So, What Do You Do?

There is a question, which when asked, I have difficulty giving a simple answer that people would understand.

It’s a question I was never really been able to answer as an employee. I am still unable to answer this question even now I am a business owner.

The only difference, is that as an employee there were defined words that I could use, whereas as a business owner there were no clear words that could be used to make people easily understand.

The question I get asked is:

‘What do you do for a living?’

This is a very confusing question for me to answer, as I quit my job and all the certainty that comes with, to go into business for myself.

I am not the first person in my family to do this. In fact, most of my siblings have gone down a similar path.

Before I stopped being an employee, I remember one of my siblings advising me on a way not to get distracted or tempted to not work on my business, when working from home.

It was suggested I structure my day in a way that works for me. My sibling also discouraged me from working from bed and to set up a dedicated work area.

Before resigning as an employee, I decided the answer I would give people who asked what I would do with my time would be:

‘I am going to rank websites.’

This was true as that is what my primary focus was going to be for the sites I had already set up. I also gave the same answer to friends and family who asked.

After I stopped working as an employee and focused all my time on my business, that answer was no longer sufficient, so I changed it to:

‘I work for myself.’

Whenever I said this, it did not sit comfortably with me, and I started experimenting with different answers to the question.

I no longer did the job I used to do so I had to think of a job title to tell people. Having a job title seems to make it easier for people to grasp or at least satisfy their curiosity.

I could call myself whatever I wanted. I could be a:

• Director
• Chief Executive Officer
• Chief Information Officer
• Vice President
• President
• Business Development Manager

I could be anything I wanted to be.

After weeks of trying to decide what to tell people, I settled on the following:

‘I changed jobs and now work for a startup. My role within the startup is to rank website and get it onto page one of google.’

For those who ask a few more questions, I inform them:

‘The site is currently a blog, with plans in place to monitise.’

After saying this, if they ask who owns the startup, I tell them I do.