Quitting your standard job and branching out to start your own business is an exciting and challenging experience. However, when you are in charge, you will quickly realize the benefits your new role can bring to your creativity, autonomy and day-to-day life. Although not all business owners take advantage of the following, everything in this list is attainable for someone choosing entrepreneurship so long as they are willing to take the risk.
1. Answering to your superiors
Most of us have had managers or bosses we found it hard to work with. Too often, a boss will take issue with your style-of-work and want everyone to do exactly as they would do. Then, when things go wrong, you can be thrown into a difficult situation, with colleagues and managers playing the blame game to avoid owning up for their own mistakes. When you are your own boss, you are in the driver’s seat. Even though you may have to own up to your mistakes, you will never again have to put up with being criticized, bad-mouthed, or fired. Of course, the drawback is that you may end up being the one who has to have these difficult conversations with employees when things go wrong.
2. Compromising your approach to work
Have you ever started a new role you are experienced in, only to find that the business’s processes, tools or strategies are completely different to your preferences? You may even have to follow strategies that you feel are far less successful than those you implemented previously. Rather than having to relearn elements of your job that you could already do perfectly in another way, you will be able to run your company exactly the way you want, based on your previous experiences and successes.
3. Unnecessary meetings
A common workplace issue for many employees is being forced to waste valuable time on hours of meetings or phone calls. As a boss, you will be the one to decide which meetings you need to attend. Just be clear about what you need to accomplish in each meeting and make sure to schedule regular reports or meetings with the employees you work closest with.
4. The standard workday
The grueling 9-5 / 7 days a week job is a thing of the past if you are the boss. Obviously, many business owners may end up working longer than their employees. However, if you really want to take a back seat and enjoy a better work life balance, you can do so. All that is required is a strong team to delegate to and careful planning. Plus, even if you do have to work longer hours occasionally, there’s nobody stopping you from doing so from the comfort of your own home, or even from a hammock on the beach.
5. Limited vacation days
Most employees only get to enjoy 10-20 vacation days a year. But, if you are in charge of a successful company and have an established, trusted team, there is no limit to the amount of time you can take off. Just remember to check in with your employees occasionally and try to make yourself available for urgent matters.
6. Creating and updating your resume
Gone are the days of endlessly looking over your resume for spelling and formatting errors or carefully considering how to word the experience section of your resume to make it the most appealing for a potential new boss. Soon you may be the one looking over others resumes during your own recruitment drive which you should find a lot more interesting than going over your own resume for the hundredth time.
7. Waiting for payday
There is nothing worse than watching your bank balance hit the red when you are still weeks away from payday. However, if you are running your own profitable company, any money it makes, that doesn’t have to pay for your employee’s salaries and other business costs, can be considered your personal wage. Admittedly, this is unlikely to be very much until your business begins turning a profit, but when it does you can say goodbye to waiting until the end of the month to invest in a hobby or treating your partner to a meal out.
8. Personal demotivation
Although you should always expect to have days when you are really not into your work, and there are plenty of things that can go wrong and affect your motivation, as a business owner you are far more likely to be motivated to do everything you can to help your business succeed. With your personal investment on the line, you can expect to approach everyday with more enthusiasm and motivation than you would working for a company where you will only get paid regardless of how much effort you put in.
Although there are plenty of drawbacks to starting your own company, and entrepreneurship certainly isn’t for everyone, if you choose to become a business owner, then you could quickly start enjoying countless benefits. Whether that’s better job satisfaction, a healthier work-life-balance, or a more enjoyable workday.
Just keep in mind that any new business venture is not without risk. It may take over a year until things have reached the point where you really begin to recognize all the potential benefits.