please existing clients. It is my experience, especially in agency work, that if one person finds something out, they let the team know. I would love to eliminate the wild goose chase for information and be able to learn from the top executives who have been doing this for 20+ years.
- Upward Mobility and Cross Functional Work. When you own your own company, where do you go from there in your company? When I worked for General Motors, I was able to work with sales, design and engineering departments in addition to communications. With your own company, clients want to see more of a niche. No one wants to hear that my young self does everything.
Cons against going to work for someone else:
- Priorities. It is always been a dream of mine to own my business, and dedicating myself to a full-time position would mean that company would become more of a priority to me than my company. Now, yes, I have many, many years to grow my business…but what could I do with years and years of dedication to my company?
- Freedom of Choice. I choose who I want to go after and what jobs I want to take. Working for someone, the only choice I have is how hard I want to work to get ahead. I get to work with only clients with similar missions, positive outlooks and a real need for my services. And this is refreshing.
- Challenge. I love the challenge of pitching to clients and the gratification of actually obtaining them. Yes, I could work on doing that for another agency and taking a fraction of what I would get had I went after them myself.
Now with that said, I need your help. This is my first of many blog posts in a while on my personal site. One of the things I missed the most was the feedback, and now I need you more than ever. This is a huge turning point in my life and I would love to make an educated decision based on many educated opinions.
So weigh in…until next time.
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Tags: 360 Event Management, careers, challenge, choice, collaboraton, cross functional, freedom, freelance, Jenni Lewis, jobs, learning, LinkedIn, Michigan State University, priorities, public relations, self employment, upward mobility
I am thoroughly impressed with your accomplishments in life. I admire your drive to succeed. But that is the question… what is success to you? Do you define success as simply having a large cash flow (which would be almost guaranteed to an educated black woman in corporate America)? Or is success to you seeing a company that you created and built yourself blossom into something greater than you ever imagined? What would make Jenni happier?
Personally, as an engineer for a Fortune 500 company, I know that there is a ceiling. Granted, this ceiling will allow me to live VERY comfortably, but there is a ceiling nonetheless. Regardless of how high I get, there will always be someone above me. You have the opportunity to be your own boss. The plan you have sounds amazing; keep the relationships you have while gaining experience from another company. This will undoubtedly be more work, but it seems to me to be the road that will reap the most benefit. When the time is right, go back to working for yourself full time, with more experience, more credentials, and surely a more extensive network.
But truly, do what makes you happy. That is what life is all about.
Thank you for the great feedback Jamar. That’s just it. Success for me short term would be bringing in the big bucks and be able to afford to continue to take care of my family. Success for me long term would be the gratification of bringing in the big bucks for a company that I grew from the ground up. That is why I am at a crossroads right now.
One of the hardest things about having my business at this age is the experience needed to get some of the larger clients. So I have been thinking long and hard about gaining that experience so that in the next few years I will be able to take my business to the next level.
Again, I really appreciate your feedback and kind words. I wish you much success in your career as well!