by John Anderson
Recently, reports revealed the unemployment rate in America decreased to 5.8 percent, making it the lowest in six years. Despite the low unemployment rate in the American job market, Americans are still having a hard time finding the right job. The good news is, there’s a job for every one of you out there. Even if you just graduated from college or out looking for a new job, startup businesses are popping up everywhere, ready to give you a job. Have you ever considered taking the risk and joining or starting your own business?
Why join a startup company when you could earn a higher salary by joining a corporate company? Sure, joining or starting a small business is a big risk to take especially if you just came out of a corporate job. If you have been staring at the computer and checking various websites to look for job openings, stop that and read on to know why you should start working at a startup:
1. Create A Wide Human Network
Nothing beats having a direct relationship with influential people. Benefits of joining a startup or building a startup business include having direct contact to people of any position and may be beneficial for you in the long run. You come across colleagues, clients, and vendors which is a great advantage to advance your career.
2. Increased Responsibility And Opportunity
Working at a startup or starting one means that you have to choose people with specific skill sets to match the business needs. This pushes you to identify the different skills that you have which may be more than what you can do. It increases your sense of responsibility since this is your business anyway. With this sense of responsibility comes the opportunity to learn new skills. You learn to work with an agile team and focus on the productivity/efficiency of each other. Even if it does not pay as much as corporate jobs, you get a large amount of experience which is worth more than the paycheck.
3. Learn From The Best Teacher
Experience. You would obviously go through numerous obstacles where you could pick up lessons beneficial for the growth of your startup business. There may be numerous websites offering lists and advices for your digital marketing or content marketing strategies but experiencing it first hand gives you an advantage of what to do, when to do it, and what not to do.
4. Be The Boss
Why start or join a startup company? This is why: You set the business hours, you choose the employees, you choose the type of business you want to start, you are your own boss, and no corporate employee could do these things. If you start up your own business or join a startup company, you could set the plans for your business. This may sound grand but with it comes the responsibility of setting meetings, documentations, micromanagement, and handling losses. However, with the right attitude, you could work on your business like a boss!
5. Let Others Do The Work
As the boss, you get to let others do the work for you. Sounds mean, but you are creating jobs and helping decrease the unemployment rate in this tough job market. If you join a startup company, you are offering a specific skill which you alone can do. This way the work is distributed to your agile team but you could still see the direct output of your work and feel your importance within the team.
6. Your Work Is Valued
Since you are working with a small but agile team, every skill and contribution you give to your team is recognized. This happens in all corporate offices, but with a startup company, one small good job may send ripples of positive effect on the entire business. You get the spotlight among the few members of your team which you don’t usually feel in a corporate setting where there is great competition among hundreds of employees.
7. You Get The Basics Of Hard Work
Working with a startup business pushes you to do your best for the benefit of the entire business. With the allowance given to you in doing the work assigned to you, you feel exceptional in putting effort into something you are passionate about. With only a small team and the value your boss is putting on you, you become aware of what good hard work brings to the table. This inspires you to work more and do your best in everything you do.
8. You Value Your Money
Joining a startup business means that you do not earn as much as you are earning back then when you were in a corporation. But this does not mean you will not earn more as the business progresses. You learn the value of every single penny in your pocket. The company will work on spending less, if possible. However, the company focuses their finance on the further development of the business. The company may even assign you more than one task but this increases your sense of responsibility and your knowledge as well. With the right efforts and team play, your efforts will be rewarded instantly.
9. There’s No Where To Go But Up!
The stories of every successful company started from being a sad startup business to becoming an international brand. Joining a startup business gives you a huge chance of going up, up, and up! You may even be rewarded with a share of the company’s assets. Even if the startup business goes down, the experience and the lessons you have gained is one you could treasure and may bring you up the hierarchy of skilled workers.
If you’re reading this, you are probably weighing the pros and cons of joining a startup company and asking yourself, “should I join a startup or not?” Taking the risk of joining a startup business may sound crazy but it is one giant leap of faith which would require hard work, determination, research, and effort. Making money out of this move is not one of the goals, it’s passion and drive to increase one’s knowledge that push one to go and join a startup business.
John Anderson is a Web Developer, Creative Content Director and a Commissioned Artist. He is particular in watching web and social media changes and uses. He is interested about various internet trends and enjoys his day job as a cartoonist and commissioned artist. Follow him on Twitter
Photo Credits
reynermedia| Hamed Parham| U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Europe District | Courtesy of John Anderson
