So I did it

Koosi said:
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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Great! now you can be "used/abused/raped" by your clients.
 
Arthur said:
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.
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I'm sure there are such companies but they're such a small minority that I can only think of one example in the past 15 years I've been working for corporates.
It's usually the smaller companies with a founder who has a hands on approach. Once companies hit 50+ employees and there are layers of management involved it becomes a dog-eat-dog environment in most cases.
The carrot approach of management to reward good performing employees quickly evolves into "the stick approach" and the corporate culture becomes one of "do it or else" or "do it because I say so" with no regard to an employee's personal circumstances (sickness, small child, money problems, etc.).

It's because of the lack of empathy that my wife is leaving the private teaching industry (15 years at four private schools) to start her own business.
People just do not care any more and she's sick of working 18 hour days, six days per week and then still being threatened by management because she didn't have time to mark exam papers or write report comments in time. She's constantly getting sick because she can't physically cope but they don't give a damn. :mad:
She even landed in hospital once with a nervous breakdown.

Once her business is running and she has a stable income, I'm going to look at starting my own thing too.
Working for the average South African company sucks. The CEO and MD live like kings at the expense of the peasants.

I agree fully with Koosi's generalization that the average company in SA treats people like "a slave/piece of excretment to be used/abused/raped.".
 
Paul_S said:
I'm sure there are such companies but they're such a small minority that I can only think of one example in the past 15 years I've been working for corporates.
It's usually the smaller companies with a founder who has a hands on approach. Once companies hit 50+ employees and there are layers of management involved it becomes a dog-eat-dog environment in most cases.
The carrot approach of management to reward good performing employees quickly evolves into "the stick approach" and the corporate culture becomes one of "do it or else" or "do it because I say so" with no regard to an employee's personal circumstances (sickness, small child, money problems, etc.).

It's because of the lack of empathy that my wife is leaving the private teaching industry (15 years at four private schools) to start her own business.
People just do not care any more and she's sick of working 18 hour days, six days per week and then still being threatened by management because she didn't have time to mark exam papers or write report comments in time. She's constantly getting sick because she can't physically cope but they don't give a damn. :mad:
She even landed in hospital once with a nervous breakdown.

Once her business is running and she has a stable income, I'm going to look at starting my own thing too.
Working for the average South African company sucks. The CEO and MD live like kings at the expense of the peasants.

I agree fully with Koosi's generalization that the average company in SA treats people like "a slave/piece of excretment to be used/abused/raped.".
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Maybe I am a little bit harsh about disowning my children- point taken.
It is just illustrative of how strongly I feel.

It is not worth working for people anymore. I had a nervous breakdown myself earlier this year. That was the reality check for me, that made me think about my future.
This sums it up beautifully"
Working for the average South African company sucks. The CEO and MD live like kings at the expense of the peasants.
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For some people this is ideal, and some people tend to fly below the radar by doing mediocre work. The truth is, when you shine, the carrot approach comes, then the stick approach, and the rest is history.

Once companies hit 50+ employees and there are layers of management involved it becomes a dog-eat-dog environment in most cases.
The carrot approach of management to reward good performing employees quickly evolves into "the stick approach" and the corporate culture becomes one of "do it or else" or "do it because I say so" with no regard to an employee's personal circumstances (sickness, small child, money problems, etc.).
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Never before has a truer word been said...

Now for the tricky bit. There will always be those who have to work for companies. Not everyone can manage a business. This is my second time, my first failed because my attention was elsewhere (I was distracted too much by personal issues). This time round I did my bloody homework.

Anyways thanks for all the well-wishes... Gotta run.
 
Not all employers are the same and not all employees are the same.

Just look at the current strike action going on and I know of companies where employees are resigning leaving their companies because they have to work a bit harder because of the NUMSA strikes.

Then you have other employees that don't mind going the extra mile and getting big rewards at the end of the month.

Employees in South Africa also get away with far too much in SA and maybe that is one of the reasons management stopped caring about some employees in SA because they know everything they do will be futile as the employee has so many rights.

Koosi said:
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.
Click to expand...
 
Good luck pal. You have bigger 'nads than me.........

I am sure this will work for you .... from your posts you seem like the ''take no shyte'' kind of guy.
 
Koosi said:
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.
Click to expand...

+1
 
Koosi said:
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.
Click to expand...

I hope those are my units? ;)
All the best... did the same 4 years ago. Never looked back. Sometimes the going is tough, but its worth it.

Having said that, I have worked in a corporate for 7 years. It was a very fast paced high-pressure environment. The company squeezed the last ounce from you. But I did learn a huge amount while there so it is not always bad to work in such an environment. You learn how to do things and how NOT to do other things....
 
There are plenty of examples where an employee goes and takes his project private and steals the client from their employer. There is nothing that can be done legally in this case, unless intellectual property comes into play. What you have done is not really that brave, but highly logical. Just a shame you had to be bitten on the toes to realise the quid pro quo.
 
Thanks Guys
It is the best thing I ever did with my life, honestly. I will do this a hundred times over.

Unfortunately my ex-employer didn't take it very well. They are featured on MyBB every so often so I won't name them for legal reasons, but, just so that you know, they feel so threatened they went to great lengths to discredit me. Here is the list:

* Tried to discredit me with suppliers, told them I am incompetent/dishonest/etc.. A total waste of time since most of the suppliers have known me since 2003 and know me personally. So that was an EPIC FAIL, so they went up a notch.
* Got someone to replace me and said replacement dissed me to my face twice in 10 minutes.
* Told me to my face my business will fail
* Slipped malware onto my PC by demanding I fill in a timesheet for my notice month (they embedded a trojan in the Excel spreadsheet) and got hold of some correspondence I sent to a client in my own capacity, from home, using my bona-fide registered company e-mail account. Fortunately that is all they got hold of until I found the malware and dealt with it manually because the anti-virus doesn't detect it.

Many will say their is two sides to the story. My side of the story is an honest one, I did my best there, I kept my nose clean because I knew, they would pull these, and other stunts the day I left. Now I have the upper hand and it grates them.

In any case I have now turned my back on them, the moral of the story is don't look back, and trust me, you are always better off working for yourself. If I can do it, so can you, if you want inspiration or a reason, PM me.
 
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Good for you dude. I always say it's better to start your own business and reap the rewards rather than busting your ass off for someone else.

How is the pay compared to your previous job though?
 
Congrats.

This is a good post and it pretty much sums up the working world. Just don't become cock-sucker yourself when you employ people.
 
I must say congratulations to you! I have only been in the corporate world for just under a year and I am already planning on starting my own company. The option exists to revive the family business and I will be discussing this in earnest when I go up to visit my folks.

It is just a pity I never appreciated the company while it was still around. It is definitely much more rewarding having your own business and I wish you all the very best in the future.
 
Great move, and all the best!
Best thing I did was start my own business in 2009
 
Well done Koosi!

I fully agree with your take on corporates....they will suck out your soul if you let them.

I am in a dept of 7, one is leaving at the end of the month and 4 of us are looking for other opportunities. So 2 left...one is going on pension in less than 4 years the other started there last month.
 
@Koosi, best of luck
@satanbot, take on the corporates by starting your own "corporate" and suck the life out of other people. :) then one day you realise that corporate bashing institution you created has sucked the life out of you :)
 
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