Being an employee may be fun and all, and even allow the semblance of a steady income, but it's not a position of management. Therefore, it's a demotion in terms of status in the business hierarchy. For example, a former business owner goes from giving directions to taking directions. That's a demotion.
Promotion is the pursuit of giving direction.
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@stelzerpaintinginc. I both agree with and disagree with this statement. I went from owning my own business doing track homes, to small commercial, to High end residential, to losing it all in 2008. Then I hired on at a big firm in another state and spent years as a traveling painter, until I was brought into the office to train as the replacement for the C.O.O.
While I could have continued and made more money on my own, I have gained things as an employee of this firm that I never would have otherwise. Before I was great at faux finishes, I could make anything match something else. But working here has opened my eyes to the fact that doing that is a skill, but thinking about what products to use and the science behind those finishes are important for the longevity and continued maintenance of that specialty finish.
I would never have learned what I know about Corrosion, Building Science, Architecture, Planning and Scheduling, Prevailing Wage, Insurance, Contracts, Sand Blasting, Paint Chemistry, Construction Claims, International Freight Forwarding, Sharepoint IT Architecture, etc. I would never have been able to travel the world to practice my craft without the connections this company already had. I would not have had access to people in the industry that allowed me to start and run the Podcast I did.
Even the small and mundane things. I would have likely never thought to keep a package of Hooks [
Link] handy to screw into the side of my Cut-in brush to keep it from sitting in the bottom of my 2 gallon bucket had I not worked alongside someone who did it.
So, from a growth standpoint, yeah there are a LOT of opportunities for growth working for another company.
While my situation is not the norm, i guess it comes down to what you do with the opportunities you are given.
Yeah there is a ceiling working for someone else. Unless you plan on taking over someday, or get offered a partnership. But going the route I did has drastically reduced the amount of time it would have taken me to learn a lot of things if I was still a business owner working my way through it. But to your point, I am always working making someone else richer. If the only goal is money, yes, working for someone else is more limiting than working for yourself. So I guess it just depends on what we each view as success.