I couldn’t figure out how to be an employee. I was really bad at it.
I had eight jobs just before I started Webamp, as Amplify was called back then. If my boss wanted me to jump, I never asked how high. I asked why.
Today I’ve been running my own business for 11 years. And the question of whether to be self-employed or an employee doesn’t have one right answer. It depends on what you need and what you can put up with.
What employees have that I’ve never had
The most important thing for an employee is stability and security. And that’s completely fair. You know you can go home at four o’clock, because then you’re done with work.
When you run your own business, four o’clock doesn’t exist. If something blows up just before a birthday or a trip, you have to deal with it. You can’t just take time off. That doesn’t exist when you’re self-employed.
There’s always something going on in a company like mine. A client who thinks something is wrong. An employee who isn’t happy. Illness at the office, so we can’t deliver what we promised. It can be hundreds of things.
For years now, I’ve taken my computer with me whenever I travel. And I’ve worked, often more than I should.
What does it take to run your own business?
Nerves of steel. That’s the short answer.
The people who are made to run their own business keep going, even when something seems impossible, overwhelming, annoying or bad. And they want to get up and try again the next day.
It sounds easier than it is. There are periods when I hate my job and think it’s the worst thing that has ever happened in the whole world. I keep going anyway, because I know it’s the right thing.
In those periods, one thing has helped me more than anything else. I don’t look at the whole mountain. I ask myself whether I can do one thing better today than I did yesterday. Then the problems get much smaller, and slowly but surely things start to change.
The other half is wanting it. I’m so passionate about my work and love it so much that I could never imagine going on holiday and not working at all. I could probably be better at putting it down. That’s also what I’m working on most now. The goal is no longer to be the one who’s always on. It’s to build a company that runs well, even when I’m not there. And I couldn’t imagine doing anything other than what I do today.
The upsides of being self-employed
The biggest upside is that you’re your own boss.
The next one is the money. If you get a business to work, it can give you more than a job almost ever can. For many years, Amplify sold time, and that still gave us both a profit and a big salary. It has given me financial freedom for a really long time, and I’ve been able to afford the things I dream of. Now we’re changing that. We’ve moved to working AI-first. AI handles monitoring, reports and a large part of production, so our people can spend their time on strategy, creativity and clients. And a lot of what we develop, we now build in one place. We can spend 100 hours building something with AI that all our clients benefit from. So an hour is no longer one hour for one client. That’s why we’re building the agency around what clients get out of it, not the hours we spend.
And then there’s an upside people don’t talk about much. When things go well, the success lands on you too. It’s your name. When I made Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe and Berlingske Talent 100, it was my name on there.
The downsides
The uncertainty. And all the extra work you take on. Running your own business takes an enormous amount of energy.
There’s no such thing as just not feeling like it today. If something’s on fire, you go to work. That’s how it is.
The money doesn’t come by itself either. I took no salary for the first two to two and a half years. In the end, I moved back in with my dad because I couldn’t pay the rent.
That’s why my definition of success as a business owner hasn’t changed since I started. If you can afford to pay your own salary, you’re very successful and very lucky. Not many people get to experience that.
The day I quit
In my last job, I was a salesperson. I couldn’t be bothered with cold calling. I can do it, and I did it for a long time. What I’m best at in the whole world is meeting people, looking them in the eye and getting on their wavelength.
So I wanted to go to networking events. My boss said no. I wasn’t as experienced as the other salespeople, so there was no money for it. It was DKK 10,000 a year, or whatever it cost.
That was what made me say: You know what, if this is the job, I’m done. The next day I went down and registered my own company.
I didn’t know back then that I was an entrepreneur at heart. I just knew I was bad at following other people’s way of seeing the world. I’ve never taken the normal path. I went to a special needs school, and I’ve always done something different from everyone else.
Should you stay in your job?
Being an employee isn’t a failure. Stability is worth something, and for many people it’s the wisest choice.
If you’re thinking about running your own business, be honest with yourself about how you’d answer these:
- Can you work when something’s on fire, even on your birthday?
- Can you live with not knowing what happens tomorrow?
- Do you get up and try again when something feels impossible?
- Do you ask why when others ask how high?
If you answer yes to those, there may be an entrepreneur in you. There was in me. I just didn’t find out until after eight jobs.
Eleven years later, I’m in the middle of the biggest shift I’ve ever made: rebuilding Amplify with AI, from the inside. I talk about both the journey and the shift in my talk.