Anyone go from a large company to

[Sigarms]

a small company?

My "career" work history if you will...

Started off 16 years ago with a family run buiness. At the time I started, they had about 300 people. The owner got to know me after about two years of work, progressively (sp?) worked my way up the ladder. The company was small enough that at the time I started, the owner offered me a "in house" car loan. Would NEVER happen 15 years later. Long story, but although they became the largest privately owned business in our industry, I decided it was time to leave.

Got picked up by one of the largest companies in my industry after I left my first company. Eight months there, not a day off, working six to seven days a week (my choice not theirs, I'm a workaholic and love a job I can put effort into) and I decided it was time to leave. This company wanted me to stay, offered to make up a position for me to keep me. Kind of strange, but I made friends (my immediate supervisor who was out of state had a hoot at my place one night after work shooting some guns)and made some impressions up to upper management. Fact is, I wasn't happy with my work performance because I had so many other things to do that wasn't what I considered "real work" in my industry, but I made the company money, which made them happy (however, I wasn't happy and after doing this kind of work for 15 years, I know when I'm happy and not with work).

Company I'm going to work for is a real small family run business. They were impressed with my work "credentials" (actually they were not even sure why I would consider them as a option for work), and the people in my industry who had worked with me (outside of my company) spoke highly of me.

However, this company I'm now going to employs less than 50 people.

I'd be considered management/sales, and report directly to the owner.

This company impresses me, they have common sense, and they have a sense of direction in their marketplace which I agree with (after working for such a large company that requires committies formed and numerous e-mails back and forth to make a common sense decision that agreed with my assesment in my market place was driving me up a wall).

Put it to you this way, the comic strip Dilbert was starting to make real life sense to me

However, I've never worked for this small of a company that I'm going to.

The wife of the owner met me at 0430 which also impressed the heck out of me.

Are there any downfalls to working for such a small company?

Kind of late now that I took the job, but is there anything I should be careful of (minimal family involved, father, mother, son, daughter in law)?

I figure God has a plan, and this company seems right to me, so nothing ventured, nothing gain. Short term pay cut but could lead to big rewards, and they have told me as such.

 

[teg]

IF you love what you do and there's no hassle, is it really work? I would go for it. I try and balance what I do, with what I get paid AND where I work.

I can do anything in NYC for 10 million a year... I can work in Alaska for food and shelter... or I can do what I'm doing, here, for what they pay me. I'm happy. If that makes any sense...

 

[scott_vt]

Good Evenin Joe,
With your work ethic I have a hard time believing that you could go wrong in whatever indeavour you chose !

That being said, if it feels right, it probablly is right !

After working for a huge company for 20 years, and putting up with all the corporate baloney that they threw at me, only to be layed off at 56, Ive pretty well had it with large companies !

I pretty much changed careers, and went from a trade to comercial driving... not the same money but it sure beats answering to idiots !

Good luck with your new job, you will do great !

 

[DavidVT]

Good luck with your new job!

My story: 10 days after 9/11 I got laid off from big biz(14K employees) with 2000 others on the same day. It was bumpy for a few years but I am quite happy working for a company with less that 50 employees. In between I did all kinds of things including driving a school bus

Sure I miss the big corporate benefit package and payroll but that is about it.

I am some what of a workaholic myself. I find the extra effort is better rewarded in the smaller company where your sweat and blood can make a real difference.

 

[2manyrocks]

I don't know if you'll find anything on the internet about family run businesses. It's a specialized topic and several management/business succession and estate planning books have been written about it. I have a friend with an entire library on the subject because he is a family business advisor.

Way too much to get into here--lots of unwritten rules and touchy feely issues. Often things are held together by the influence of some key family member or someone that has influence on that family member. If that person dies or stops being in management, then all the hidden gremlins can come out.

If you look at the statistics, very few family businesses succeed in being passed on to the next generation for a variety of reasons. Sometimes there is no family member interested in the business [translation-give me the cash cuz I don't want to work for it] and it gets sold to divide up the cash among the heirs and to pay estate taxes.

 

[Sigarms]

not the same money but it sure beats answering to idiots !

What's funny is some of the guys that I have come to respect at my last company call the idiots "bean counters". I find it ironic that people have jobs to find faults with others so that they may prove their worth to the company they work for although they know nothing about the actual business that makes the company money.

Way too much to get into here--lots of unwritten rules and touchy feely issues. Often things are held together by the influence of some key family member or someone that has influence on that family member. If that person dies or stops being in management, then all the hidden gremlins can come out.

Been there done that with my first company. Owner (son of the founder of the company) died, brother took over and some family came in and some went out (more like bought out). The newphew who will probably take over the company is a smart egg who I respect.

Seems like once a family business gets "big", it just loses the "family touch", and I'm not sure where that begins or ends.

In between I did all kinds of things including driving a school bus

What I did in between jobs (after I left my first company) was learn that the unemployment office was for handing out checks of some sort, and if you were actually looking for a job, they had idiots trying to help you if you were actually willing to work for anything. Didn't drive a school bus, but ended up helping a blind man drive his vending machine van around for a little while. You had to be there. Downtown Charlotte, I have no clue where I'm going, and the blind man is telling me to go one way, and his GPS is telling me to go another way. Something in my life I'll never forget in my life.

I am some what of a workaholic myself. I find the extra effort is better rewarded in the smaller company where your sweat and blood can make a real difference.

Honestly, being a part of a "family" working together for a common good motivates me. On our side of the industry, family businesses are almost non existant, and it's something that I want to make a go of. That and being the underdog eating someone elses lunch always motivates me.

only to be layed off at 56, Ive pretty well had it with large companies !

The company I worked for was looking for a head reduction, and I was the smuck who they wanted to choose who was going to go. Kicker is they had promoted some idiots who made more money that took off my bottom line who shouldn't of been there that they wouldn't let go due to their position and wanted to let good honest men who put in a good days work go because of only their position.

Perhaps I'm a smuck myself, but one reason why I went with this company is they promoted the fact that any employee of theirs is considered family, and everyone is held accountable to their job. I find that refreshing.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I am presently working for a multi-national company that overall does not have a huge amount of people relatively speaking. The location that I am has only around 50. I have worked for big and small, union/non union.

My observation is that generally speaking, people are people. You will find the same kind of ethics, same kind of pettiness, etc., etc. no matter what.

I recently picked up on something that my current supervisor is doing for himself. He works way beyond the hours of his peers. No matter the difficulties, he seems to thrive. Things that would compell many to say "take this job and....., he just marches on.

What he is doing though is documenting everything so as to add to his resume. Which leads me to say that once you get comfortable with the job, evaluate your needs and goals. Those days of staying on for thirty years are pretty much history. I do believe in doing an honest days work even though I am in the "home stretch" and soon will only be working mainly for the health insurance.

Family run or not, it is a tough go these days. The situation can change overnight and you cannot control that. With a bit of homework, you can thrive in the moment and still be ready for the unexpected.

I will also add that my employer like many is operating on the "lean" side personal wise as is the norm these days. When the end of the day comes, they do not have anyone to pick up after me even though it is a 24/7 operation. Often times, my work is not done and I refuse requests to stay. (Twelve hours is enough) Like my supervisor, I too have learned to document what I do and the monetary values in savings as a result of my work.

Come January when the evaluations come out, if it's not what I expect then I may just have to adjust one way or the other.

 

[randy41]

workaholics should start their own business instead of killing themselves for someone else's profit.

 

[2manyrocks]

Kicker is they had promoted some idiots who made more money that took off my bottom line who shouldn't of been there that they wouldn't let go due to their position and wanted to let good honest men who put in a good days work go because of only their position.

Sounds familar. My company hired a bunch of folks thinking they needed the manpower, and then people stood around with not enough to do. Wasn't the fault of the guys who got hired. It was the fault of the managers who overestimated their production requirements. But the managers who goofed stayed on while the guys doing the work who had higher incomes got the axe.

People might be people all over, but things take on a radically different shape when its family, too. It might appear the same on the surface, but it isn't.

 

[2manyrocks]

workaholics should start their own business instead of killing themselves for someone else's profit.

I knew a very professional MBA who went to work for a family business. The business was doing okay, but wasn't operating as well as it could. The mba helped them make a strategic acquisition of another business in an adjoining market and changed some of the operational aspects of the business. Over about 8-10 year period, the combined operation became much more efficient and more profitable than ever when operated by the family. However, the original owner still owned 100% of the stock. He got dementia. After he died, the business was sold for about 100 million.

The MBA was treated nicely, made a good salary and received good bonuses. He didn't get any of the real money.