Volume 6, Issue 5 October-November,2014
Employee Entrepreneur By Jerrold (Jerry) Clifford
A crook accidentally made a counterfeit $8 bill instead of a $10 bill. Instead of just discarding it he wondered how he could actually profit from it. After much thought he finally figured out something that he thought might work. He took his bill to the bank, gave it to a teller and asked for change. The teller said, “certainly sir” and gave the crook two $4 bills as change. The moral? Things are not always what they appear to be. The normal perception of a job is employment that offers a regular paycheck along with certain benefits – health and life insurance, time-off for illness and vacation, and retirement income (pension). But this is no longer the “norm.” For example, companies do not make money by having employees – they make money by selling products and increase their value by getting investors. To look attractive to investors, the companies work hard to reduce costs and increase sales. Since increasing sales often proves difficult and can be related to
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the state of the economy, companies find reducing costs to be attractive. One way to reduce costs is to reduce employee overhead. That means: “trading” current employees for cheaper ones; such as “off-shoring,” reducing work force, or reducing or eliminating benefits. Bottom line – the term “job security” no longer applies. The cost of benefits is being passed along to employees and many benefits such as pensions are no longer guaranteed. In other words, the attractiveness (and meaning) of being an employee has been reduced significantly. With this change, the most effective ways of finding a position have changed, too. The job environment is no longer what it once was. We’ve seen jobs (and even whole companies) go to other countries, pensions disappear, the cost of benefits now increasingly paid for by employees, or even the elimination of some benefits. To get ahead in this environment, more than ever, employees must continually show their value to a company. They must demonstrate that they are important to a company’s success by providing important services that have value. They have to convince the company that above-mentioned alternatives of “reducing employee overhead” are not as attractive. I’ve met people who tell me that they are not entrepreneurs. They take jobs partly because they do not want the uncertainty or responsibility of working for themselves. They like the security of a regular paycheck, benefits, and the attraction of a “guaranteed” retirement income (aka pension). These people do not understand that they are actually the CEO of a business entity – themselves. They have products (their knowledge and experience). These products have a cost (salary and benefits). They need a marketing plan (ways to convince a company to hire them and keep them employed). In other words, they may appear to be employees BUT in actuality they are a type of entrepreneur. Go to Index