The transition from corporate life to full time self employment is both terrifying and gratifying. Here’s a story for SMB twitter about leaving a cushy office gig to embark on a journey of unknowns resulting in massive personal and professional growth.

Like many others, I had plans to change the world when I was working my way into healthcare management. I was ambitious and willing to share my ideas and I knew how to rally a team which is what got me to the management level.

In management I gained access to data in the form of spreadsheets, connected with an experienced mentor and I set out on my journey to affect change. I gained traction , rallied my team and we started having a huge impact on the benchmarks set for us by executive management.

We started reaching new heights resulting in new benchmarks not only for ourselves but the rest of the hospital system after showing leadership how efficient a department could be. I started delegating tasks to our team leader to free up time to solve bigger problems.

My mentor taught me about data and how to use it effectively. I became obsessed with excel and got really good at using it. After some trial and error I got a hold of some data, dug deep, restructured a variety of different departments on paper and presented it to leadership.

This was a huge project with huge long term implications on efficiency and performance. Ultimately, it never gained acceptance and I failed to present the benefits of the project effectively. I failed to sell my idea and I was too ambitious.

As time went on I continued to look for big problems to fix, continued to present my ideas and continued to get nowhere. Again, I was too ambitious. I wanted to change the world right away. I thought my ideas were so great, how could anyone not agree? :-)

Our businesses was running in parallel. I was less involved then as I had to work full time (salary/benefits) while my wife worked on our business with help of my FIL. Transitioning to full time self employment was always the plan but we needed to be able to support it.

Meetings started taking place in our business about hiring someone to manage our sales team, bookkeeping, systems and someone to help continue the growth (at the time we only had 3 stores). It was time for me to take the leap from corporate life to full time self employment.

I learned how to sell. I dove head first into pet care sales. I needed to understand the process and what it felt like to participate. I built a foundation as a sales leader by reading and doing. I got to where I felt I could be an effective leader and moved on to learn more.

Part the foundation included building an internal sales training system so that we could cut ties with a consultant no longer providing value. This also required that I find a solution to sales metric tracking as that would also be going away.

Tracking was being done on paper and then entered into a system owned by the consultant. I used zapier to connect forms to google sheets and built my own solution.

Next it was time to revamp the timekeeping. We were using paper timecards. I was familiar with payroll systems via the hospital. We implemented automated timekeeping. No more manual entry. We now could do payroll by spending only 30 minutes every two weeks.

The google sheets sales tracking solution got messy. Sales agents were still recording on paper and then entering their numbers into the forms at the end of the day. I needed more data and I needed the agents to have access to their performance in real time.

I built a custom solution on the salesforce platform. People say salesforce is expensive but It’s easy to build on and I effectively hired a part time employee by building it. Complete with KPI dashboards for agents and management. Performance improved.

Bookkeeping was next. My partner has his own methods and knows the numbers of this business like the back of his hand but we needed a more traditional reporting structure. This turned out to be extremely important during the pandemic.

The terrifying part has been realizing that I know nothing. I've made great progress but I've failed just as many times in executing other projects. SMB ownership requires you to figure things out on your own. Sometimes that can be really messy.

You have to get used to swallowing your pride when you make a bad call or something your trying just isn't working. It’s all on you and there’s no higher level management to blame when you fail to make your ideas a reality. This takes getting used to.

Putting myself in this position has forced me to grow and take more responsibility. This AHA moment is a real ego check. I no longer have anyone to point the finger at. I make the mistake of thinking all of my ideas are a home run less often now.

The most gratifying part of SMB ownership has been the ability to create meaningful and lasting change without needing permission. I'm no longer bogged down by a hierarchy. You also are free to explore new areas of interest and build valuable business skills.

A common theme is that there's no joy without pain. In this case- you don’t get to experience the gratification and personal growth SMB ownership can offer without the willingness to get out of your comfort zone and be a little bit terrified. Take the leap and don't look back.