BeamaLife Blog

Self-employment may sound appealing, but before making the move, weigh the pros with the cons of what “being your own boss” means. Self-employment gives you the opportunity to take control, but with that freedom comes with immense responsibility and the learning of tasks you may not have ever thought needed to be done. To be able to escape that tiny cubicle, staring at a computer screen day after day, and take control of your career ignites a fire in your belly to be better than you are, but to determine if that fire just a pipe dream fantasy or a real possibility, you must know if you can take the risks and make the sacrifices to be successful.

One of the biggest positives with starting your own business is that you get to choose your own hours of operation, working conditions, and location. As nice as all that is, it is important to remember that self-employment is synonymous with sacrifice. As the boss, you must oversee everything that goes on, and with limited employees, sometimes being only yourself; long hours come with the territory, regardless of whether or not they fit into the hours of operation. This means you must have the discipline to give up that valuable leisure time for some extra work, or substitute reading the morning paper that day, or taking a long lunch, for business calls. Staying home sick, taking days off, and going on vacation all may result in lower income, therefore making the sacrifice to work harder means more money.

Work is directly equated to profit. You have to know that the juice is worth the squeeze, especially since without a benefits package, you must provide yourself with health insurance and a retirement plan. Establishing a cash-backup for bills might prove helpful, but in order to save enough money for all these things, you need to work and maybe even learn some new skills. For some things—like accounting—it may be beneficial just to hire a professional, but taking the time to find books and software that will teach you the necessary skills may be more cost-effective, as well as more time consuming. As a self-employer the dedication to make it work should outweigh the loss of leisure time.

Initially, you may not be making much money at all. Between start-up costs, operating costs, employee payment, and possibly bank loans, the initial profit you will keep might not seem like much. If money is trickling in rather than flooding, then know that you will be the last to get paid.

For some, some cost can be saved from working at home. By working at home you will save on start-up costs, lower operating costs since you would already be paying for heat, electricity, etc., and reduce commuting time and expenses. However, working at home can hinder immediate growth since space will be limited and finding another location means refactoring in all the costs you were trying to save.

It may seem like there the bad outweighs the good, but there is one factor that tips the scales, you are doing what you love. It wouldn’t make sense to start your own business if it was something you hated and treated like a chore. So if you want to be self-employed, make sure you love what you’re doing because that will make every one of the negatives feel miniscule. In addition, you can ensure that nothing at work makes you feel otherwise because as the head of the company you get to choose who you want to work with. It is up to you to decide who you employ and what people you will work with. This means you must be able to get along with all types of people, be it employees, clients and consumers, suppliers, bankers, lawyers, or accountants, but when you get to choose them all, there should be no reason why you don’t get along while working together directly.

The bottom line is if you can work long and hard, tolerate risk and stress, cope well with potential disaster and failure, and work well alone and with others, then perhaps self-employment is right for you. If not, then perhaps you should keep that job in the cubicle.