I've followed this subreddit for months and this is the first place I've had the lady balls to speak out in. I'm really not even sure if this is the appropriate sub, but I'm curious about something.
I'm just shy of 31 years old and have 15 years or customer service/retail exp under my belt and I'm fucking done. For the entirety of 2021 I was a store manager in a tea shop and thought, “Finally, I've made it. I deserve this. I've earned it.” It was fucking bullshit. Having my handful of employees constantly upset and coming to me for this and that (mostly drama), upset about their pay (which I had zero control over), and never truly having say about how I ran things because the owner had another store just an hour away and was constantly up my ass. I was never offered salary despite constantly taking phone calls and working from home because I had to keep up with sales in our store 100% of the time via a laptop I was given to do just so. I was also expected to maintain inventory (ordering and physically going to the store several times a week), keep the store arranged in a way that would draw better sales with new inventory, keep up to date with our seasonal menu changes so I could properly train employees, cover shifts because no one wanted to if someone called in, all on top of having to work my own shifts behind the counter. I was told I had to work at least 30 hours behind the counter alone because I had the best sales but got my ass ripped because I struggled to balance it all alone.
Up to date, I left just before Xmas and took a job as the only employee of a woman who makes and sells her products online. Custom jewelry, decor, and such. She's a got a little workshop/storefront that never sees a soul come in. It's extremely flexible, pays okay, and I get to be somewhat creative- as much as I can be for product that's not mine, and I still fucking hate it. I've come to realize that it's never going to be enough. It deeply depresses me to have to work for someone else, for corporations that give a fuck less about people, and now even for someone who arrives to create custom products to please the recipient. All of the ideas I give her go under her name, all of the time I spend creating beautiful things and are still not mine.
I guess my reason for posting is to ask if anyone has gone into business for themselves because they cannot continue to bear working for other people's gain? I want very much to start my own little business making my own products in a workshop out of my garage. The more I work things out in my mind as far as what I'll need and the start up costs alone, I'm scared shitless. There's no more hourly wage to support me if it doesn't work out. There's just so much to consider.