Friends and business

Yesterday was a lovely day in many ways. Best friend and I met for lunch at Sizzlers where we helped ourselves at the salad bar and tucked into succulent spicy chicken steak. After all these years, our taste in food is still so similar, it's no wonder we remain good friends.

After a satisfying lunch, we drove to a wholesale outlet and bought a hundred planter boxes for our gardening business. The joy we derive from shopping at the hardware store outweighs a trip to Prada or Gucci anytime. That's how similar our interest is.

As she rushed off for a meeting with a customer, I set off to meet EE for coffee at the breezy Mana Mana beach cafe. It's now our favourite hangout.

The last time we met, she was at the crossroads of her career. The EE now is a brand new person. She had finally taken the plunge into entrepreneurship. For her, it's exciting and liberating. More importantly, she has time for herself and is no longer at the inconsiderate boss' beck and call. It was really cool to chill out with a relaxed EE.

Being a new start-up also means having to watch the expenses. Business class air travel will have to give way to economy seats for now, and it is important to keep a tab on our entertainment expense because it's coming out of our own pockets now.

We both agree that entrepreneurship helps to keep us disciplined. In fact, it makes us work harder but the difference is we're working for our own benefit, so it is alot more rewarding. The sense of ownership may be intangible but it is very real.

The biggest benefit is being in control. In business, we have to make all sorts of decisions everyday. We take a long-term view of things. Sometimes we make the wrong ones but we learn. In fact we learn very quickly that business is never rigid and that we have to defy logic and trust our instincts at times. That is something that is difficult to justify to our bosses.

While we don't deny that running a business can be stressful, we agree that the pressure we face is of a different sort. Instead of dueling with foul-mouthed and back-stabbing colleagues, she is dealing with real business problems now. Yah, she should have done this earlier but it is better late than never.