About owning a small business

From corporate career to small business owner

Giving up a steady salary to be your own boss takes a huge amount of courage, but for those who dare to believe, the rewards are huge – freedom, flexibility, financial security and personal fulfillment.

As an employee, your potential earnings are fixed, and although your job may feel secure, if you can’t do the job you are employed to do or the company gets into trouble, you won’t get paid. So although it feels secure, your security lies in someone else’s hands – it’s beyond your control.

As a business owner, you have total control over your business and although everything stops with you, if you play things right you can actually leverage the efforts of other people to make you money – giving you even more freedom and flexibility.

So … that’s the end goal, but first you have to take a leap of faith – well, an educated leap of faith. No one said it would be easy – you’ll need commitment, resilience, adaptability and grit.

Here’s what to expect when you trade your corner cubicle for the thrill of owning your business:

• You’ll worry more (get used to it, it’s the reality).
• Taking risks will get easier (you’ve already taken the biggest).
• You’ll learn to say no (because you’ll have no choice).
• You’ll appreciate the quality of people even more than the quality of work (work quality can always improve – it’s harder to improve the quality of people).
• You’ll work longer hours (the difference is, you’ll enjoy it more).
• You’ll learn to ask for help and rely on others (because you can’t do it all).
• You’ll learn that perfection is a journey not a destination (100% is a luxury usually only big companies can afford – for small businesses, done well is often good enough).
• You’ll miss your old job (actually, you’ll probably just miss the people).

Unless you are one of the lucky few, you won’t get rich overnight. It will take time and perseverance. But remember: “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can't.” – Anonymous 

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