Working for an Employer vs. Working for Yourself

USA Today (as I learned from Dane Carlson) tells about the July "job independence" survey of small business owners done by Discover card. Survey results showed that:

* 46% of owners started a small business to have more flexibility with their time or to be more independent. Just 19% cited making more money as their main reason.

* 61% would still choose independence over working for someone else -– even for more money than they make now.

* 64% of owners agree it's riskier to run a business than to work for a large company.

From the interviews I have done for my book, I can concur with the first two survey results, however one of my interview subjects had an interesting spin on the third one. Pete Bucter started a Time+Plus Payroll Service franchise several years ago after being laid off by a large company.  In an interview he told me, "The longer you're in a job where you're working for somebody else, the less safe it becomes, whereas the longer you own your business, the safer it becomes."

Pete had been told that by an employment counselor. He says, “ I thought about that for awhile and thought it’s probably true. They say it takes between 3 and 5 years to get a new business off the ground, you know, have it be stable. The longer you go, you have a steady client base, steady customers in about any business or industry you can think of, unless you do something stupid but that’s somewhat in your control. Of course in a competitive market, things go on. The government could come along and say, 'We’re taking that land.'  Stuff happens. But you have more control over it. It’s mostly yours to lose." 

I wonder how many of those 64% who thought it was riskier to run your own business in the survey had already reached that stable 3 to 5 year ground.