Today is one of the biggest days of my life. Today I resigned from my job. Today is the first step to becoming my own boss and being accountable for everything that I do.
Let me set the scene.
By the time that I formally leave my job (end of December 2015) I will have been within the Waste Management industry for 15 years, almost to the day.
Those years are fairly evenly split between two different employers (6.5 years within a Local Authority waste team and 8.5 years with a packaging Trade Association). I am loyal, work hard and love my job, but something has changed within me.
My Dad has been his own boss for a number of years now and I have always seen the attraction of driving your own destiny through the good and the bad times. That is what I want, that is what I have wanted for quite some time now, but I am loyal to the company that I am currently working for and I didn’t yet understand what my business proposition could be.
At one point I seriously looked into curing my own local, organic meats and running an online shop. Charcuterie, alongside food and cooking in general, really interests me but it was never enough for me to think 'tomorrow I will hand my notice in'…
Then a year ago I started crochet classes at my local high school and fell in love with all things yarn based.
That led to a quick succession of learning to knit, intermediary crochet classes and visiting every yarn or knitting show within reasonably easy reach of Cheshire – although I am thinking about going to Shetland. The upshot was that I found ‘my thing’. That ‘thing’ that you know you can do, that business you can create that is unique and missing from the market place. Also, it is much more difficult to potentially give somebody food poisoning with yarn based goods!
So, as of about three months ago, I really started to shape what my business could look like and used trips to exhibitions for market research as well as purchasing yarn for my latest obsession.
Fast forward three months and today is the day that I handed my notice in. Literally about an hour ago. So far it has been a roller coaster of emotions. Pressing the send button brought elation and trepidation in equal measure. The 25 minute drive to work allowed some doubts to set in – too late!
My iPod shuffle played Tommy Petty – Free Fallin’, Paulo Nutini’s One Day and Chicane’s Autumn Tactics – all very relevant songs that meant that by the time I was unlocking the front door at the office and taking the alarm off I was in a Beyonce-esque ‘go get ‘em girlfriend’ type of a mood.
Then my boss phoned, sounding dejected but overall pleased for me. That brought tears to my eyes. As I said, I love my job and the three others that I work with – they are fab. It just isn’t enough for me anymore, I need more.
So for the rest of today I am off to do my current day job. I will update this blog at the end of the day when I have seen the team and talked through the intricacies of leaving in three months...
I need a cup of tea.
***UPDATE***
So, as of 4th January 2016 I will be self employed. Gulp. I have three months to ensure that I hand the job over in a decent state (I'm not one to hand in my notice and then sit on my backside for three months) and also try to set-up my new company.
Whilst going through all of the thinking behind leaving my job and setting up on my own the thing that I kept coming back to is that, where possible, I really want to be able to control who I work with. Life is too short to have to work with people that kill your passion for the job. To do something well, I have to be 100% engaged with it and see it as part of a bigger picture. I love being focused, operational and working strategically. I don't love having to work within a political environment or with idiots that have the charisma and personality of a box ticking automaton and seem to see women as lesser beings.
I hasten to add, this is not my team that I am talking about. They are lovely, fabulous and supportive people that I have happily worked with for many years.
Luckily the craft community is full of absolute lovelies and I can't wait to join in with my new business. I look forward to being enthused and creative on a daily basis.
My intention is to blog every now and then with updates on how I am getting on with setting up the business, what was difficult, what was a breeze and what my approach has been.
