+1 for Inkslinger82's comments!
My parents owned a commercial nursery for 17 years, 13 of which it was the sole source of income for our family. In retrospect I don't know how they did it and am amazed and thankful!
I started a new job last month, left an awful situation after 7 torturous years of what would qualify as mental abuse if I had been married to my last job!!! NO I"M NOT KIDDING, it was that bad. My new job, like my old one, is a small business run by the owner/operator. It couldn't be more different than day is from night. How a business is run in all aspects are key. The product, placement, advertisement/promotion, work environment, talent pool of prospective employees, product awareness of clientel, realistic possibility of educating clientel, on and on and on! What's my point? To echo what others have said, it's hard and I haven't even mentioned financing. I myself would absolutely LOVE to go into bus. for myself, but lack the means and contacts to do so with any assurity of being able to keep my family clothed, fed, and properly housed.... so I work for someone else.
Too finish up and track back to the original purpose of this post, I'll relate what my new boss said too me as we were talking the other day. ( to understand this you have to know that I work for a Digital Graphics/Vehicle Wrap/Trade Graphics company as a graphic artist) He said about 3 years ago he had to make a decision to either be an artist or run his business the correct way. Well I was hired to take over much of his remaining design responsibilities. So like inkslinger82 said.... there are some tough decisions to be made when you run a business. Sorry to be so UNBRIEF... guess yall know why I'm an artist and not a writer!
Good luck and cheers to all you intrepid entrepaneurs,
Phillip
For anyone intrested check us out at
www.imageonestudios.com
inkslinger82 said:
Just wanted to quickly chime in on this one. Im new to brewing, but have my own business. Here is what I learned BEFORE I started mine. There is a HUGE difference between being an artisan/craftsman...and being an entrepreneur. Very few people possess the ambition, personality, and devotion to both be the artisan and the businessman. In my situation, I made a decision up front that I was going to be the main artisan in my business...therefore I needed to hire somebody to actually RUN the business. I guess if I was to relate the experience to Brewing...I would say either make a decision to RUN the business and make the decisions that will lead your company to success...or go the other route and HIRE somebody to run the business while you focus on creating a solid, marketable product. Doing both is not efficient for time or product quality. Im not saying it cannot be done, but any business consultant might tell you that the creator of a company MUST be willing to relinquish some control of the company in order to achieve steady growth.....this goes for any business. Just have sound hiring and training procedures to make sure that it runs like a machine. Just my thoughts.
Chris