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You not only need to assess whether the idea is a feasible business proposition, but you’ll also need to examine whether it’s the right thing for you personally. Do you need job security? Will it give you more job satisfaction? What kind of work will it involve, and does this suit your lifestyle? Are you a risk-taker? Are you good at managing people, finances and operations? Do you have a good enough knowledge of the field? Are your skills and experience relevant to what you want to do? Clear objectives are the key – personal as well as business objectives. You need to be clear about what you want from having your own business and ensure that your goals are realistic before proceeding any further. Think about the following: money, risk, working hours and working patterns, personal development and achievement, independence. To assist your reflection, here’s a list of some of the advantages and disadvantages of being your own boss: Advantages • Flexibility – it can be much easier to balance your work and personal life when you’re not reporting to someone else. Depending on the nature and demands of the business, you can do what you want when you want. • You’re in control – as an employee, there’s nothing more frustrating than having ideas or suggestions rejected or feeling that you don’t have enough responsibility or scope for initiative in your job, so being your own employer puts you firmly in the driving seat. The planning and decision-making is all down to you. • Sense of achievement – building something up yourself can bring a tremendous sense of satisfaction and personal accomplishment. Many people who are employed find that they reach a stage where they feel restricted and unable to achieve their full potential in their jobs, so running a business can be a natural career progression and an excellent personal challenge. • Enjoyment – for all of the above reasons, running your own business can be immensely enjoyable, especially if you also like the type of work that you are doing. You have chosen what you want to do, where you want to do it and how you want to do it – you’re picking and choosing the elements that make up your perfect job. You don’t often get that much scope when you’re employed by someone else. • Financial rewards – if you manage to make a success of your company, there’s considerable potential for big financial rewards. Disadvantages There is, of course, a flip side to all of these advantages. • Working longer hours – it’s not always possible to achieve the flexibility you might expect from running your own business. As you’re the boss, you’ll need to be prepared to give all it takes to make a success of it, especially in the early days. When the work needs to be done, you’ll need to put in the extra hours to do it. The reality is that most small business owners have a much longer working week than those who are employed, and this can often lead to a blurring of the distinction between work and personal life, especially if your company is based at home. • Are you really in control? – unless you haven’t borrowed any money to set up your business, you may not actually have as much decision-making power as you might think. You will have a responsibility to your investors who will want to ensure that their financial stakes are safeguarded, so you may find yourself having to explain your plans and decisions to them. • Responsibility and stress – being in charge of a company is an enormous responsibility and therefore requires a great deal of commitment and dedication from you. The pressure that this brings can be overwhelming and can lead to stress, both in your work and your personal life, as the personal responsibility that comes with having your own business means that you’re more likely to take your stresses home with you. • Failure – noone is perfect in business – failure is just part and parcel of running a company. Not everything will work out as you intend and there are likely to be many tough challenges along the way, so you’ll need to be prepared to cope with failure and understand how to learn from your mistakes in order to turn them into a success the next time. • Multi-skilling – you’ll need to be a bit of a jack of all trades to make your business a success, especially in the early days if you’re the only person working for the company. This means being good at sales, marketing, administration and accounting, for example, as well as managing your core business. Be realistic about what your skills are and whether you’ll be able to run a company successfully. • Less job security – when you give up employment to set up in business by yourself, you stand to lose not only your job security but also the many perks that often come with working for another company such as pension scheme, healthcare, corporate discounts and other financial bonuses. There are a lot of factors to weigh up and your decisions will be based on your personal needs, motivations and objectives as well as those of your planned business. It has to be the right thing for you. Of course, you don’t need to take the plunge fully to start off with – a safe option could be to set up part time initially in order to test the water, if this is possible for your type of business. This article is copyright protected and is not for republishing
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