3 Terrible Excuses For Not Starting Your Own Company Today

In a tech world where hugely successful companies like Apple and Airbnb compete on design, there are surprisingly few designers out there creating their own startups. Why? A lot of it comes down to mentality on both ends. Most designers aren’t taught to think of themselves as entrepreneurs, and lots of businesses are still getting over the idea that designers are consultants you bring in at the end of the day to “make things look pretty”” rather than key players.

Here are three of the biggest sticking points we hear from designers as to why they aren’t starting their own company and why they actually don’t matter.

1. “I don’t know enough about coding/hardware or business”

Welcome to what being an entrepreneur is all about. One of the most fantastic things about founding a startup is the opportunity to always be learning something new and flexing your skills on the go. Yes, that can be incredibly stressful, but it’s also exhilarating and one of the things that keeps people coming back to game over and over again. Trust us, no one knows everything they need to when they first start a company.

Secondly, don’t forget about your team, especially your cofounding team at first. Part of the point of cofounders is to close the insanely large sink hole of knowledge that is missing. Then you add in a few choice advisors.

Your cofounders and advisors are there to support you with knowledge that you don’t personally have, and help you learn more about the different angles to what you’re doing. In describing the partnership with his Behance co-founder Scott Belsky, Matias Corea noted, “When I met Scott, I was just a designer…I turned Scott into a designer, he turned me into an entrepreneur”

It’s never too late to learn a bit about these things you don’t know about. Learning the basics of coding can be a great way to enhance your skills as a designer in general, and you don’t have to have detailed back-end skills to be able to make the right decisions and work with others. And you may be surprised to find that design-thinking applies to business in almost every way. Just ask designer entrepreneur Christina Wodtke.

2. “I’m not ready”

How long have you been saying this? Make no mistake, taking the first step is damn scary. But there is never a perfect time. You can choose to wait forever and wonder what would have happened if, or have the confidence to take the first step. A great place to begin is by starting side projects. Not just on your own, but with others.

If you’re struggling to find inspiration, “stop trying to be the next Facebook or have the next billion dollar idea—don’t think about it like that,” says web-design great Jeffrey Zeldman. “Think about what isn’t out there that you wish was out there, and scratch your own itch”

Collaborate with people on projects you’re passionate about, and you’ll quickly see if you like your potential co-founders and if your project is becoming such an obsession that it can’t be a side-project anymore. Then maybe it’s time to take things to the next level. Maybe even more importantly, you’ll figure out what your deal breakers are in a cofounder.

3. “I don’t do work for free”

One of the things we often hear from designers is “I don’t work for free” And that is valid. Chrisina Wodtke explains, “This is one of those ‘good things gone wrong,” AIGA and other design organizations have said over and over again, ‘Never ever do work for free.’ While it is important to defend the value of your work as a designer, following this rule to a “T” can keep you from engaging in wonderful opportunities to co-found early on, when nobody else is making money either.

Starting a company is about diving in and creating with your co-founders; it’s not like being taken advantage of by an employer who doesn’t respect your craft. It’s a risk, but one that everyone is sharing together. Rather than thinking about getting paid in money, think about in terms of value. Are you getting value for what you’re doing? Do you have a large piece of the company if you’re cofounding it?

What’s Stopping You?

Of course, there will always be hurdles in the way of creative people who hope to impact the world, but if you’re one of those would-be designer entrepreneurs, a combination of experimentation, confidence and design-thinking can help you take that leap of faith.

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Jessica Alter is the Cofounder & CEO of FounderDating, the premier network for entrepreneurs and advisors to connect, share and help one and other. Previously, Jessica led Business Development and was GM of Platforms at Bebo (Acquired by AOL). Prior to Bebo Jessica worked in business development at Hands-On Mobile. She is also a mentor at 500 Startups and Extreme Startups. She holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from University of Michigan and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

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3 Terrible Excuses For Not Starting Your Own Company Today

Why Your Company Should Embrace The Four-Day Workweek

The talk about a four-day workweek has been around for awhile, but lately more and more companies are adopting it and bloggers worldwide are talking about it. Working just 4 days and having 3 days off is heaven for employees but not so much for employers who aren’t (yet) well acquainted with the benefits.

Efficiency should not be equated with number of hours or days worked, they are not the same, but in today’s trend almost everyone believes this to be true.

In this article, we will talk about how a four-day workweek is the best schedule for creative and knowledge-centric firms. The standard work hours is 8 hours daily or 40 hours per week for a full-time job. With a four-day workweek, the setup can be either a 32-hour workweek or 10-hour daily for 4 days. We’ll take a look at just what this means.

Recommended Reading: Searching For Happiness In The Workplace

Less Time to Work Means Less Time to Waste

The more hours there are for work, the more people find ways to distract themselves because they desire change from their routine. It doesn’t necessarily mean more time for efficient work. In fact, forcing more working hours onto creative and knowledge workers has a detrimental effect.

You see, creativity and critical thinking can’t be forced. They both thrive in freedom. Freedom in the sense that they are not robots meant to work 8-12 hours a day for 5 days. It might sound counterintuitive to say that in order to have quality work and in order to squeeze every second of every working moment for maximum efficiency, employees should spend less time at work.

Read Also: Freelance Designers: How To Balance Your Work Life

In fact, this is what Jason Fried did on 37Signals, now known as Basecamp. According to him, “Better work gets done in four days than in five.” He said that during our school days, we were given a summer vacation from school and that time off from school was tremendously helpful in breaking the monotony. But as we grow older and life becomes more serious, these breaks shorten. Some even go for years without having a real vacation.

When people have more time to work, they inadvertently try to fill every possible hour. In between they are looking for ways to distract themselves from the desolation of a monotonous work environment. Having a shorter workweek might just do the trick of increasing productivity, since there’s less time to fool around.

Here’s the kicker, officials in Sweden have been working on a 6-hour work day in the hopes of helping workers increase their happiness, productivity, and ultimately be more healthy.

More Personal Time Means a Happier Work Environment

Suppose you are a web designer and your employer told you to design five unique landing pages within the week. Sounds like an easy job especially if you enjoy designing. If you are skilled and experienced enough, you can definitely pull this off. You might even work overtime just to please your employer.

But no matter how skilled and experienced you are, if this goes on for several weeks to months, you’ll just feel all spent and be mentally exhausted, right? People don’t want to spend the majority of their lives at work.

The current setup of many companies is to give their employees both one or two days off and a lot of overtime during workweeks. This leaves employees to just spend their free time at home, catching up on their sleep. In western culture, this is seen as a positive thing, being a workaholic. However, in many South-East Asian countries, working overtime suggests employees aren’t efficient enough to finish their work on time.

Read Also: The Pursuit Of Happiness (& How To Be Truly Happy)

Can you imagine employees being happy under this setup, where they only have one or two days to rest and not enough time for family, friends, and for themselves?

Let’s take a peek at how happiness and more free time work in a grander scale. Countries who work shorter hours are the happiest and their economies are doing just fine. Take for example; Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Sweden. According to the World Happiness Report 2013, these countries were the top 5 in terms of highest levels of happiness.

The report shows that one major benefit of being happy is that people become more productive. Other major benefits include people living longer lives and low crime rates due to people being generally good.

Read also: Happiness Can Be The Best Strategy For Increasing Productivity: Here’s How

Coincidentally, these countries have the shortest work hours per week in a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2013. The Netherlands’ average hours per week is 29, the shortest in the world for full-time salaried workers. This is followed closely by Denmark (33), Norway (33) Switzerland (35), and Sweden (36). The Swedes work 143 hours less than Americans per year.

Great Work Satisfaction Means Longer Work and Talent Retention

Why do you think people change companies or careers? It’s not because they just feel like doing so. It’s because they’re not satisfied with their work. Most of us have been there. Why did you leave your previous job? Probably because the salary is too low or the work setting is terrible, but often times for most people it’s because a better opportunity presented itself elsewhere.

Read Also: Career Dilemma: 5 Needs To Consider Before Saying “I Quit!”

The World Happiness Report 2013 published a study that strengthens the idea that the happier people are at their workplace, the more they tend to cooperate and help improve the entirety of their work.

If you own a company with a high turnover rate of employees, you might want to consider investigating your employees’ key motivators. Usually these motivators are: security, recognition, purpose, and freedom. If you want to seriously understand what motivates others, a great starting point is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Give people these four key motivators and they will be happy, and in turn they will work with you for as long as you satisfy them.

A four-day workweek also solves the issue of a high turnover rate too. Happy employees usually find their purpose easily and will do their best to perform well. In turn, they might just get recognized for their outstanding work which leads to job security. And finally, they will have more time for themselves.

Another thing is that great talent will gravitate towards you. Adding an extra day of freedom can go a long way for many people. And if your goal is to attract great talent, a four-day workweek is probably one of the best deals out there (especially now that it’s popularity is still rising).

Conclusion

If you are thinking of starting your own company or doing freelance work, don’t forget to consider the benefits of having a four-day workweek. I know that 5 days is the most popular, followed by 6 working days, but don’t forget about what motivates you as well as your employees.

Most people’s motivation boils down to freedom. Some people work in order to have money whilst others want to save enough money to live a particular lifestyle. Regardless of what it is, the appeal of a four-day workweek is something that can act as a big motivator.

No related posts.

Why Your Company Should Embrace The Four-Day Workweek

Why Your Company Should Embrace The Four-Day Workweek

The talk about a four-day workweek has been around for awhile, but lately more and more companies are adopting it and bloggers worldwide are talking about it. Working just 4 days and having 3 days off is heaven for employees but not so much for employers who aren’t (yet) well acquainted with the benefits.

Efficiency should not be equated with number of hours or days worked, they are not the same, but in today’s trend almost everyone believes this to be true.

In this article, we will talk about how a four-day workweek is the best schedule for creative and knowledge-centric firms. The standard work hours is 8 hours daily or 40 hours per week for a full-time job. With a four-day workweek, the setup can be either a 32-hour workweek or 10-hour daily for 4 days. We’ll take a look at just what this means.

Recommended Reading: Searching For Happiness In The Workplace

Less Time to Work Means Less Time to Waste

The more hours there are for work, the more people find ways to distract themselves because they desire change from their routine. It doesn’t necessarily mean more time for efficient work. In fact, forcing more working hours onto creative and knowledge workers has a detrimental effect.

You see, creativity and critical thinking can’t be forced. They both thrive in freedom. Freedom in the sense that they are not robots meant to work 8-12 hours a day for 5 days. It might sound counterintuitive to say that in order to have quality work and in order to squeeze every second of every working moment for maximum efficiency, employees should spend less time at work.

Read Also: Freelance Designers: How To Balance Your Work Life

In fact, this is what Jason Fried did on 37Signals, now known as Basecamp. According to him, “Better work gets done in four days than in five.” He said that during our school days, we were given a summer vacation from school and that time off from school was tremendously helpful in breaking the monotony. But as we grow older and life becomes more serious, these breaks shorten. Some even go for years without having a real vacation.

When people have more time to work, they inadvertently try to fill every possible hour. In between they are looking for ways to distract themselves from the desolation of a monotonous work environment. Having a shorter workweek might just do the trick of increasing productivity, since there’s less time to fool around.

Here’s the kicker, officials in Sweden have been working on a 6-hour work day in the hopes of helping workers increase their happiness, productivity, and ultimately be more healthy.

More Personal Time Means a Happier Work Environment

Suppose you are a web designer and your employer told you to design five unique landing pages within the week. Sounds like an easy job especially if you enjoy designing. If you are skilled and experienced enough, you can definitely pull this off. You might even work overtime just to please your employer.

But no matter how skilled and experienced you are, if this goes on for several weeks to months, you’ll just feel all spent and be mentally exhausted, right? People don’t want to spend the majority of their lives at work.

The current setup of many companies is to give their employees both one or two days off and a lot of overtime during workweeks. This leaves employees to just spend their free time at home, catching up on their sleep. In western culture, this is seen as a positive thing, being a workaholic. However, in many South-East Asian countries, working overtime suggests employees aren’t efficient enough to finish their work on time.

Read Also: The Pursuit Of Happiness (& How To Be Truly Happy)

Can you imagine employees being happy under this setup, where they only have one or two days to rest and not enough time for family, friends, and for themselves?

Let’s take a peek at how happiness and more free time work in a grander scale. Countries who work shorter hours are the happiest and their economies are doing just fine. Take for example; Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Sweden. According to the World Happiness Report 2013, these countries were the top 5 in terms of highest levels of happiness.

The report shows that one major benefit of being happy is that people become more productive. Other major benefits include people living longer lives and low crime rates due to people being generally good.

Read also: Happiness Can Be The Best Strategy For Increasing Productivity: Here’s How

Coincidentally, these countries have the shortest work hours per week in a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2013. The Netherlands’ average hours per week is 29, the shortest in the world for full-time salaried workers. This is followed closely by Denmark (33), Norway (33) Switzerland (35), and Sweden (36). The Swedes work 143 hours less than Americans per year.

Great Work Satisfaction Means Longer Work and Talent Retention

Why do you think people change companies or careers? It’s not because they just feel like doing so. It’s because they’re not satisfied with their work. Most of us have been there. Why did you leave your previous job? Probably because the salary is too low or the work setting is terrible, but often times for most people it’s because a better opportunity presented itself elsewhere.

Read Also: Career Dilemma: 5 Needs To Consider Before Saying “I Quit!”

The World Happiness Report 2013 published a study that strengthens the idea that the happier people are at their workplace, the more they tend to cooperate and help improve the entirety of their work.

If you own a company with a high turnover rate of employees, you might want to consider investigating your employees’ key motivators. Usually these motivators are: security, recognition, purpose, and freedom. If you want to seriously understand what motivates others, a great starting point is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Give people these four key motivators and they will be happy, and in turn they will work with you for as long as you satisfy them.

A four-day workweek also solves the issue of a high turnover rate too. Happy employees usually find their purpose easily and will do their best to perform well. In turn, they might just get recognized for their outstanding work which leads to job security. And finally, they will have more time for themselves.

Another thing is that great talent will gravitate towards you. Adding an extra day of freedom can go a long way for many people. And if your goal is to attract great talent, a four-day workweek is probably one of the best deals out there (especially now that it’s popularity is still rising).

Conclusion

If you are thinking of starting your own company or doing freelance work, don’t forget to consider the benefits of having a four-day workweek. I know that 5 days is the most popular, followed by 6 working days, but don’t forget about what motivates you as well as your employees.

Most people’s motivation boils down to freedom. Some people work in order to have money whilst others want to save enough money to live a particular lifestyle. Regardless of what it is, the appeal of a four-day workweek is something that can act as a big motivator.

No related posts.

Why Your Company Should Embrace The Four-Day Workweek