Is Self-Employment Right for You? The Pros and Cons of Entrepreneurship

The Pros and Cons of Entrepreneurship

How many of us dream of being our own boss someday? In charge of our own destiny. For some, self-employment is the quickest way to turn their dreams into reality. For others the dream can quickly become a nightmare. Not everyone is cut out for self-employment, not everyone has the necessary skills, determination and mental attitude. Do you have the, “right stuff”?

Why Self-employment?

Being self-employed can have its advantages. These include:

• The opportunity to choose your own hours.
• Independence and freedom to try out new ideas.
• Increased job satisfaction.
• Potentially unlimited earning.
• Location. An online business can theoretically be managed from anywhere in the world. Even a beach in Hawaii.

Conversely, the disadvantages of being self-employed:

• Lack of free time. You may find yourself working more hours than in your day job.
• Family life can suffer.
• Pressure. Setting up the business and ensuring it succeeds is a huge responsibility.
• Money worries. Unpredictable income. If you don’t make a profit, you don’t get paid.
• A lack of holidays and sick pay. No company pension, health care or other benefits unless you pay for them yourself.

Before embarking on the self-employed course, you need to carefully weigh the risks involved. Do the benefits outweigh any potential loses?

Have You Got What it Takes to Set Up a Business?

As an entrepreneur you must be continually on the lookout to grow your business, be responsive to opportunities and take a creative and visionary approach.

All entrepreneurs need a basic set of skills in order to be a successful business owner. These include:

• Commitment from conception to completion.
• Initiative and confidence.
• The ability to network with good persuasion and negotiation skills.
• Strong decision making skills.
• The ability to work under pressure.
• An ability to work independently.
• Goal focused.

Why? Why? Why?

Are you completely mad, why would you want to take this course of action? Don’t you know the risks involved? You could ruin your life? You could go bankrupt? You could be in debt forever!

Still here? See if you can answer these questions:

• Why do you want to be an entrepreneur?
• Why do you want to be self employed?
• Why now? Why not last year or in a year from now?
• What would be your ideal job?
• Given the opportunity, which would you choose, your ideal job or your ideal business venture? Why?

Tradition Employment vs Self-employed

Contrary to what you might think or what you might have read. When compared to traditional employees, entrepreneurs are not necessarily happier, less bored, less worried, or even more satisfied with their daily tasks. If the business is performing poorly, you might wish you’d never started in self-employment and long for the easy days of that nine-to-five job.

Personal Qualifications

Are you the right person for the job. If you were to interview yourself for the job of entrepreneur would you have the necessary qualifications and attitude.

Many think they can turn a hobby, skill or talent into a successful business, but in reality it takes a lot more than that. There’s the boring, mundane business skills that are needed everyday if you are to succeed. Without them you will fail.

Do you have or can you acquire the necessary business skills? If there is ever a time to be honest with yourself, this is it.

• Do you have sales and marketing experience?
• Do you have operational, administrative, and general management experience?
• Are you conversant with basic business financial management practices? Are you conversant with accounting software such as Sage or Quicken?
• What business education, training, or experience do you have?
• What experience do you have with business law and taxation?

If you don’t have these business skill or qualifications now, you must be willing to learn them sooner rather than later.

Costs of Being Self-employed

Whilst successful self-employed persons generally have a higher net income than traditional employees it’s advisable to determine your personal financial needs.

• What are your personal living expenses?
• What are your start-up expenses.
• What are your ongoing business expenses.
• What additional taxes will you need to pay?
• Will you need to employ others and at what cost?
• How will you cover insurance and health care costs?

It is critical to remember that in addition to providing services or products for your own business you will also be working indirectly for the government. You will need to devote time and money to the legal tasks necessary to operate the business, including:

• Marketing and selling.
• Tracking earnings and expenses.
• Paying taxes.
• Communicating and contracting with customers and vendors.
• Handling employee-related matters, such as payroll and benefits.
• Complying with laws, regulations and guidelines associated with your industry.

Since learning from your mistakes can be really expensive and time consuming, it’s important to take any necessary business training before starting a business. When your business is up and running you will not have the time.

Still Here?

If this article has helped you realize that self-employment is NOT for you, that’s actually a positive outcome. Think of all the time, frustration, and money you’ve saved by not starting a business which was destined to fail!

On the other hand, if your desire to start a business is even stronger, then nothing should hold you back from becoming your own boss.

Talk to other people in the business you are proposing. Visit forums and join entrepreneurial membership groups.

If you’d like to start an online business but really don’t have a clue as to where to begin, then I would recommend Chris Farrell’s course. Chris has been voted the Number 1 Internet Marketing Service for the past three years. At the time of writing you can try Chris’s course for $1 for one week. How’s that for confidence. You’re not committed to completing the course or changed for anything you don’t use. If at anytime you decide to leave, you can do so without any further changes. Watch Chris’s video, you’ll see what I mean. Click the link to watch Chris Farrell’s video.

If you want to register a domain name, to stop others getting your business name, see my article, Where to register domain names.

If you would like to see some of the ready made web design possibilities you could have, see my article, Top WordPress Theme Design Solutions for Small Businesses.