Can’t Back Me Into A Corner 

is a song  dedicated to all small business and self employed people. They wake up every morning unemployed. Each day, they have to go out into the market place with no guarantee of making any money and at the end of the day, they have to earn their daily bread.

Back in the 1980’s, I expanded my Insurance Agency to include real estate when I obtained my Real Estate Brokers License. I was in my early 30’s and working from home before it was popular to do so.

I was an Independent Real Estate Broker, and over time I met others who were doing the same. We started an association and would meet for lunch every month.

One of the members was a broker who at that time was in his 60’s and the younger members looked up to him. He operated like me, with both insurance and real estate, and had a small building in an older part of town.

As I got to know him, he told me that he was one of the larger real estate traders in town, doing hundreds of deals the year prior, buying and selling homes. He was a good business man.

One day we were having lunch, and talking about business overhead expenses, and he said, “no one can back me into a corner, because that’s exactly where I work from.”

That phrase always stuck with me, because keeping expenses down and under control were an important part of running a successful business.

A few years later, I decided to move the business from my house to a retail store, which was a big step for me. Fortunately, it was a good move as the business continued to grow.

It can be a fine line between growing a business and being over-extended.

Being self employed means being out in the work force with no safety net, other than one you may have. This article in Forbes magazine from a few years ago, titled – 13 Signs You Are Meant To be Self Employed, I would have liked to read in my early self employed days.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/glassheel/2012/04/12/13-signs-you-are-meant-to-be-self-employed/

From the BDC is an article titled – 10 Things You Probably Don’t Know About SMEs ( Small & Medium Size Enterprises ) – https://www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/business-strategy-planning/manage-business/pages/10-things-didnt-know-canadian-sme.aspx

To all the self employed, commissioned salespeople and small business owners, this song is for you –

You Can’t Back Me Into A Corner.

Watch the lyric video here