What Are the Benefits of Owning Your Own Business?

Owning one’s own business is the dream of millions, yet many feel it isn’t attainable. But the days of giving up everything and risking your life savings are gone. What are some of the benefits?

• You reap the rewards of your efforts

• As your own boss, you make all of the decisions critical to your success

• You’re a job creator which benefits your community

• Job security: you can’t be fired

• You get to put your own ideas into practice and determine what works and what does not

• You control every aspect of your business

• Increase your knowledge in disciplines you otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to

• Work directly with customers to determine needs and wants

• Personal satisfaction of starting something from scratch and building it into something meaningful

• Work in a field you really enjoy, not one because you need the money

• Establish a sense of belonging to a community

• Build something tangible that can be passed on to heirs after you’re gone

• If you have an on-line business, you can work from home, thus reducing overhead costs. Working from home also reduces commuting costs and empowers you to have a more flexible work schedule

Everything isn’t a walk in the park with owning your own business. There are some challenges.

• In order to reap the rewards, you’ll have to take some risks. This means you could lose your entire investment

• You’ll have to put in a lot of hours in the beginning to get things started. This means time away from the family or doing some of your favorite hobbies

• You will probably be dealing with trivial matters in the beginning which won’t be the most enjoyable part of building a business

• Your income may not be steady. In fact, you may have none at all for certain periods of time

• You may have to deal with some unpleasant tasks, like firing someone or refusing to hire a friend or family member

• It may take some time to learn the parts of running a business which you aren’t familiar with

• If you work from home, you may have trouble hiring people are face distractions from family members. Also, you may run out of space if the business grows

Now that we have established the best way to independence is through ownership, the next step is to find out what kind of business do we want to own? Before we move on, I want to talk about risk. Some of you may be thinking: “Well that sounds great, but I can’t risk everything for a whim, or a wish, or a dream.” Those are normal thoughts. But starting a business today isn’t the same as it was 50 or a hundred years ago. Previously I’ve mentioned “managed risk.” The definition of risk, according to merriam-webster dictionary is “the possibility of something bad or unpleasant happening resulting in loss.”

No one wants to lose their entire savings. That would be bad and unpleasant. However, with the advent of the internet, risk of loss is greatly reduced because you don’t need a huge initial investment or a loan from a bank. All you need is a computer and an idea. Managed risk is reducing the probability of loss to an acceptable level through careful planning and research. No longer do you have to quit your day job to start a business. Because of the internet, you can have a flexible schedule and work at your own pace. In fact, I would advise not quitting your day job right away.

So, what kind of business do you want?