Is there employment after owning a business?

What do you do when you sell your quick print business, but don’t want (and can’t afford) to retire? Who will give you an employer’s reference? How easy is it to get another job?

And how do you fill in the application form?

Describe your job — well, sometimes I’m personnel manager (sorry human resources director), trainer, buyer, salesperson, prepress, copier operator, finisher, credit control, you name it, I’ve probably done it when it needed to be done.

What was your last salary—it depends on how well everything went…and the bills.
How many days off due to illness—none in the last fifteen years. Hours of work—usually more than 50 a week.

I’d really like to work for someone else, and I’m sure I could be an asset. But employers seem a bit wary of someone who hasn’t “been employed”. So does all my experience count for nothing because my boss was myself? Most small business owners are harder on themselves than they are on their employees, and would be great employees. We employed someone who had owned a business, and he appreciated every benefit, had much more understanding of the difficulties of the managers and worked harder than the others.

After many years of being unable to just walk away when the going got tough, will I wish I hadn’t? Just because I’ve run my own business doesn’t mean I can’t work for someone else—after all, in the end we all work for the customer, don’t we?