The Realities of Having Your Own Business

Most of us dream of having our own business. We save money so someday we will have the needed funds to finance the business of our dream. We think that having our own business will catapult us from rags to riches. I do not mean to be a pessimist having your own business takes a lot of work and sometimes your dream of a better lifestyle may not become a reality.  

 

To ensure the success of your business you need to be aware of the realities of having your own business.   When people ask what kind of business they should invest in, this is a clear indication that that person is not ready to go into business.  You must be ready to face the world of an entrepreneur and must know the responsibilities and risks involved in owning a business.

 

As an entrepreneur you will have to work harder and longer hours. At the onset of your business, you may need to sacrifice time with your family to take care of your business. As an employee, you are in an organization or community of people who can assist you. Your work hours are limited to eight hours plus a few overtime hours if you want to.  Should you make wrong decisions, you don’t have to bear it alone.  The damage is absorbed by the whole group, though your boss may reprimand you.  When you become an entrepreneur, you are all alone. There is no one to blame when things go wrong. You will sleep less, work more and worry more. Anything that goes wrong is now blamed on no one else but on the image that you see as you stare at your bathroom mirror when you wake up in the morning.  You need to be prepared for this.

 

As an entrepreneur, you must not be just a leader; you must be a very good leader. A good leader hires good people and inspires these good people to be better. The quality of your people can make or break your business. You and your employees must work as a team and your employees must accept that sacrifices may have to be made to kick-start your business and make it successful.

 

Your expectations of being rich very soon may not happen. Today we hear stories of drop- out-of-college youths who strike it rich fast. Unfortunately, this does not happen to most entrepreneurs. Starting a business will require a lot of out of the pocket expenditures and a long time to build a customer base that would allow you to make a decent profit.  The income you generate may not be in large denominations. You need to come to terms with this because it will radically change your lifestyle.

 

Your day to day companion must be patience and persistence. As you may now know, generating a profit is not easy and it will take some time to see returns. Disappointments and frustrations will knock at your door as you continue to invest in your business - office rentals, fixed expenses, payroll, etc.  You may start to miss your good old days as an employee when you were receiving your steady payroll, the commissions, incentives and the Christmas bonuses. You are now in the shoes of your previous employer and start to hate the word “bonus” because you are now on the giving side.  At this phase you need to exert more patience and persistence because driving customers to your business will not happen overnight.

 

Now, you realize that becoming an entrepreneur is not as easy as you think.  Having your own business requires serious hard work. When you were an employee, you may have used office time to login to Facebook, now you hate seeing your employees do the same. From your normal 8 hours of work as an employee, you now trade off some of your personal and family time so you can spend 12 to 14 hours of work everyday to make your dreams a reality. Now, you are faced with your competitors that do not sleep, complaining customers, customers who fail to pay on time and mediocre or nonperforming employees.

 

The prospect of earning bigger than what you get as an employee is possible.  But you need to understand the sacrifice that you need to do to make your dream a reality. You must also be prepared to take risks. When your business starts to pick up, remember that it is God who has given you the ability to create wealth. As an entrepreneur you are able to create jobs and when jobs are created, needs are met and you start reaping the results of your hard work.  When these things happen, you will know that being an entrepreneur is all worth it.