Vision - small companies vs big corporates

I've decided that for my age, experience, ambition and work-related desires small companies are for me. Larger companies verging on corporates are just too vague, machine-like and dehumanising.

Big companies and why I dislike them

I have freelanced for some large newspapers, worked at large broadcasters, travelled to some big companies around the world and worked for a major publisher and to be honest, they aren't for me, not at my age and not for the things that I want to achieve.Large companies are like large and impersonal schooling environments. Each employee, just like each student, is a number amongst a million others. I hate this because I make a point of standing out and it is hard to pro actively stand out on a large corporate that has rules, rulers, regulations, hierarchies and bureaucracies.Standing out is not the issue, the issue is how pro actively you do it. Large corporates, in my experience, don't like people to stand out. They like people to put their heads down, make little noise and do their job that is in line with the company's vision. The problem is, many of the people keeping the company afloat don't know or understand the overarching company vision.This is problematic for me because I am not the type of person who is dedicated to "Do as I say not as I do." I like to do as I comprehend. So if I am able to comprehend why you want me to do something I will do it until it is the best damn thing in the world. I will work weekends, nights and holidays to ensure that the task at hand is complete. I'll do this because I can see where my little job fits in to the company and the vision that I am apart of.It often happens that in a large corporate that people don't feel a part of a team or vision, they feel as if they are being forced to be part of a goal that they will probably never see come to fruition. They are only there because the company is paying them to be there and they need the salary. This, in my opinion is never a good idea and is always an avoidable outcome.

Small, established companies and why I love them

Small companies that are well established are the closest that you will get to owning your own company and running around with that much freedom. The individual is becoming a threat to the corporate and that is a great feeling.The likes of Google and Facebook possibly taking on Microsoft in the future is a great example of this. Two people starting small companies, becoming big companies and taking on large corporates. That is inspiring and that is a main reason to get involved in a small company and feel like you can change the world, instead of wanting to take over the world.Small companies have the ability to grow a person and mould you in to the type of skilled specialist that you want to be. You have the ability to take on serious responsibility and proper tasks. You also have access to your superiors. There are no glass doors or big offices and PA's to get past and make bookings with. You simply walk in to your boss's office (don't forget to knock). This sort of access to experience and knowledge is priceless when coupled with leadership and control of your own projects.Over and above the positives there are some positive downsides to working in a small company. You have to work. If you don't there is no one else to blame. You can't simply sit at your computer, in your cubicle shifting papers or saving documents that don't exist. If you don't reach your targets or achieve the goals set for you there is no one else to blame.There is also massive potential to grow the company as you grow. You can start on your own, running "your own division" that consists of you and your e-mail and take that division to soaring heights. If you are up to the job of course. If you aren't up to the task (and this is the downside) everyone in the company will know it, and the powers that be will get rid of you. It's that simple. Succeed and flourish, fail and leave. There is often no room for a middle ground when it comes to employees at a small company. Every employee is an annual salary that if not profitable needs to be used somewhere else.

The end result

It's fairly simple to write down, but probably more difficult in practice: Start niche, small, nurturing and move on to the big fish when you can catch the small ones. Going straight in to a large corporate can make or break you early on in your career. It might just end your will to thrive and your ambitious and innovative hopes. You may end up crushed if you enter the corporate world of big business and don't cut it. So why not change the world with a small company that you fit in to and when you have the skills, desire and experience move to a large company that can break your bank by paying you the salary you think you deserve.The other option is move up through the ranks of the small company you start at and blow them away with your youthful exuberance. By the time you are ready to move up you will have the knowledge you need, the experience you wanted and the skills that everyone else thinks you should have. Then you can really begin to plot your take over of the world (all the while changing it for the better).The world has become a more entrepreneurial place, it seems like the world is smaller and anyone has become a threat to everyone, anywhere in the world. For this reason I say join a small company or start your own. You might not succeed immediately but you will learn more, faster.

5 tips for making it in a corporate environment

I have worked in a big company for about a few months now. Things have gone well. I haven't "made" it yet but I am trying my hardest.Here are 5 things that I've learned that have helped me stake my claim and not become another number.1. Be outspoken - not loudThis is extremely important when you are trying to make a name for yourself. If you are subordinate at every turn you become a lacky, a number, a worker. Workers work hard, leaders work smart. Leaders also get ahead.2. Dress like you - for successDress code is something that I have struggled with immensely at my "corporate" job. I like to be individual, I like to stand out. Heck, I studies at Rhodes University where everyone is unique, just like everyone else. Doing this in a corporate environment takes effort. Don't think that its irrelevant because it isn't.I shaved my head today and have already received 10 comments from people telling me how neat I look. I got contact lenses and a fair number of people commented. That means they notice me. That's a good thing.3. Do what you doMany people have succeeded in a corporate environment by doing anything and everything. I personally think this works for a small niche of people. For most of us I think it is important to get in to a space where you are able to do what you are great at. Being good at something is wonderful but it wont set you apart. You need to be great and be noticed.4. Challenge the old way of thinkingMake sure that you know what you are doing because this one could get you fired. Challenging your seniors is generally not a great idea, unless you can certifiably guarantee that what you suggest will work. If it works you look like a gunner but if it doesn't you're going down because you pissed off your boss and failed.5. Play the man, not the ballThis one is particularly interesting and certainly the most challenging of all. Make friends, make alliances and make adversaries. They are all necessary in the bureaucratic world of business. Whether you are a tea lady or a journalist or a stock broker, you need people to back you up.Pick someone close to your age (give or take 10 years) who is fairly weighty in the company and make sure that they like you, they buy in to your ideas and they give you credit for those ideas.A friend in a corporate environment is an imperative career booster. Pick wisely and play the game carefully. Not everyone can be used as a bargaining tool, some friends are just friends and they are even more important.image: varshesh

Big website, big adspend and a blogger blog?

Vottle has pumped some serious moola in to their advertising campaign recently. I think we have all heard them on 5fm or whichever other radio station it was.Yet I am left a bit baffled and bemused at their approach to blogging. They clearly believe they have a massive product if they are willing to pump money in to their campaign. They clearly have the money to do this, but they have a BLOGGER blog?Not only is the website a .com url, which means they have a hosting package attache to that .com, but they most probably have a great big hosting package to cope with the traffic they built up over the ad campaigns. So I ask you, where is the .com/blog blog? What are you thinking?Blogger might have been cool a couple of ages ago, but now blogger blogs are filled with porn, spam and clutter. .com blogs are the way forward, .co.za blogs are a very suitable substitute, but a blogger.com blog is not acceptable. They might have redirected the blog to "blog.vottle.com" But they have chosen to keep the Blogger template. This really makes no sense to me.I suppose that any online presence in the form of a blog is better than no online presence. But surely an ONLINE company knows better and knows about better services?Lock it up and throw away the key. Get a Wordpress blog.

9-5 or working your own hours?

I have been resisting employment for a while now. I can't really say why for sure but one of the reasons was the 9-5 brand. I didn't want to work to make someone else money. No no no. I was detered by the hours for sure. I was insistent that working for someone else would restrict my flexibility. This was my steadfast opinion.However things have changed, slightly. When you are working for yourself, or to make your own idea work you lose sight. You lose sight of rational working hours, of the distinction between work and play. Free time becomes a thing of the past. You become obsessive about making things work (especially in the online industry where normal trading hours do not ever apply). Thus you don't really notice that you are waking up at 7 and working till 11pm. You don't notice because you don't care. You are driven, focused and as I've already noted, obsessive.In short (like I'm ever short) when you are an entrepreneur you are consumed by what you do 100%. Often when you work for someone else you do just that, you work. You work 9-5 hours and stop working when you get home. This is the joy of work, you get to stop. Somehow many people miss this small joy. Trust me when I say it is a joy when you are (or should be) able to leave work at work.In today's day and age with the internet around working hours, jobs, the usual are not the usual anymore. Things have changed, variety is the norm. Things are happening and sometimes, working hours are fantastic.

Corporate Adjustment - The Cubicle

I am working in an open-plan office and currently sitting in a cubicle with low walls and absolutely zero privacy.I don't mind this at all and in fact, it is quite refreshing to know that I have many minds around me to help me if I need assistance of any sort.The leap from entrepreneur to corporate employee is a massive one. One that I don't think I was quite prepared for. Not in the bad way that makes you want to jump out of the window, but in the good way that makes you realise that sometimes autonomous work is NOT the most productive work one can do.I am sure now that it is admirable to want to own the world at the tender age of 23 or so, but it is often not realistic. Sometimes one needs the experience that the corporate world offers to reach a personal potential.I think that I have loads to learn and loads more insight in to the corporate cubicle world through the eyes of an entrepreneur.