Reasons for Starting a Business (The Origin)

*Age, family structure, and employment status in the text are as of 2024.

Why did I decide to start a business?

I am currently 49 years old, remarried, and have children aged 4 and 1. Considering that my children will go to university,
I need a stable income for the next 21 years. I don't want to narrow down my children's options, and they are such lovely children that I want them to be happy.

However, if I work for 21 years, I will be working for another 10 years after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60, but I cannot imagine being physically capable of working until I am 70.

My current company has a re-employment system after retirement, and I can work for up to 5 years, but my salary would be significantly reduced.

So, if I were to ask if I could earn the income for the latter 10 years in the first 10 years—in other words, double my annual income—it would be quite difficult as a salaryman, even with job changes or promotions.

And the conclusion I reached was
"starting a business"
.

The reasons are:
1. There is no mandatory retirement age;
2. I can set my own prices;
3. It is easier to realize my career plan (what I want to do).

Regarding 1, 'no mandatory retirement age,' there is still anxiety about my physical strength after 60 even if I start a business.

However, my current workplace pushes to meet deadlines, which was a problem even before considering my physical strength after 60.
Specifically, I have been restarting work after my children go to sleep, leading to increased late-night overtime, sleep deprivation, eye pain, and chest pain.

Since I cannot work on the front lines forever, it was also the right time to shift to work that requires less physical strength, such as moving to a role where I teach the know-how I gained as a project troubleshooter or selling through systems.

Regarding 2, 'being able to set my own prices,' it is because I often felt that the cost of engineers was not justifiable.

The price of system engineers and consultants is often shown as 'XX0,000 yen per person-month.' However, even at the same unit price, there is a large difference in the quality of deliverables and contribution to the project depending on the person in charge.

I wanted to work in a way that is evaluated based on:
- What kind of deliverables I can produce
- What kind of problems I can solve
- How far I can advance a project
rather than the size or reputation of the company I belong to.

Regarding 3, 'easier to realize my career plan (what I want to do),' it is because I want to increase my work in content provision and planning, not just continue my activities as an IT consultant.

I want to increase work that captures new needs born from the changes of the times and quickly turns plans into reality. This is because it is easier to ensure speed by executing everything from planning to sales in one go if I am independent.

As a past achievement, during the Lehman Shock, I launched a used website in one month and received orders worth 80 million yen in the first year and 200 million yen in the second year. The gross margin was about 50%, and I received an in-house MVP award.

[Planning]
I noticed an increase in the word "used" through the keyword search analysis I performed daily, and I formed a hypothesis that
"the Lehman Shock has strengthened the tendency to seek lower prices, while conversely, there are many movements to let go of items for cash flow reasons."
I then developed a proposal for a matching site that does not hold inventory.

[System Construction]
I proposed converting the customer lists from the Excel files and stacks of business cards owned by the sales staff into a database, obtained approval, built the system myself, and continued its operation. I handled everything for the website, including design, coding, and server arrangements, on my own.

[Sales]
I sent sales emails using the email addresses I had converted into a database. I built a model to drive traffic to the website to receive many inquiries and then conduct sales outreach to those inquiries, which improved sales efficiency.
I taught myself web marketing, SEO, and listing advertisements while implementing them, which led to stable orders.

What I learned from this experience is that a system has no value just by being built.

Think about whose problems you are solving and form a hypothesis.
Build the necessary mechanisms and deliver them to the users.
Observe actual reactions and make improvements until you achieve results.

This experience is the origin of the way I approach work today as a PMO or PL.

I do not just look inside the system; I consider everything, including business processes, users, sales, and operations. I do not just build what I am told to build; I act by working backward from the results the project is originally intended to achieve.

The experience I gained from planning to system construction and sales is also being utilized in my current project management.

The disadvantages of "starting a business" include:

(1) Economic risk (initial investment, stability issues)
(2) Health risk (long working hours, stress/pressure)
(3) Labor shortage risk (doing administrative tasks and procedures yourself, lack of specialized knowledge such as legal regulations)

are listed.
However, regarding the biggest concern, (1) "economic risk," as an IT consultant, the costs are low, limited to a computer and monthly fees for SNS, AI, and software.

I already own or use most of what I need, there is no need to set up a physical store or hire people from the start, I can work from home, and there is no particular need for inventory.

Also, thanks to connections from my previous company, there are services that can introduce me to PL or PMO projects even if I cannot find work on my own, so I consider the economic risk to be low.

Regarding health risks, there is a possibility of working more than I did as a company employee if I do not set boundaries for myself, but for my own sake and for my children's sake, I want to prioritize my health.

Regarding the risk of labor shortages, it has been significantly reduced through the use of AI.

For the above reasons, I chose to "start a business."
It is also to do the work I want to do, but the "for my children" aspect is a large part of it, so I want to ensure that even if I become busy after starting the business, I do not compromise my health or reduce the time I spend with my children.

Afterword

I wrote this article so that I would not forget the origin of my decision to start a business.

For me, starting a business is not just a challenge driven by the momentum of seeking freedom.

Protecting the choices of children.
Creating a system where one can work for a long time while maintaining health.
Transforming my experience and abilities into work that is evaluated by the value I provide.

For that reason, it was a choice to redesign the way of working itself.

I think there will be times when I feel lost even after starting the business. At such times, I want to return to the origin of 'why I started the business'.

Before reaching the answer of starting a business, there were experiences that had been accumulating for a long time. I have written about another origin in the next article.