Wouldn’t it be nice to set your own hours? To work whenever and wherever you feel like it? To not feel guilty when you take a lost day or start the day late just because you feel like it? To control your own destiny? To be your own boss?
As a self-employed business person I can tell you first hand…that would be nice!
The reality is that we all work for someone. When you’re in the employ of someone else’s company, you work for your supervisor, for the owner of the company, for the shareholders and for the customer.
When you’re in business for yourself, you work for your supervisor, for the owner of the company, for the customer and for your employees! If you’re self-employed in a company of one, you still work for all these people; you also ARE most of these people!
When you work for yourself you assume a greater level of responsibility. There is nobody to take your place when you’re sick or want a day off; you can’t be replaced. Sure, someone might be able to assume some of your duties, but nobody can completely replace you.
When you own your business your hours are not 9 to 5; your hours are whenever you need or want to work. Your day may start at 3 am when you wake up in the middle of the night with a new marketing idea and you’ve got to get it on paper before you forget. It may end 5 hours past closing when you’re still clearing paperwork, moving store displays or painting your new office space.
But of course, once you’re the boss you have people for all of that, right? Well, someday, maybe, to a point. When you’re passionate about your business you always keep a hand in things, you always want to help paint the office and set displays, you always want to keep up with what the front-line people are facing and that often means rolling up your own sleeves.
The people you have for all that are called “employees.” And when you have employees you assume the greatest level of responsibility: You’re responsible for the livelihood of all the people you employ. If you’re truly responsible, you pay them before you pay yourself. You’ll care more about their future than some of them do.
There are three key areas of life: material, emotional and spiritual. Self-employment is total immersion in all three areas.
As an employee your company may cover you in a bad year. You may complain that you didn’t get your Christmas bonus, but you still have a job. When you own your business, you might be the guy who’s going without to keep your employees on the payroll through a tough stretch. You’re the one who takes a second mortgage on your house to buy some necessary equipment or keep your business alive in a crunch.
When you’re having a banner year, you’re also the one who determines how to spend the profits!
Self-employment taxes emotional life. You may not have days off for weeks at a time. You may be rightfully accused of taking your work home with you. You may put aside some fun to focus on work.
You’re also the one who decides when enough is enough! You should take a sick or lost day without guilt. Train people to replace you and someday, you’ll work only when and how you want to.
When I talk about “spiritual” I’m not talking about religion; I’m talking about your spirit: that part of human existence that can’t be measured and quantified, but we know to be real through experience and feeling. In business, spirit may be most evident through the expression of courage.
Success in business demands courage. Self-employment is one of the best opportunities to develop courage. The buck stops with you: you don’t have the luxury of being afraid to make a decision. You can’t afford to sit back and see what happens. You face every challenge and make things happen.
The greatest reward for the entrepreneur: the knowledge and confidence that you can find opportunity in every disaster. There is no way to gift this feeling; you’ve got to earn it. This level of confidence is the privilege of leaders and is available only to those willing to risk everything.
Courage is not the absence of fear; the absence of fear is called “stupidity.” Courage is knowing you’ll act in the face of fear. There is no way to inoculate yourself from fear, but once you develop courage it’s yours always, and you can access your courage in every area of life.
You’ve got to decide for yourself whether or not to be in business for yourself. Ultimately, whether you own the company or work for one, you’re in business for yourself; that’ll be the subject of another article. It takes courage to do any job the right way, and all true enterprise involves risk.
If you want to lay it all on the line, if you’re willing to assume complete responsibility and you want full control of your success: work for yourself!
The Reality of Self-Employment - To learn more about this author, visit Jim Bouchard's Website.
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