I was looking back on the last five years and wondering what caused me to choose the job I do. My reasons for wanting to do this were borne out of a different series of circumstances to the ones that might cause people to consider a job as a consultant because the job market has taken a turn for the worst. This is the first of a series of posts which will go into what I believe should help those people wanting to start out in this game.
My last real job was in the internet industry. I suppose I was lucky working for the company I did because they gave me a fair amount of freedom to do what I wanted. As a result I worked in different positions over a five year period - conveniently moving on just as I was getting bored. This freedom helped me figure out that I was best at my job when I was interested in it. At the same time I started believing that I was only going to truly respect myself when I became self employed.
The great opportunity came when the American parent decided to retrench across the board - and South Africa was to lose a bunch of people too. I must have got to work earlier than ever to make sure that I was first in the retrenchment queue. After leaving with a redundancy cheque I joined a friend's software firm. My confidence had been somewhat shattered in the big corporate. I had been protected from the outside world but not protected from typical corporate politics (more on this later). The smaller company seemed like a decent opportunity to develop a little confidence and learn a bit about running a business.
I discovered very quickly that things were very different in the smaller company. There were fewer people and everything revolved around the business owner. This same owner had been talking to numerous black people about taking a stake in his business and no one was going for it. He even offered me shares and I wasn't interested.
Enter the BEE interest
This is when I thought - how can such a small firm be expected to have a black ownership element, when no-one is interested in taking shares? My research took me through the Employment Equity Act, especially section 53 that said that you had to attach a certificate indicating compliance with the EE Act. I interpreted this to mean that you were eligible for state business if you complied with the act.
Exit formal employment
I couldn't do it anymore - it wasn't working and I had built up my confidence. After trying numerous IT ventures, none of which worked out (I learned a few really important lessons here that I conveniently forgot a few months later), I started concentrating on being a BEE consultant.
Next installment - getting started, getting known and getting a company name
Comments