Why don't more contractors become Entrepreneurs?

[KentDogWalker]

Considering the coding skills we have, I wonder why not many of us just don't go ahead and form startups that generate income, instead of actually having to go and work every day?

[eek]

Considering the coding skills we have, I wonder why not many of us just don't go ahead and form startups that generate income, instead of actually having to go and work every day?

Because having been there it's far harder work than turning up at an office a day and earning £400+ for not much effort

[SueEllen]

What is the percentage of start ups that fail?

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

It's really not easy to find a good idea that can't be taken apart by a Dragon.....

I'm looking to leave contracting and get involved in a startup but the journey getting here has been hellish.

[2uk]

This is a tough question not to ridicule... but the main reasons are the same as why you can't get quality girls in your life .... you have been poorly educated by a public system designed to create robots and you have not been born at privileged family.

[MarillionFan]

I think that quite a few do, do that. It's just youre not going to read about it on CUK because anybody who was a real entrepreneur is not going to waste their bloody time posting crap on an Internet forum.

The squirrel bothering Russian is an exception

[SueEllen]

The squirrel bothering Russian and his sockies randomly stop posting for months at a time.

[tomtomagain]

Considering the coding skills we have, I wonder why not many of us just don't go ahead and form startups that generate income, instead of actually having to go and work every day?

It takes a lot more skills than just coding to run a successful start up.

I have been running mine for two years now full time. I get to spend about 30% of my time coding the rest is product support, marketing, sales calls, accounting, chasing debtors, updating the company website and preparing proposals.

They are all learnable skills and techies are usually good at learning new things and implementing them in a systematic manner but don't kid yourself that if you are a good coder that you have all the skills in place to run a start-up.

Running a start-up is not the easy option. Sure I've not had to commute or attend a meeting for two years but I certainly don't work less-hard than I did when I was in corporate world. And although I am more in control of my diary, I don't have complete freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I want to. My customers are still working 9-5 and expect answers during their working days. My customer base is global, so I need to be in a position to respond 24/7/365.

There is lots of help out there for UK start-ups. Since striking out on my own I've started to attend start-up groups and get involved with my local start-up organisation. There is a thriving UK start-up scene.


BUT I think the main reason most people don't start their own start up is simple .... they don't have a problem that they feel passionate enough about to spend 6 - 9 months solving without pay and without guarantee of reward.

Taking £400 per day of someone else's money to work on something that may or may not succeed is the easy option.

[tomtomagain]

I'm looking to leave contracting and get involved in a startup but the journey getting here has been hellish.

Well keep going. It is possible.

[AtW]

It's really not easy to find a good idea that can't be taken apart by a Dragon.....

Why do you care about their view?

There is a lot more finance available to high tech companies in UK compared to 10 years ago, or even 5 - "Dragons" were offering 25 grand for 150% of the business, or something like that - it was a joke when they started and now it's not even funny.