Home is where I belong

[Steve Wargo]

One of the most important things is to set business hours for yourself and schedule yourself like an employee.

Don’t work in your underwear. Dress each day like you’re going to a job.

Don’t fall into the same trap as too many others by saying “I’ll just drop into the edit suite for an hour or so” when you have free time. This will become a terrible habit to break. Some home-office types actually walk out of one door and into another to go to work.

The worst thing is having kids, and you don’t, but how about friends that think that you’re at home so they can drop by to visit, whenever they want, for as long as they want. Get the point across to them quickly, and in no uncertain terms.

Another problem is the people that think that you have all the free time in the world and you can’t possibly be charging them for doing something while you’re at home, doing nothing.

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!

Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
Sony EX-1 on the way.

[Steve Wargo]

I hate sales. I hate sales. I hate sales.

The only thing that saves us is the fact that almost all of our business is referral. You don’t actually have to be a salesman but you have to be able to sell yourself once someone contacts you. When my wife left to start her own company in another field, I took a 40% hit in business. I had to become something I didn’t want to be. I have chosen to ask some others in the field to rep for me and I pay decent commissions.

I hate sales.

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!

Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
Sony EX-1 on the way.

[Russ Stiggants]

Steve, I’m with you. I hate sales too. I agree with you that those of us who do choose to work independently – and who are unable or unwilling to sell ourselves – need to find people who can sell for us.

Over a few years, I paid big buckets for two young ladies to do that for me (sequentially, not at the same time!) The first was better than the second – but once I had ‘trained’ them and they were both becoming useful and productive, both left to join other (non-competing) outfits (one went on to sell cars, the other to sell ads for a newspaper).

There were no employment issues (I supplied one with a company car and healthy expense account – the other with a good car allowance and expenses) and looked after them exceptionally well.

We all became very good friends and there were no hard feelings on my part when they left. I am still good friends with both – but I had to come to terms with the fact that they were both young and had to move on career-wise, even though I was paying them top dollar.

I think I took their departure harder than they did: I lost something from my business beyond employee/employer relationships.

This in fact points to an interesting phenomenon – in ‘micro’ businesses, it’s really hard to separate employment from friendship, particularly as you work so closely with those who are part of your professional life.

In a bigger business, there’s more separation.

Not so for the sole-trader.

Now I hire no-one, although I do agree with you that the best way to go these days is maybe to engage a freelance sales-rep and sell on commission. Trouble is, getting the right sort of person to sell that way is easier said than done.

Still, Ben could probably benefit from this approach, so long as (a) he can find the right person (b) he can absorb the lazy few grand it takes to get that person up-to-speed and ‘incentivize’ them, and (c) accept the clients that sales-person will bring to him.

In my case, like a lot of so-called ‘creatives’, I rejected working for some people my sales-girls brought to me. I knew the clients who preyed on them and who were looking for great ‘creative’ at insulting prices.

But…aahhhh….the good thing for working for yourself is that you have the ability to say ‘no’ whenever you like. When push comes to shove, you have that sublime ability to tell a potential client what you think of them.

Not good for sales, but very, very satisfying!

These are the grey areas of self employment – but Damn! I can sleep at night, I only work for those I want to, and I still have great fun from time to time telling potential clients to go stuff themselves.

I go hungry often – but I feed off an empty stomach.