❤ What are the realities of being your own boss?

The past few days have been extremely rainy but I'm not one to complain about the rains, I actually love rain. I enjoy the chill in the air.  I love the feeling of rain falling on my face on a cloudy day. I love sitting inside, watching the rain trickle down my window, as I listen to my favourite music. I love the rains and find them so romantic, the world looks so much greener and eye-catching after a shower.

I usually spend my mornings reading and responding to emails. This morning I got to enjoy the rains while responding to numerous business mail. I have the usual wholesale information emails, general question emails from customers, a few beauty questions, staff mail and I open yet another email from someone asking 'What's it like to run your own business?'.  This is a question I'm always being asked. I have realized that many persons are interested in starting their own business but very few actually take the plunge.

I'm always being bombarded with questions like "What is it really like to run your own business? And how do you know if you have what it takes? What are the realities of being your own boss? So I've finally decided to blog about about it. If you want to know what it’s really like running your own business, read on, and see if it’s something you want to step into.

Being an entrepreneur isn't easy. Having what it takes to make it on your own is another question. Yes, owning a business sounds like a terrific idea on the surface, but starting your own business is full of unexpected obstacles – no matter the industry. But as Confucius said, “choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” It’s great advice, but it’s not always that simple is it?—it can be difficult to figure out what you love and how to parlay that into a viable business or job.

Running your own business is empowering, and the income potential is unlimited. You work when you feel like it, take 2 hour lunches, do what you want - not what someone else wants. Working for yourself, it’s the ultimate dream. Right? Or is it? In my experience, running your own business is a lot harder than working for someone else. If you think working for someone else is difficult, wait until you try being an entrepreneur.

When you work for someone else, all you have to do is show up on time, leave on time, and in between you have to do the work that your boss tells you to do. When you go home, you probably leave all that behind and enjoy your time with family, friends and your Xbox.

When you work for yourself, you’re always working. From the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep you’ll be thinking about your business: how to increase sales, how to increase income, how to get more done, how to handle challenges, how to get more time out of the day. When you work for yourself you have to carry the vision alone and decide where your business is going. Should you offer a service or a product? Are you going to be local or global? Online or brick and mortar? What should you charge? How will you know which way success lies? You won’t. You’ll have to guess, use trial and error, or ask someone else for advice. You’re 100% responsible for where your business goes, and if you choose wrong, you’ll have to ride out the storm of your mistake while you turn your ship around in a new direction.

When you work for yourself you have to generate every dollar you make. If you don’t sell your product or service, you don’t eat. You could be fabulous at programming, but if you can’t sell your programs, you’re done. You could be an amazingly gifted artist, but if you don’t know anything about sales and marketing you may never sell a single piece of work. It won’t matter how skilled you are at your craft. Money comes when other people are willing to buy what you’re offering, and that happens when people are AWARE of what you’re selling. If you can’t get it in front of enough eyeballs it won’t matter if you invented the greatest thing since Google, you’re done. Sure, the sky’s the limit on your income, but the bottom is the limit as well.

When you work for yourself, you do everything until you make enough money to hire other people to do it for you. You’re the CEO, the VP of Operations, the VP of Sales, the Accounting Dept, the Webmaster, the Receptionist, all the way down to the janitor. If you thought you were overworked and underpaid before, wait until you’re doing the job of 12 people for half what you were making before.

When you’re an entrepreneur you never go home for the day. You’re always working, always thinking, always trying and cogitating new ideas to make your business more successful. The seeds you plant need water every day, and sunlight every moment, in order to grow. You must be patient, steadfast, courageous, and willing to make decisions that could turn out wrong. You need to learn to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep playing the game. Sure, you can take a vacation any time you want when you run your own business, but while you’re sitting on the beach sipping a fruity cocktail with an umbrella in it you’ll be thinking about ways to improve your business.

So why do people think running their own business is easy? It’s the joy of seeing your business grow and flourish is the real high, and watching your bank account grow is awesome too. It's knowing you are apart of the chosen few that get to fulfil their passion. I've opened my business since 2007, and while there have been many bumps along the way, I can still say with full confidence that I really love what I do.