Take back control

Intro piece for Evening Standard supplement I edited called Be Your Own Boss...

You’re reading this on the train, aren’t you? A lot of people do, of course. For many it is part of the daily ritual of the commute, along with the over-strength coffee, delays, standing, excess cold/heat and the people. Oh yeah, the people. Sitting down on the train to read the paper is the pavlovian klaxon signalling that the horror is at an end and you’re on your way home. 

It’s also a great way to avoid eye contact with that one opposite, with the sniffing, and the hair and the anti-social…face. Grrrr.

And all this after you’ve put up with the usual daily nonsense, the meetings, the memos, the customers, the….country reports; the young idiots, the old idiots, the ‘bantz’, the boss. Oh yeah, the boss.

What on Earth did you do to deserve this?

But perhaps it doesn’t have to be this way. What if you were the boss of you? What if you were the boss of quite a few others as well? Sounds marvellous of course, but don’t you need lots of money, contacts, a diamond-bullet-in-the-forehead idea and….you know….that certain something that elevates management above mere shop-floor fodder? 

In a word: Nah. Anyone - anyone - can do it. 

Want proof? According to the Office of National Statistics, the number of self-employed people in the UK has increased from 3.3 million people (12% of the labour force) in 2001 to 4.8 million (15.1% of the labour force) in 2017.

And the fastest growing part of that is people working on their own. So how hard can it be?

Neither is it absolutely necessary to endure any kind of dues-paying, started-off-with-£1.54-and-no-shoes kind of back story so beloved of the mythology that surrounds entrepreneurs. 

What you will hopefully glean from reading this supplement is there is plenty of support available immediately for people who want to strike out, go their own way, and become masters of their own destiny. More so than ever, in fact. 

Be Your Own Boss will give you the starting knowledge to hit the ground running, establish the right kind of company set-up, covering all legal and financial obligations, and offer some guidance on funding, marketing, work spaces and building your business. 

You can also read plenty of examples of people who have been where you are now and have gone on to establish successful companies in all manner of different fields.

So, dive in. Get inspired. And look forward to having that conversation with your boss tomorrow.