So I did it

Sonic2k

Sonic2k

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Those that read my posts probably know what I was going to do.

Well, I have resigned from my job, and I work for myself. I am the Managing Director of Embedded Design House.

So far so good, I am very busy and aside from one customer who is proving to be a bad debtor, things are going smoothly.

It is the best thing I ever did, because, I can tell you now in all honestly, if you work for a company, especially a big corporate, you're just a slave/piece of excretment to be used/abused/raped.

I developed a full blown product at the company, a tracking system for vehicles in difficult situations i.e. places with poor cellphone reception. The product is great, even exceeding my own expectations, and its being commercially launched. Unfortunately the company is run by accountants i.e. those bean-counting cock-suckers, so they decided to offer us only 8% increase and the doofus crowd didn't think about the repercussions. I resigned, and, let me tell you now, they just said "oh well, cheers". That's it. No thank you, sweet jack all. Just like that after having worked overtime, traveled overseas, and time away from my family! F**kers!!!! Further proof came when as I resigned I was told they already interviewed my replacement. My wife went postal, saying I must go to the CCMA, in all honesty I just let it slide, I know all about karma being a bitch!

I have therefore proven that, if you want recognition, reward, and the all the things you deserve for the blood, sweat, and tears you put into product/software development, and the work you do with your hands, before you do anything, go get yourself a company from CIPC and borrow money from your parents/family members and just say SCREW IT LET'S DO IT. Don't ever think you will get ANY of these rewards/benefits working for a company. Know this, in South Africa, most companies don't give a flying crap about you, you're just a resource/number/slave until their needs are met.

I have told my children if they ever work for a boss I will disown them, when they are finished studying I will personally pay for their company registrations and inject seed capital.

Yes it is stressful, because I need to make sure I have made what my salary used to be to pay the bond, etc... but know this, if you think of three things 1) customer service 2) marketing strategy, 3) sell, sell sell yourself, you will make it.

It is no joke either. I work from 7am to 9pm. Tonight is a perfect example. I have to ship a small production run, so now that the parts are finally all here, I got three units built up far enough so they can be tested in the morning and then boxed and shipped.

Tomorrow is going to be crazy like every other day this week, it will get worse, before it gets better and once I have made sufficient cash reserves, and business is good I will start hiring people to assist me.
 
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Living the dream! Good luck. Realized long time that I'm just a number. Too chicken shyte just to do what you did.
 
You certainly are an inspiration and theres much truth to what you say about large corporations and companies. Their only concern is the bottom line.

I hope when your business is up and running you don't do the same to your employees though.

Best of luck to you in anycase. Well done!
 
Awesomeness!
Very inspirational. When I grow up I wan to be just like you.

What are you shipping? What do you do?
 
Well done, Koosi. May it grow from strength to strength.

One quibble and a word of caution: You are far too sweepingly critical of working for someone else. Your former employer might have been shortsighted and even exploitative. But there are many superb SA companies that treat their employees fairly and properly reward excellence.

Think about your own company you are just starting. You say that you'll hire people to assist you when things take off. Must other people follow your advice and refuse to work for you because you'll become just like your erstwhile bosses, ie uncaring, mean, slave-driving? Will you be a bastard employer?

You place intolerable stress on your children by threatening to disown them if they ever work for a boss. Can they never work in your company? Can they not find a successful employer in their chosen field? Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur, and people in any case have different priorities in life. And that's ok. And you should accept that in your children. Rather teach then honesty, integrity, hard work, and give them space to be creative and make mistakes.

In short, don't be so absolutist in your criticism of all other companies. Rather resolve to make your company an employer that attracts and keeps quality people. Rather speak about your new freedom to be a decent boss who doesn't treat employees like turd. There are many others who are superb employers.

Good luck with your new ventue.
 
Good luck with your venture, mate!!!

Must stress some of what Arthur penned. Rather than be absolute, learn from your experiences and implement the good ones.
 
I'm with you on this one Koosi, everything you said about hard work and long working hours when initially starting your own business is very true. I also spent countless hours at work, sometimes even pulling 48 hours stunts just to get all the work out. Only after 2 years did we eventually employ someone else to help out.Heck, I even got divorce as I spent too much time at work apparently. In August, we celebrating our 3rd year in business and I'm very confident we will be here for many many more years to come as our service/quality is top notch, we will always go the extra mile to ensure 100% client satisfaction, as this is what gets you continued client support and more importantly, word of mouth for gaining additional clientele.

Just hang in there, build up your reserves and employ someone when the time is right, it definitely gets easier after that :)
 
The nicest thing about starting your own company is you can choose who you want to do business with.
One thing is always treat your suppliers as you would want to be treated by your customers then they will go the extra mile for you.
 
A brave move. May you be richly rewarded. Good luck.
 
Arthur said:
Think about your own company you are just starting. You say that you'll hire people to assist you when things take off. Must other people follow your advice and refuse to work for you because you'll become just like your erstwhile bosses, ie uncaring, mean, slave-driving? Will you be a bastard employer?

You place intolerable stress on your children by threatening to disown them if they ever work for a boss. Can they never work in your company? Can they not find a successful employer in their chosen field? Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur, and people in any case have different priorities in life. And that's ok. And you should accept that in your children. Rather teach then honesty, integrity, hard work, and give them space to be creative and make mistakes.

In short, don't be so absolutist in your criticism of all other companies. Rather resolve to make your company an employer that attracts and keeps quality people. Rather speak about your new freedom to be a decent boss who doesn't treat employees like turd. There are many others who are superb employers.
Click to expand...

Haha, was thinking the exact same thing.
 
Well done on making the move, and good luck. Plenty of hard work ahead, I'm sure you're looking forward to it.
 
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