I think my post might be of more use to a certain type of entrepreneur; the ones who's skills can easily translate into going it alone.
I had the good fortune of working in advertising as an Art Director, basically one half of a duo that comes up with the words and images that make ads. Starting our business was pretty much doing exactly what we did before, only for ourselves instead of for a multinational network. Adverting by it's nature is a competitive business. You compete with your peers. You compete with the person who sits in a rival agency doing your job for your clients competitors. Whether you're good or bad all gets sorted out in the marketplace.
One advantage we had is that you're unlikely to meet a bigger bunch of shameless self-publicists than the advertising industry. We have award shows where as my dada said "So, basically you sit around and hand out awards to each other?". Yes dad. If you're any good it's pretty easy to make a name for yourself.
We decided we needed to start our own agency before prolonged exposure to The Ministry of Truth (Unilever and companies like them) re-educated us by sucking the joy out of what we loved.
Time
When you have your own business you change your perspective. We were able to admit that we loved our jobs (making ads) to the point we would do it free (not something you'd want to admit to an employer). So, we realised we were paid for the one thing the company took from us never to return - our time. The company existed to give the directors the lifestyle they wanted. It was built on our reputations and skills, we took the gamble, so we got the greatest benefit. But that attitude was also for our employees. I have no idea about statutory leave requirement. So long as they hit their deadlines to the appropriate standard people could take as much time off as they needed. They had the freedom to fit the work around their lives and no one ever abused that freedom.
Money
I have two brilliant partners. Wonderful people before you get to the fact they are very very good at their job. But we were always in it for the ads. We were never in it for the money. Money was just a by-product of what we did. We loved what we did. It was clear to see in our ads - it was our competitive advantage over our multinational competitors. That's another great thing about having your own company, if you meet your legal and financial requirements to the State, you're free to run the company any way you want. If you want to give two bonuses a year instead of the usual one, if you want profit-share when no one else does, you can. Why? Because it's no one else's business. Literally.
My wife also worked in the industry (but not with us) so she was totally supportive. When we started I told my partners we had to set out to be the best in the world at what we did. We achieved that by our own criteria.
It was a sad day when through circumstances out of any of our control we realised I'd have to leave the company I co-founded. The analogy I gave my wife:
When a coyote gets it's foot caught in a trap it has two options. It can either just die there (or get shot in the morning) or gnaw off it's own limb to be free. That's exactly how I felt leaving this company.You pour so much of yourself into your own work.[size=78%] [/size]I will never get over it. I will always be a there-legged coyote.
Putting my family before my career and everything I'd worked for is still a no-brainer. Gutted though. We used to just sit around talking crap, loosely around our clients objectives, till the ads came out. It's pretty effortless when you're was surrounded by good people.
