The Pros and Cons of Self Employment Part1
Posted: Sunday, July 05, 2009
by Wes Hamilton
Plumb Pro, Inc
This article will outline quite a few things about owning your own business that no one tells you about, or, rather selectively fail to mention. I learned these lessons the hard way. This is just one article in a series I will be writing about the joys and the many pitfalls of self employment that you will experience as a business owner.
Why should you take my advice? Who am I to be giving you advice? Read on and decide for your self. I would recommend reading as many articles on this topic to get as many different points of views as you can. The articles that just paint a wonderful, pretty picture about being an entrepreneur are not giving you the full story. These articles often are written by someone who is simply an author and not an actual business owner. So, they know what sounds good on paper, but they would probably fail in business within their first year, if they made it that long!
FIRST: I would like to talk about the common "MYTHS" most people believe come with self employment and owning your own business. Most everyone thinks that owning your own business will give you a more freedom to live your life, spend time with your family, take vacations, wake up when you want to, sleep when you want to, etc. Self employment equals personal freedom in a nut shell! Well, folks it is not actually anything like that in real life. You can achieve all of these things but you need to understand upfront that it will take many, many years to reap these rewards if you can even survive your first year of business.
In actuality the phrase "Owning Your Own Business" needs to be re-phrased "Owned by Your Own Business". This is the way it is at least in the first few years. Things do get better with time, though. In the beginning your business WILL absolutely own you and control your life for a while. You need to accept this and embrace it. You and your family will make a huge sacrifice due to this. You will not have the freedom you want in the beginning. If you are not completely devoted to your business for the first few years, you will probably fail. I have seen many fellow business owners around me fail due to this. While I would be working sometimes on nights and weekends they would be out fishing or taking a vacation. Now that pretty fishing boat has been repossessed by the bank and they are on permanent vacation. You should also understand that once you own your own business you become, somewhat, damaged goods to other employers. In other words if your business fails and you need to get a job you will be put on the bottom of the application list. Therefore, you must be prepared to make EXTREME sacrifices to assure your business stays in business! http://www.plumbpro.net
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Very interesting information Wes! I do think people underestimate the amount of time it takes to own your own business. Thanks for sharing!
Nice article. It is interesting and informative, continue to write away.
Thank you Laura, Wes
Thanks for being honest. I think we see the glamor of working at home at your own business but we don't always know the reality of it.
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