Recent graduate to work or self employed

[ScottNelson&Co]

Hey guys, I'm looking for some advice from the self employed crowd.

My situation is, I'm a recent graduate and I've been offered a job is something that I'm interested in with a half decent salary.

I currently run a couple of websites which brings me in enough to live off at the moment.

I've got 2 or 3 business ideas which I want to pursue.

What would you do? Take the job, develop the business slowly in my spare time, or reject the job offer and put my heart and sole into the business?

Bearing in mind I'm a graduate with very little work experience and little capital behind me.

 

[KreativeJuice]

Difficult decision....but if your making enough to live off and your happy at that level and you don't need any extra capital then go for it.

 

[puffin]

If you want to talk further with me, I was in the same boat a month ago..

I graduated from a good uni, with a good degree and result.

Got a job, but decided I wanted to go it Alone..

Drop me a pm if you want to talk further.

 

[GGGSurrey]

Hey guys, I'm looking for some advice from the self employed crowd.

My situation is, I'm a recent graduate and I've been offered a job is something that I'm interested in with a half decent salary.

I currently run a couple of websites which brings me in enough to live off at the moment.

I've got 2 or 3 business ideas which I want to pursue.

What would you do? Take the job, develop the business slowly in my spare time, or reject the job offer and put my heart and sole into the business?

Bearing in mind I'm a graduate with very little work experience and little capital behind me.

I'd also think about the social element of working for yourself. I've always made sure I had a close associate or business partner to work with. Without those it would just have felt a bit lonely - you need someone to interact with whom you're not trying to sell to or buy from or manage.

As I say, I've enjoyed working for myself but I do sometimes hark back to those days when I was a young man working and socialising with lots of other young men and women.......

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

Sometimes the skills that you learn from being employed are not at all what you expected, but sometimes incredibly useful.

Firstly, if you make the assumption that you do things the way you do them because they make sense to you, then its very interesting to go into an organisation and see how they approach things differently. Maybe better, maybe worse. But either way you usually learn a lot from it.

You can get a lot of "cross fertilisation" even where the business activities are totally different.

Thing is, maybe, not to approach the job as a job, but to treat it as a work experiences, research, information gathering exercise. Look for best practise and worst practise. Learn the good stuff and pat yourself on the back for doing it better than then bad stuff.

Eitherway, its a valuble lesson, and not one that you'll learn by always working from yourself.

Some of the worst self employed people I know that have an inability to not be able to see the wood for the trees are those that have always been self employed, and have never been forced to approach things differently, or in a manner outside of their comfort zone.

 

[surge700]

You'll regret the things you don't do more than those you do..

To me you have a simple choice.. you are making a living and have ideas with potential to make more than you would in the job (i assume).

If you do them and fail, you'll have lost nothing but gained more experience and have better job prospects.

 

[ScottNelson&Co]

If you do them and fail, you'll have lost nothing but gained more experience and have better job prospects.

Being a graduate I have very little work experience.

I'm unsure how much employers value starting a business?

I guess what I'm trying to say is how hard is it going to be to get a if all I have to show for myself when I'm 30 years old is a failed business (as opposed to a 10 year career)?

 

[surge700]

Your business may have 'failed' but you'll still have the experiences that came with it.

Would you rather employ someone who has sat answering phones and making tea for the same company for years, or someone who was working hard, trying new ideas and getting experience in all aspects of business for years? I know who I'd choose, others might disagree..

 

[Liybpg]

I was in a similar position few months ago.
I was doing a 10-week internship in one of the big banks (still doing it actually) and was offered a graduate job to start in November (2 year contract).

I would be thinking hard whether to take it if I didn't do the internship. But now I see how much this experience can give you. You can learn massive amount of stuff here: how people work, how to produce high quality documents, what is expected etc, how to deal with people, how to manage etc.

I don't see any harm to work for a couple of years prior to going into business by yourself. I think it really depends on the job - if it is a good company, there are more reasons to take the job. Also, it is important not to get sucked into the 'career ladder' environment too much. I will, for explample, be developing my business idea in parallel.

 

[redtreeland]

i'm also a recent grad, and although i'm working mainly for others, i hope to do something myself one day once i get enough clients under my own belt.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

If the web sites are able to pay a wage, then why not hire someone to run them or say the dispatch part of them and take the job offer

As most have said the experience can only be good and give you a deeper understanding of how companies work, so even if you only stay a few months you may well learn far more and far cheaper than doing it yourself

 

[filtuh.com]

Can the websites be run by someone else or in your spare time? If so try the job for 2-3 months and if you don't like it, quit and go back to the sites. Whilst doing the job you may also get inspiration for the next idea....