I'm in a situation where I could greatly influence the future of my uncle's company. The question is, should I even try?
I am not going to be in a position of power mind you, they just wanted me to do the graphic design, because the previous guy left without even notifying them in advance. Because this is a family company, my cousin who is legally the owner, asked me if I would like to achieve more by also doing marketing, expanding the business and so on. The thing is, after they had some ups and downs, they are now settled with short working hours, no big debt, and enough income to be comfy. All of this made them lose ambition, and now every time I propose something out of ordinary, it feels awkward because I am destroying the status quo that everyone is used to.
BTW, the reason this company even survived for 30 years, is because my uncle has this incredible entrepreneurial spark. He is a born entrepreneur, he spent the last 30 years working at least 10-16 hours a day. With the energy invested, he could have built an empire. But he is bad at all other things, like delegating, avoiding employees who are also family and he is not good with tech at all.
So, let's go into detail about what's wrong with the company at the moment. The first thing I am considering is if this is even a right business to run. The company is making t-shirts, jerseys and other textile products. Hardly a fastlane business. They differentiate themselves from competitors with low price, and that of course leads to dealing with people who want something for nothing, and of course it leads to not so good quality. They are very disorganized, use antiquated techniques and run computers with cracked software. For example, where they could use something like google sheets, they use paper and the only legal software the have is Windows XP, other computers use cracked W7.
It is a complete chaos over there, and I actually like it. I have a feeling that is exactly what I need before I start a business on my own. If I could sway them to change the company for the better, I might learn something in the process, and I could gain motivation to venture on my own later.
What do you think? Is it even worth trying, just for experience?
I am not going to be in a position of power mind you, they just wanted me to do the graphic design, because the previous guy left without even notifying them in advance. Because this is a family company, my cousin who is legally the owner, asked me if I would like to achieve more by also doing marketing, expanding the business and so on. The thing is, after they had some ups and downs, they are now settled with short working hours, no big debt, and enough income to be comfy. All of this made them lose ambition, and now every time I propose something out of ordinary, it feels awkward because I am destroying the status quo that everyone is used to.
BTW, the reason this company even survived for 30 years, is because my uncle has this incredible entrepreneurial spark. He is a born entrepreneur, he spent the last 30 years working at least 10-16 hours a day. With the energy invested, he could have built an empire. But he is bad at all other things, like delegating, avoiding employees who are also family and he is not good with tech at all.
So, let's go into detail about what's wrong with the company at the moment. The first thing I am considering is if this is even a right business to run. The company is making t-shirts, jerseys and other textile products. Hardly a fastlane business. They differentiate themselves from competitors with low price, and that of course leads to dealing with people who want something for nothing, and of course it leads to not so good quality. They are very disorganized, use antiquated techniques and run computers with cracked software. For example, where they could use something like google sheets, they use paper and the only legal software the have is Windows XP, other computers use cracked W7.
It is a complete chaos over there, and I actually like it. I have a feeling that is exactly what I need before I start a business on my own. If I could sway them to change the company for the better, I might learn something in the process, and I could gain motivation to venture on my own later.
What do you think? Is it even worth trying, just for experience?
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