How to Know Starting Your Own Business is Not for You

Are you cut out to have your own business or should you leave it alone? Nobody wants to put their heart and soul into building something only to find we have chosen the wrong path. And that can apply to people who are doing well but end up unhappy and feeling trapped. So let’s see if we can avoid that happening to you.

Before you go into your boss’s office and tell him (or her) what you really think of them. Give me a little of your time, and just double-check you are not a victim of the following traps that people fall into when they decide to go it alone.

1/You Don't Want to Work for Someone Else or "You Want to Be Your Own Boss"

Hating authority or believing you can do a better job than your boss, is not in itself a bad thing. But if that is the only reason you want to work for yourself you could be swapping one situation for a worse one. The odds are you will go from trying to please one main boss to trying to please lots of smaller ones. We call them customers. You could find yourself wishing for the days of one employer. Until you establish yourself, it can feel as if everybody but you are pulling the strings in your own business and all you are doing is reacting to them. If you can take that in your stride, then tell your boss what he can do with his or her job by all means and go seek your fortune.

 2/You are Afraid of being fired or being made redundant

 When you own your own business, you do feel more in charge of your future. However, there is no guarantee that your business will be successful or that it will still be there in 6 months or a year’s time. As statistics show, up to 50% of new businesses fail.  It’s one thing to get another job if you lose yours, but would you be willing to start all over again if your business failed? This has been what some of the most successful business people on the planet did before they finally made it. Some of them started new businesses numbers of times. They may not have been fired by an employer, but they still ended up out of work. Resilience is the fuel that saved them. Do you have it?

 3/You Crave Structure

 When you are in the early stage of your business, you are able to do be quite structured and organised. There is typically less going on as you are possibly spending most of your time looking for customers. Then you get some, and now you have to split your time and resources. And the busier you get, the more chance for chaos to follow. This is actually quite normal in the evolution of a business. I have another name for working in business chaos.  It’s called multi-tasking.

 As your business grows into adult-hood or a mature business based on systems and processes rather than how fast you can move, this becomes less stressful. But that is rare in the early days.

 If you like a well-ordered working life, and plan to be in front of the television each night to catch the latest episode of your favourite show, this life is not for you.

 4/You Are Driven by Your Passion

 Why is having passion such a big deal?

Look at it this way, none of us start off as experts in a field or skill or hobby. We need to learn the basics, practice often, become proficient and then become experts. And if the thing we become expert in is something we love with a passion, then all is well with the world. You can of course hire or pay for expertise. Regardless, you are the business owner so whether or not you do the thing yourself you will still be immersed in the subject or industry in some shape or form. 

 Assuming your passion is in abundance, if you don't have the ability, skill or knowledge to turn that passion into a viable business, running it will drain you. That is also true, the other way around. If we do something only because it brings in money, but we don’t enjoy it, the result will be the same.  

5/You Just Want to Get Rich 

Get rich quick is what I really mean. Entrepreneur Chris Brogan once said it took him ten years to become an overnight success. Beware of shiny people selling you shiny ideas of how they just did this, and then that happened and hallelujah they got rich. Particularly in the UK where we keep so much about money close to our chest. The Americans have a much healthier attitude to being open about the crap that happens to them in business.

If making money is the primary reason you want a business of your own, don’t let anyone make you feel bad about that. Making money is a fundamental part of working for yourself. Some would say it is indeed the most important thing because without money coming in, you are not a legitimate business at all.

Nevertheless, very few people ever achieve private jet wealth, so while I am not saying do not go for it. You will miss out on so much if you let it be the only thing that drives your life.

Apart from anything else, you will be one boring dinner party guest.

 6/You Want To Work Less

 Work less! You will work harder than you have in your life, assuming you are dead serious about making something out of this. You will probably have people you hire like your handyman or gardener, who earn more than you in the early days. 

 Yes, entrepreneurs enjoy the freedom of creating their own hours. However, it’s a delusion to think that they work less. Since the success or failure of your venture is in your hands, you will work much harder than you did when you were in a salaried position.

 “The more money you make in your business. The more people you are able to help”

7/ You Want to Make a Difference in the World

This is a wonderful reason to run a business. Just be mindful that it is a business that you want to end up with. There are already charities and non-profit ventures out there set up to be able to provide resources, aid, time and money for causes. Their structure is completely the opposite of how businesses based on creating profit need to be run.

Now there will be some of you listening who will struggle with this. You are genuinely a giving person who wants to help people beyond yourself, maybe even on a large scale. And the idea of putting money ahead of that goes against everything you believe in.

Try this idea. 

 “The more money you make in your business. The more people you are able to help”

 This is not an exhaustive list. No doubt some of you have thought of others. If some of what I have said applies to you, I am not saying don’t start something. I just suggest you be very clear about your true need to be your own boss .

If you really want to deep dive into reasons having your own business may not be for you. Check out the book, Firmer Figures – Fess Up or Mess Up. The first couple of chapters go into great detail about how to decide what you want and what type of business may suit you. You will find it at firmerfiguresbook.com

This is an abridged version of an article and podcast that originally appeared on the Firmer Figures Show site at https://financialgymforbusiness.com/002

Georgette Rowland Osborne is the author of Firmer Figures – Fess Up or Mess Up and creator of the Firmer Figures Framework for financially stressed businessmen and women. She writes about business money, productivity and relationships at financialgymforbusiness.com. Follow her on Twitter @PS_FinancialGym and listen to her podcast the Firmer Figures Business Show here.