Self-employment
Build a better business than your bossA sure sign you're an entrepreneur is the day you realize you can do a better job running a business than your employer. "My partner and I both just knew we could outperform our employers," entrepreneur Louis Steiner says. Roger Pierce |
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 [ 2005-09-16 ] |
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Louis Steiner knew he could do a better job at running a business than his employer, and launched his web hosting company in 1996.
Steiner and his business partner Alex Bulan own Korax Inc. (www.korax.net), a web hosting company serving community groups, police and government clients. Web hosting is the service that businesses use to allow their websites to be visible on the Internet.
Steiner says he became interested in the Internet in 1994 and set out to learn all he could about this emerging global force and its technology. About that time, he met Bulan, his future business partner. "We both began working in the Internet service industry and realized we could do a much better job than our respective employers."
The duo didn't waste too much time working for anyone else after that realization, forming Korax Inc. in 1996.
Steiner's small business start is typical for many new entrepreneurs. Working inside a company as an employee allows us to see how well that company is run. It may be slow to respond to competition, using outdated technology or simply loaded down with ineffective bureaucracy. An employee-turned-entrepreneur will see a better way and begin to take action.
"I've had an entrepreneurial nature since I was a child, so when the opportunity arose to start my own business it was simply a natural thing for me to do," Steiner says.
He says the best part of being one's own boss is being able to make decisions to steer the course of a business. "The worst part is not always being able to fully implement every idea, and wondering what course the company could have taken," Steiner says.
The strategic direction he's chosen seems to be working; Korax continues to attract new web hosting clients across Southern Ontario.
-- Entrepreneurship expert Roger Pierce trains people on how to start a small business in the Up & Running Biz Launch Program.
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