What Being Your Own Boss DOESN’T Mean

There are so many people today who strive for careers where they can be their own boss. It sounds rather inviting and comes with lots of perceived perks. Being your own boss gives you a certain amount of freedom and a great deal more control over your life, your future and your finances. Whether you opt to start a self-employed venture or are looking to be your own boss, when you are self-employed you get to enjoy a lot of great benefits. However, this doesn’t mean there aren’t drawbacks to being your own boss either. Before you start out on this new self-employed adventure, it is important that you are aware of what being your own boss doesn’t mean. If you go into being your own boss with the wrong pre-conceived notions about what it means, you are only setting yourself up for disaster. Keep these things in mind and remember that being your own boss may not be all you think it is in your mind.

You Automatically Have All The Time in the World

One of the biggest reasons people believe they want to be their own boss is because they think it will magically give them more time in their lives and in their schedules. So many people decide that their boss or their work environment is working them way too hard and that they don’t have extra time on their hands because of these controlling factors. Being your own boss will not fix this. It will not give you more time in your day.

In fact, in most situations, transitioning to being your own boss will actually take away a lot of your free time. In fact, in most situations, individuals who transfer from a traditional working environment towards a self-employed one find that all of the demands of running their own business actually means they have far less time on their hands than they ever thought.

You Won’t Have to Make Difficult Sacrifices

Being your own boss doesn’t mean that you all of a sudden get to have your cake and eat it to. There are so many people who think that you won’t have to make any difficult sacrifices if you want to be your own boss. The truth of the matter is, being your own boss is no walk in the park. You are going to have to make a lot of difficult sacrifices if you want to succeed. This means sacrificing your time, quality moments with your friends and family and even some of your personal passions in order to make your business work. If you think you won’t have to give some of these things up, then you are sorely mistaken, as being your own boss is going to require a lot from you.

This all comes on top of the financial sacrifice that many people have to make, especially in the early days of being their own boss. Many times you have to give a great deal of your own money and sacrifice potential income when you are getting started. You will no longer have that steady, reliable paycheck every week when you are starting out and it can be a lot for any person to handle.

You Won’t Have to Be in the Spotlight

If you think you can just put your head down, stay in the background and run a successful business being your own boss, then you are sorely mistaken. If you want to be your own boss, then you have to be willing to put yourself out there and put yourself in the spotlight. You need to be willing to take chances and willing to step up and be the face of your company. After all, you are the only one representing your company if you are your own boss.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can avoid the spotlight and attention by being self-employed. You no longer have others to fall back on when you are your own boss. When you succeed, you get all of the attention and when you fail you have to take all of the responsibility.

Keep these common misconceptions about being your own boss in mind whenever you consider going out on your own. You may have what it takes in order to be a successful self-employed individual, but you need to understand the realities of this type of work before you get started.