Going from self employed to employee

What are your thoughts on how employers view applications from people who have owned and successfully run their own business for several years?

Obviously the drive, ambition, dedication and skill-set are there to clearly be seen since these days it's not easy to start and run your own business. What may be missing is the up to date business experience/knowledge for the advertised position.

The reason for changing from self-employed to employee is down to the business reaching it's maximum turnover ability, which isn't massive or enough to live on. The business cannot be expanded any more as it is very much based on the personality and abilities of the business owner.

Hope that makes sense!

I view them very well indeed. Owning and running your own business gives you much better insight into how the overall business works. It will be more difficult for you to take instruction from someone else though

Im sure every one wants to employ someone whos failed their in own business lol.

What are your thoughts on how employers view applications from people who have owned and successfully run their own business for several years?

 

Obviously the drive, ambition, dedication and skill-set are there to clearly be seen since these days it's not easy to start and run your own business. What may be missing is the up to date business experience/knowledge for the advertised position.

 

The reason for changing from self-employed to employee is down to the business reaching it's maximum turnover ability, which isn't massive or enough to live on. The business cannot be expanded any more as it is very much based on the personality and abilities of the business owner.

 

Hope that makes sense!

I think it is more the other way round. When you have been your own boss it is often very hard to adjust to another persons way of doing things and their rules.

From an employers perspective you are likely to be:

1. Self Motivated

2. Responsible

3. Hard working

4. A pain in the arse to manage

Good luck for the future.

What are your thoughts on how employers view applications from people who have owned and successfully run their own business for several years?

 

Obviously the drive, ambition, dedication and skill-set are there to clearly be seen since these days it's not easy to start and run your own business. What may be missing is the up to date business experience/knowledge for the advertised position.

 

The reason for changing from self-employed to employee is down to the business reaching it's maximum turnover ability, which isn't massive or enough to live on. The business cannot be expanded any more as it is very much based on the personality and abilities of the business owner.

 

Hope that makes sense!

It makes total sense mate.

The difference in attitude is massive. Its a tough bridge to gap. If you've had a relatively successful Business or even a bunch of failures but caught the bug it will be really hard to take instruction from someone else as you always feel you can be doing better / different. You may get frustrated at the rate Business processes move or even at your co-workers for not getting things right.

You could be a massive pain in the bum to a director or line manager because you're always on their case and pushing. Naturally I'm driven and alpha in work so you must be a strong personality to handle that. I have learnt to reign these urges in at times.

Not all jobs require this type A personality so don't overestimate the determination or ambition aspect. Other qualities as an employee are just as important like teamwork, dilligence and likeability.

Sometimes all an employer wants is someone to tow the line and do the job and not ask too many questions!

Sometimes the director wants to be star, so may feel threatened if you want to be top dog.

You don't have a stake in the company but the director may be up to his eyeballs in debt, have a hundred things to do and he has every other member of staff to consider. He may have an errant wife who is buying multiple holidays on credit cards!

So think about what he/she has to do on a daily basis and help them.

I would say its an internal thing to get right. Think about the reasons you are doing this and formulate a long term plan.

---------- Post added 15-01-2015 at 15:48 ----------

Oh one of the things which will shock you is lack of self-reliance and lack of pro-activeness and lack of common sense in the workplace. By definition employees who have been employees for a long time won't have the same resourcefulness as you do because they have been spoon fed and think 'micro' instead of 'macro'. Quite often they are doing something and not really understand how it fits into the bigger picture so become zombified! dont blame them, its just the way it is.

Interesting reading. I've just been offered a job after been on my own for 8 year. Did a trial for them today, strange way of running things. Managed to keep my mouth shut but for how long.

Thanks for the feedback, this has been really helpful and provided a lot of things to think about.

I can see exactly what you mean about the being told what to do, though I do wonder if this will be offset by the working with people and interaction after being a solo worker for the past 4 years.

(And of course paid holidays/sickness for a change!)

Im sure every one wants to employ someone whos failed their in own business lol.

Thanks for sharing your well thought out musings.

In the real world, failure is part of success. The people who succeed in life are those that are not afraid to fail. When they do fail, they dust themselves off and learn their lessons and come back stronger and more knowledgable.

The people who don't try anything themselves because they are scared of failure, are the people who are holding themselves back.