Are you someone who needs consistency in your work and your paycheck? Or is it more important to you to decide who you work with, when you work, and what types of projects you take on?
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Today we are talking about something that comes up all the time… the risks and rewards of choosing between going full time in someone’s business vs coming on as a contractor. As a disclaimer, there are legal considerations that are attached to these designations, but that is not what we will be discussing today.
How to Determine Your Role
How do you determine what you should be doing as a service provider? We are at a place in time in which the demand for operators is growing (and will continue to grow) like never before. If you are embarking on this journey, you need to assess the risk and the rewards of a full time role vs. a contract role.
What Do You Need More Of?
Think about what your drive is, and revisit your vision. What is it that you want so badly? Do you want to offset your family’s expenses? Be able to pick your kids up from school? What is motivating you to do the type of work you are doing? If you are looking for lots of freedom to work whenever you want, then being committed to a full time position will not be your best bet.
“Why are you on the path that you are on?”
Consistency and Predictability
If control, repetitiveness, and predictability are central to who you are, then there is a lot of reward in having a stable environment. If this sounds good to you, consider the full time model.
If you crave flexibility or don’t mind uncertainty; if you’re not the sole provider in your home; if you crave variety or if you like the idea of changing course…I’d advise you to look at the retainer based model where you can have lots of different projects going on.
Risk vs Reward
How risky do you like things? If you want consistency, you will want to assume less risk.
If you are okay with flexibility, then the reward is there though it will be more risky.
Assess where you are in your life right now. Are you at a place in your life where you need to be more risk averse or can you take those risks? Are you ready to accept the rewards that accompany the risk?
“What do you need to be your optimal self?”
Support Systems
What kind of support do you have in your life right now? If you have a ton of support systems, then taking additional risks might be a good move. But if you are the sole provider for your family, you may want to evaluate if this is the right time to build a business.
Marketing Yourself
Do you have a natural ability to sell a product? Are you naturally wired for sales? Are you interested in the marketing game? If you are looking at the Director of Operations (DOO) as a profession, be aware that the concept of marketing yourself never goes away.
What kind of tolerance do you have? If you are not into marketing and sales conversations, and want to limit the number of these interactions, full time may be your best bet.
If you are on the other end of that spectrum… if you love marketing and sales, then you may be more suited to the retainer model.
Benefits
Do you need health, dental, or retirement? Where are you in your life? Are you willing to assume the benefits yourself or do they need to be employer sponsored? It depends on the logistics of your situation.
Choice
If you are someone who wants to select the type of work you are doing, the type of people you like serving, and setting the rules, the retainer model may be for you.
If you value having a consistent paycheck, then full time is probably for you.
It’s worth noting that there is full time employment that can be flexible. Lots of successful small businesses will hire in a full time capacity. This gives you the best of both worlds… you can choose who you want to work and work as an operator, and help navigate executive decisions that you may not get to make in the corporate space.
When you think about income in your life, you need to decide what kind of risk you are able to assume. I get lots of people coming out of corporate, wanting to create a business on their own. This is totally possible, but you need a model that works for you. If you are looking for flexibility and more say so in who you work with, check out our Director of Operations program to learn more.
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What do you need more of at this time in your life? Consistency and predictability OR flexibility and variety. Please join our private Facebook group and share!
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