[C6H8O7]

What would one have to do to become their own boss in chemistry.I know you will always have people who fund and stuff checking on you every once in a while but i'm talking about just having the boss off your neck while you work.


Also would like to be able to research when I wanted to.My best work and ideas can come at 11pm or I can wake up and find a solution and need to get to the lab.

Is it possible to rent labspace from somewhere or something with that kind of approach and get grants to pay for your own projects?

[P]

I done exactly the same thing about 6 or 7 years ago and ran for about a year. I hires labspace at the local uni and put in some grant apps for business from the local government. I found, being so young and handsome and all, that people didn't really take me seriously and it was difficult to get them to part with their money for speculative research ideas. Investors want to fund finished products. I gave up after a year as my rental, insurance and other overheads were larger than the income. Perhaps I just not good enough as a sales person.

If you go for this can I make a suggestion that you probably wont like. If you don't have an existing idea which you have already proven and looks like it is going to make you money  -  i.e. if all of your ideas are still in the speculation stage and you have no working prototypes or any funding yet, then do something on the side as well. For example get a product you can sell business to business on a commission paid basis, or get a part time job until your business runs itself.

I work for someone else now and if I was ever to do this again I would have to have a product, some sort of cash cow to sell B2B to tide me over (because I'm not rich enough to just go it alone).

Good luck,

Regards,

P.

[enahs]

The easiest way is to get a PhD and become faculty at a university, and then get really good at writing grants (and doing good science, of course).


Or win the lottery.

[Mitch]

Being a graduate student is sort of like that. But, what you described is only possible once you  become a professor. Only 2-3 more years to go until I'm in that position.

Plus, there is no lab in this world that would allow you to work unsupervised that late at night, it is completely not safe if you're not scientifically trained, s#*$ happens.

[enahs]

Plus, there is no lab in this world that would allow you to work unsupervised that late at night

I have to come in all the time and do hours of work in the middle of the night all by my self. Somethings are timed and no way to get around it. Damn reactions do not know decent sleeping times!

But it is never with anything toxic or all that dangerous. I mean, I guess I could break some glass wear and get a nasty cut, or fall and hurt my self; but that all holds true for my kitchen at home.

[macman104]

I think Borek's point was that an unaffiliated person who wants to rent out space to use for reactions would not be allowed this permission.  Obviously if you are working in a lab and are experienced things are different.

[SM30]

Tony f&#^$*@ danza, thats who.

[P]

Plus, there is no lab in this world that would allow you to work unsupervised that late at night

I have to come in all the time and do hours of work in the middle of the night all by my self.

When I was doing my PhD I would sometimes stay to the early hours of the morning.  This was allowed IF there was also someone else staying late with you for H&S reasons.  It also helped that we had a lecturer that also stayed very late quite often.  If I was doing anything dangerous (or that had a reasonable risk factor to it  -  i.e. ANYTHING at all to do with working a chemistry lab) then I would pop into his office to let him know we were working late. He would pop his head around the door every hour or so just to check all was fine.

[Mitch]

Sure, we all work late in lab, but I meant it would be unlikely for any lab to let outside members work late at night and unsupervised, especially with something potentially dangerous.

[macman104]

Sure, we all work late in lab, but I meant it would be unlikely for any lab to let outside members work late at night and unsupervised, especially with something potentially dangerous.

Err...yea.  When I said Borek above, I meant Mitch.  I just look at your pretty admin colored stars and take a guess at who is posting

[C6H8O7]

The only problem I can see with me doing a solo thing is I'm not the greatest people person.I'm smart on paper but I like being able to revise and you really can not do that in realtime.

Maybe with a few grantwriting classes and a partner who did the talking something could work.

[Mitch]

How old are you, how much science do you have under your belt?

[SM30]

Mitch is asking a pretty important question here. If you're a B.S. level chemist or even M.S. level with only a few years of real lab experience, it's difficult to say you're proven to the point where an investor would even look at you. To apply for certain grants (if not all of them) you need a PhDs name on that app. In the world of business, how smart you are "on paper" really doesn't mean anything. If you want to actually come out with a product or service then production in the lab is all that matters. You could argue all non-theoretical chemistry is actually the same way. If the product isn't in that flask at the end of the day your synthesis doesnt mean s#*$. For example in custom synthesis no clients care about what route you put on paper to make their compound. If it doesnt end up in their hands, game over.

[C6H8O7]

I'm asking the question now before I end up being trapped behind a degree in something.Asking this question and having it matter after you have obtained your masters would be foolish.

I'm much different than most people regarding quite a few things.I work better when I feel I'm my own entity and am in control of the details of my life.Not letting others decide when I eat and sleep.Like I said before though I can meet a deadline and push myself to meet it.

I guess my next question is what kind of a difference in what you are allowed to do and not allowed as a scientist compared to a restaurant worker?As a construction worker if you stop and draw stuff out to make sure the product ends up better you would be reprimanded from the boss for wasting time that you could be working.If you are a scientist and you are just sitting down in deep thought about a problem is the "productivity police" going to assume you are just sitting around doing nothing?

If I stay up late at night at home writing tomorrow's report instead of doing it in the lab would I be reprimanded if I'm an hour late for work? For that matter if all you are doing is paperwork is it absolutely necessary that you do it at the job instead of at home?

I realize different people will have different types of jobs.I'm just curious as to what the standard day is like in a laboratory.

[billnotgatez]

So you are trying to decide between writing the great American novel
Or
Being the loner midnight chemist

------

Just as an aside
There are home grown businesses that do chemistry like soap making
And maybe now bio-diesel
I even know of a person who make candles with soy oil - they said it takes some tricky chemistry to make them work