By Chinedu Junior Ihekwoaba
Employees are the backbone of every work environment; this simply means that no business will thrive without them.
It is a shame that employees are not valued by most work environments. We are in a world where companies see profits above workers. Hence, they treat employees poorly.
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Although not everyone can own business due to financial constraints and lack of adequate resources, it doesn’t change the fact that every employee should have an entrepreneurship mindset.
In a world where there’s no job security, and different problems arise every day, employees are made the scapegoat for every shortcoming in the work environment. Ecobank sacked over 1000 contract staff and compensated them with peanuts. That is a typical example of employees being treated poorly.
The truth remains, issues like this will always be around the work environment because things are changing every day. Companies want to keep making profits irrespective of market policies or government laws. Hence, employees are not safe.
Here are seven things LOW LEVEL employee (earning minimum wage or below in Nigeria, $90 per month) should consider entrepreneurship:
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To Reduce Poverty
Minimum level salary only manages poverty. It’s like medicine, it doesn’t cure it. It’s no doubt that the poorest people in the world are min wage salary earners. Because they go through cycles of life that are never assured, they live in uncertainties. At the other end, the richest people in the world are not salary-earners. They are business moguls.
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Multiple Streams of Incomes
Anyone minimum wage earner who’s not living on multiple streams of income is definitely putting all his eggs in one basket. For a country like Nigeria, that could be worse than death. Because tables could turn, the economy is always changing and most times, it’s unfavorable. The end game: leaves any employee in such a situation to face unexpected hardship.
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To Allay the Fears of Job Security
There’s no best employee is any company. The best employee is the one that brings results consistently. Everyone is replaceable including the min wage earners. The bitter truth, if an employee dies today, a few minutes after, his position would be made available for any
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To Maximize Time
Being an entrepreneur, I choose my time to work and rest. Sometimes, Mondays are like weekends to me and vice versa. Working for myself has helped me in making the best use of my time. A better way to say it is “I am the author of my life.”
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Increased Lifespan
Research shows most workers suffer different types of sicknesses after retirement. One major reason is because of the work environment they might have been exposed to during their active years. Other reasons stated that most workers can’t handle the demand or pressure at work.
Especially those in the sales department, they spend most of their time on the field trying to make sales and despite the day to day running around, they are always under pressure. Their jobs are not safe. All these reduce the lifespan of workers. Working for oneself reduces unnecessary stress and gives more time to take care of your health.
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Increased Financial Gains
No matter how productive an employee, he can never earn more than the employer. Meaning, for every $1 an employee makes, there’s a possibility of the employer making over $100 on such employee. Here’s where entrepreneurship can be the game-changer.
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Healthy Environments
Studies show that many broken homes are as a result of parents who work 9-5, therefore, leaving their homes being exposed.
Most 9-5 parents barely have time for the children. This makes the children being deprived of good morals and conducts.
In a society where wayward children are being raised will never be conducive for peaceful habitation.
Hence, everyone occupying such an environment would always be on the toes or sleep with one eye closed.
If we want to create a healthy environment, we must start by raising children in the right way. Entrepreneurship would be vital in achieving this as it gives people more time to attend to the family or society needs without conflicting with business.
Entrepreneurship has many benefits that many people are yet to see especially the minimum wage earners. Every country should encourage it; governments should give financial backing to workers and youths.
Any nation who thinks of growth and development without prioritizing entrepreneurship is daydreaming.
Yes, if you all minimum wage earners quit and go into business, possibly, government can then make a deal to begin to pay workers better.
Just like those who in Wrestling Show will warn: Do not try this at home!
Without employees, you cannot really have entrepreneurs; all you are left with are solo operators, with no scalable potential. Because to scale, you need workers (employees), not entrepreneurs.
Again, there wouldn’t be corporations, because when we all become entrepreneurs, no one will be employed.
To construct a rail track from Lagos to Calabar, you probably need one entrepreneur, the rest are employees. And people must work in government establishments, else there wouldn’t be government.
We do not need to turn employees into rebels, or encourage poor work ethics; because when people create side hustles, they barely work at the required level.
There is a division of labour, if you are not meant for entrepreneurship, do not go there to embarrass yourself.
Life is multidimensional, you miss a lot of points when you view it from one angle.
Balanced insight. I think he is really frustrated on the illusion that one has a job and paid $90 at the end of the month. Look at the closing line!
Funny thing is min. wage workers don’t go to LinkedIn or read tekedia. I think prof said they don’t do analytics on the site, I doubt the number of fresh grads that read this are high.
People who read this are most likely in a job(I’m not for now).
So how do you reach a demography who probably only read Linda Ikeji and entertainment/prophecy posts?
Good points. But a jobless man is not within the min wage cohort. I think she is largely focusing on govt workers that earn min wage. Most are teachers and well educated. They teach in primary schools. The mechanic, carpenter etc are not min wage workers – they do earn more than N30k per month. This piece is largely for government workers from my extraction of the tone even though he used cases of Ecobank etc.