I’ve been in Europe for three weeks, and back less than one week. I’ve only just begun catching up on unread RSS items (over 2000 of the little buggers) and came across an amusing post by the very talented James Edwards aka Brothercake: The Crack-head’s Guide to Holding Down a Job.

I like James’ writing and this one had me chuckling quietly to myself. Dave and I decided to start Clever Starfish two years ago for a number of reasons but the attractive ones are the things like “going to work looking as scruffy as you want” and “turning up as late as you want” – so James’ closing statement “And if you really can’t stand to get down this way, you’re probably better off self-employed!” rang particularly true. My session at Web Directions South is going to be all about our decision to go out on our own and what worked and what didn’t.

However, Dave and I soon realised that as soon as you make the decision to take on employees, all of that freedom goes out the window. You have to set an example of how you want your employees to behave. Which means being at your desk at 8.30am (ok, maybe 9am), dressing nicely (at least wearing pants, anyway) and not being (too) disruptive.

Of course, I’m not complaining – a bit of self-discipline never hurt anyone and imposing rules on ourselves makes everything run much smoother. But even after two years full time, I still feel most days like I’m pretending to be the boss.