Free from 9 to 5

I came across Karen Zack’s Antonia Rose Printing a few months ago when I was looking for custom printed post-it notes. I ended up not ordering from anybody (yet), but I saw a picture of Karen and her children on her Contact Us page, with the caption “This is me, Karen Zack, with my four children. They are my inspiration for success!” And I thought what a great touch that was. (I also noticed that, since then, she has started a business blog and added a link to her personal blog!) I knew her story would be perfect to tell here, so here it is…

Please give us a little background on your business.

Antonia Rose Printing is an online printing retailer. We specialize in custom Post-it notes (for businesses, personal use, wedding favors, coupons, etc.), but we also sell everything from wedding invitations to personal stationery and business cards. We provide free basic design help to our customers, which is a great boon to those individuals and small businesses that do not have graphic designers or advertising firms to layout their artwork for them. Other online printing retailers do not do this at all. I have incorporated more custom printing options into the basic items I sell, so we can print your artwork on our wedding invitation stock for example; most other online retailers will not do this for anyone.

We started up in November 2003, so we have been in business less than a year and a half. The business is now based in Bordentown, NJ, though I started it in Minnesota; we moved to New Jersey due to my husband’s promotion in June 2004. (He is now the Area Veterinarian in Charge for the state of New Jersey, working for the USDA APHIS VS in public health, monitoring things like mad cow disease, bird flu, etc.)

We are an online-only business, located at www.antoniaroseprinting.com and www.custompostits.com. I also have two wedding information sites which indirectly promote Antonia Rose Printing: www.IDoinMN.com and www.IDoinNJ.com. My office is in my home, in what used to be a dining room.

What kind of traditional 9 to 5 job(s) have you had in the past, if any?

In high school, I worked full time during the summers doing clerical work. In college, I worked full time during summers in a fish cannery in Alaska. After college, I worked for 12 years as a legal assistant, first for private firms, then for the county child support enforcement division.

I’m sure I won’t be the only one to wonder, how did you get a job at a fish cannery in Alaska?
(more…)

Paul Graham founded Viaweb back in the mid-90’s. Viaweb developed online store creation software that Yahoo acquired in 1998 and made into Yahoo Stores. Paul apparently became very rich from that and is now doing whatever he wants.

One of the things he wants to do is help others do what he did. That is, start a successful company. Paul is part of a group that is running a Summer Founders Program. If you’re accepted, you get to move to Cambridge for the summer and get a stipend for starting and running your own company. It beats the heck out of summer job. I wish there was something like this when I was a student!

My job isn’t actually all that bad. I get to write software to make hardware do really cool things, like zap data across a piece of wire or make motors spin. I have thought many times how I wouldn’t mind this job at all if only I didn’t have to be there for upwards of 9 hours a day. I would gladly reduce my salary proportionately for, say, a 25 or 30 hour work week, as I build up a business on the side or even just to enjoy more time for myself. But this isn’t feasible because almost all traditional 9 to 5 company policies (including my employer’s) aren’t conducive to part time work.

First of all, I would lose all benefits. My medical insurance, dental insurance, and 401K (with 4% matching) would all go away.

Secondly, limited and decreased facetime at work would make me a less valuable “resource”, limiting bonuses, raises and promotions. I no longer care about promotions; I don’t care to advance past where I am now. The added stress and responsibility isn’t worth the few extra K’s, but I do want to continue getting raises and bonuses as long as I’m there.

And last of all, it isn’t written down, but part time workers are least protected when it comes time for downsizing. Part-timers would be among the first to be let go when times get tough.

These policies are instituted as they are to save money (what else?). More part time workers would mean more overhead, less bang for the buck. Companies are starting to acknowledge work-life balance and quality of life issues these days, but in the end, profit will trump any quality of life every time.

I laughed out loud when Hugh MacLeod of gapingvoid.com came up with a term for what I’m researching here… Business Porn.

Another way to be free from a 9 to 5 is to really love what you do. Everyone is familiar with this. If you love what you do, then it won’t feel like a job. A prime example of someone who seems to have achieved this is Robert Scoble of Microsoft. He is a technical evangelist for Microsoft. Sort of like an informal grassroots marketing/PR guy. If you’ve been reading his weblog for a while, you can tell that he really likes his job. I bet, to him, his job doesn’t feel like a traditional 9 to 5 job.

Along the same vein, Steve Pavlina’s weblog contains a wealth of articles on finding your passion, your goals and your purpose in life. His weblog is about personal growth in general, but a subset of his articles focuses on finding out what you really want out of life, something that most traditional 9 to 5 jobs are at odds with. Steve completed a bachelor’s degree in something like 18 months, decided a 9 to 5 wasn’t for him, so he founded a successful PC game development company (Dexterity Software) and is now embarking on a new career in public speaking. Steve also has a bunch of great articles on his Dexterity website intended for independent game developers, but anyone looking to shed a 9 to 5 job would benefit from them.

This guy went from a 9 to 5 programming job to being a courier in Toronto, Canada. His account sounds very appealing and I admire the choice he made, but this wouldn’t be a good move for me, however much I want to be rid of a 9 to 5 job. I don’t like the part about inevitably getting hit by a car.

“If it’s a slow afternoon and you want to lounge around outside the hub drinking coffee or even beer, no one will ever come over and ask you if that is an appropriate way to spend company time. Ever.”

“I often describe myself as a chronically lazy person, but to be honest, I don’t mind working. I simply hate working under an oppressive structure. As a coder, I would find myself slacking off just because the environment gave me no motivation to work hard. And at the same time, I hated the obligation to look busy from nine to five, regardless of how much actual work [there] was to do. And I hated working in a cubicle ten meters from my supervisor’s office.”

“Issues of pay aside, I can easily say that couriering is the best job i have ever had (and I have more than a few eclectic jobs on my resume). … And, even considering the fact that my pay as a courier is between half and two thirds what it was as a coder, it is a rare day that I seriously consider going back.”

Update: Upon further research, starting from his kuro5hin profile, it seems this coder turned courier has self-published a novel and wrote a guide to looking busy at work, sure signs of someone looking for alternatives to a 9 to 5.

My definition of a traditional 9 to 5 job is one where:

You answer to a manager/boss/supervisor
This person decides your fate in the company. They control how much you make, what you do and, sometimes, how you do it. At best, you have good working relationships with your boss and co-workers, but let’s face it, there are just some days where you just want to tell your boss to shove off. At worst, you work in a dysfunctional environment and frequently post to www.workorspoon.com.

You don’t have control over your time
You must show up every weekday and work. Not necessarily 9am to 5pm; that’s just a common expression to describe the necessity of showing up. But you can’t decide one day to just blow off work and go to the beach for a few hours in the afternoon. Most every good employer has flextime, where you can work a few more hours one day to take off a few hours some other day. I have flextime where I work and it’s nice, but even though my boss shows no outward signs of disapproval whenever I exercise this benefit, there’s always that lingering feeling of, “uh oh, am I in trouble for doing this?” And it’s not something you can use without prior notice.

Some people weigh these pros and cons and prefer a traditional 9 to 5 job. There is nothing wrong with that. It’s your choice and I salute you for coming to that conclusion. I’ve always had a traditional 9 to 5, so maybe I’m suffering from a case of the grass is always greener on the other side, but doing away with a 9 to 5 job is something I would like to take a shot at. Maybe after that, I’ll prefer a 9 to 5 and go back to one. But I won’t know unless I give it a try.

All of the above is somewhat simplistic. If you have more complex insight into this, please comment.

If someone told me 10 years ago, when I was in college, that I would be working for one of Southern California’s largest employers, doing software development and being paid handsomely to boot, I’d be ecstatic. Well, I am working for that employer now, doing software development and being paid very well, but I’m far from ecstatic. In fact, I don’t want this anymore. I don’t want a daily 2 hour round trip commute. I don’t want to spend 8-10 hours a day stuck in a cubicle. I don’t want to deal with office politics.

Now, I want to work for myself. I want to work where I want, when I want. I don’t mind working more than 40 hours a week, but I want to set my own schedule. The Internet makes all this within reach. I just need to go out and do it. This is easier said than done though. As I struggle with this, I hope to explore what others are doing and how they’re doing it here. I hope you will find it informative and maybe even helpful if you are striving towards the same goal.

Dan Sherman calls himself a remarkable entrepreneur. His blog contains tons of unconventional business ideas, some of which are quite wacky. I suggest you start from the beginning and just read his posts. Some of his ideas may not be for you, some are outrageous, but they all provoke thought and more often than not, you can’t help but think that they just might work.

David St. Lawrence’s blog title says it all, “Post-corporate adventures”. After being part of a workforce reduction at a Silicon Valley company, he involuntarily retired, but is running a custom woodworking business along with working an occasional business consulting gig. He is at retirement age, and may have been able to retire anyway, but the lessons he shares are applicable to anyone looking for a post corporate life, young or old. He recently wrote an e-book entitled, “Danger Quicksand – Have a Nice Day,”, offering unconventional advice on how to survive in the modern workplace. It has been such a hit that he is now self-publishing it. From running his own woodworking business to self-publishing his book to dispensing advice based on his years of experience, David has provided much inspiration for a life free from a 9 to 5 job.