Having thoughts or dreams of being your own boss? Honestly, I'm sure the thought has crossed every person's mind at some time or another. And who wouldn't want to be their own boss right? No one to answer too, make your own work schedule, no doubt the good seems to outweigh the bad, on the surface. Speaking from experience, as a young man of just 24 years old when I opened my business EC Home Inspections. I thought the same thing. My only previous occupation was being a member of Active duty in the Air Force. However, after years of working long and odd hours. Not to mention deployments. I had enough of the grind, and dreamed of running my own business. I am going to share with you a few of the realities of being a self-employed entrepreneur.These are just a few things to shine a little cold hard truth into the dream.
Marketing
So you've gone through any and all training needed to go out on your own and run your business. Congratulations! You've got your business license, your company name, maybe a logo and a website. You're all ready to start working. Only problem now is, you don't have any clients/customers. Maybe you know about marketing maybe you don't. Question is, how do you get clients and in turn, start making. money? To be successful, and that's the goal right? you have to be marketing everyday. Truth is, success doesn't happen overnight. Just having a website won't make you busy. You will try and fail at several attempts to bring in business. I want to emphasize that point,you will try and fail, you will try and fail dozens and dozens times. Do you have the courage, perseverance, determination, heart, patience to fail constantly and still remain overly positive and optimistic?
Business Taxes
Probably the least fun part of owning a business is having to do taxes. Unless your job IS doing taxes, odds are you won't enjoy crunching and putting together numbers. Adding up invoices is one thing, but factor in adding up gas mileage, company expenses and you would probably spend at least half a day doing this task. The solution does sound and is simple enough, pay for an accountant to handle it. However, keep in mind your first year or so you'll be lucky. very lucky if you can afford to pay an accountant.
Doing The Job
Alright, now we've got to the easy part right? Doing the job. You may or may not be an expert by the time you open your business. I sure wasn't. True, I took my courses. But realistically, I knew just enough to not look like a complete fool on my first job. If you've been doing the same job at a different company working for someone else, that's great, should be a smooth transition. For us that are crazy enough to jump into something head first, we have a very steep learning curve ahead of us. This is another area where you will be tested. You must be confident in your abilities, but also, learn on the go. You are going to mess up, you are going to lose an account or two, you are going to forget something some aspect or some small detail along the way. All you can do, pay attention, realize where you messed up. learn from it, and try not to do it again.
Dealing With The Bad Times
When business is going great, you're super busy you feel on top of the world. And you should, you've worked hard and you've earned everything. When business is good, life is good. But how about if business is slow? How will you handle it then? I mean, this is your livelihood, this is what you gave up your stable, reliable job for. Do you have the guts to work harder, and to be even more motivated when times get rough?
These are just a few things to be aware of if you are looking to be self-employed. I love every second of being my own boss. I constantly tell people, I don't have a job or a career, I have a passion. It takes a hell of a lot of heart, patience, perseverance, determination, motivation, guts, courage, and focus at all times. It will consume you. Rather that's a good thing or not, I'll leave that up to your personal opinion.
Find more of our articles and blogs at: www.echomeinspection.com
No comments:
Post a Comment