Are you considering going into business for yourself? You have my best congratulations. This is only the beginning of my entrepreneurial hunger.
One possible motivation for venturing out on one’s own is to address a personal or community need or seize an opportunity. You may also be completely confused about the source of this pulling sensation. No problem.
Any reason you might have for wanting to go into business for yourself could be a good one. Every motivation is legitimate, whether it’s to make more money or to break free from the 9 to 5.
Why Start Your Own Business?
If your relatives or coworkers ever wonder what on earth you’re up to, all you have to do is send them this link.
1. Increase Your Income
Your full-time income is probably limited unless you work on commission. Your contribution and performance are irrelevant to your compensation; the only chance to improve your financial situation is to receive a bonus at the end of the year, if any. Plus, even in the most forward-thinking companies, it might take years of loyalty and assimilation into company culture to reach to mid-level management.
You have complete control over your income when you launch your own firm. Looking to increase your amount? Increase your rates or put in more time. Would you like to have more leisure time? Reduce the amount of labour you do and the money you earn.
It’s all up to you. Here are examples of how you can increase your earning potential as a business owner versus a traditional job:
- Start an agency and set your own hourly rates > Asking your manager for an annual salary bump
- Sell your solution and get credit > Solving a problem for someone else’s business
- Become an expert in an industry under your brand > Move up the corporate ladder under one organization
There’s no cap on your salary as a business owner. You can always make more money and scale your business.
2. Be in Command of Your Timetable
Have you had enough of being told when and what to do? Being your own boss means you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. If you want to take Fridays off, sleep in, work half days, or stay up late, that’s your call.
You won’t have much free time in the beginning, but as your firm grows and you learn to delegate, that will change. Feeling overwhelmed by work but yet need to make it to a family event? Swap out one workday for a weekend. Is exhaustion getting the best of you? Do your job from 12 to 8 instead of 9 to 5.
You may be able to reduce the amount of hours you work once you reach a point where you are content with your money. Twenty hours of work each week plus some downtime should be more than enough to support you. The converse is also correct. If you feel the need to immerse yourself in your work and give it your all, that’s totally possible too. You have complete freedom over your timetable.
Even more crucially, you will reap only the rewards of your labour when you establish your firm because of the independence it affords. You have complete say over your destiny, whether that’s founding the next tech behemoth or just starting an agency to free up more time for your loved ones. Your time is money, so make the most of it.
3. Design Your Ideal Workspace
Workplace policies come and go, so don’t let yourself be shackled by them. Working in certain areas is sometimes a requirement of both large enterprises and smaller firms. In the role of business owner, you have the flexibility to work wherever is most convenient for you, be it your home, a shared office, or even a coffee shop. No matter where you are, from the back of an RV on a cross-country road trip to the cliché beach resort (just make sure your laptop doesn’t get sand in it!), you can bring your job with you.
Tell me about your ideal office space. Is there a ping-pong table in the loft? Imagine a massive corner office! Perhaps it’s collaborating in an incubator or shared office?
4. Pursue What You Love
Act on your deepest desires. Do what makes you happy or what matters to you. No emotion is ever inappropriate. Do you long to realise your artistic potential? The path ahead may be steep, but it is your goal to pursue. Aspiring to join the ranks of ski mountaineering guides? Jump in and give it a shot.
Instead of searching for happiness, you can make it happen by launching your own business. Irritating jobs are endured by almost 60% of Americans. Doing something you’re passionate about will save you from falling into this trap. When you reach that point, does it still count as “work”?
Make money doing what you love by following the Ikigai method:
- In what areas do you excel?
- On what do you most rely?
- So, what’s the deal with the market?
- In what ways is that value extracted?
5. Create Job Security
Ascending the corporate ladder is fraught with uncertainty. You can be out of a job tomorrow for reasons beyond your control, such as a change in the economy, a sour boss’s dislike of you, or downsizing.
These monumental choices affect the rest of your life, but when you go into business for yourself, you make them all. Your company might still fail, but you’re not just sitting on your hands; you’re actively shaping its future. You have complete control over your own fate.
On top of that, you will have learnt a tonne of useful things once you’ve established your own company. Your chances of starting a second prosperous business will increase. In the event that everything goes wrong, you will have acquired new skills that will increase your employability.
6. Feel Alive
Being the boss means you get to choose the moments to push yourself and the ones to relax. The day will have its “high highs” and “low lows,” but you get to choose whether it will be exciting or boring. Instead of going through the motions of a typical workday, you’re making the most of every moment.
It is both thrilling and terrifying to launch a new company. After an exciting day, you might not sleep at all one night and then sleep like a baby the next.
Being totally responsible for your money puts a little more on the line every day, for better or worse. Nothing less than stellar performance will do these days, and there’s a certain satisfaction in that.
So, how do you know if you’re feeling alive in your current career? Here are a few indicators we’ve learned about what it means to feel alive as a business owner:
- On Friday evening, you look forward to going to work on Monday morning.
- Your skills are being used to the best of your abilities.
- You’re excited when someone asks, “What do you do?”
- Every day you learn something new.
- You’re the best version of yourself.
If this doesn’t sound like your career right now, then it might be time to take the first step toward feeling alive.
7. Escape the Corporate Rat Race
Get out of here with the corporate red tape. There will be no more faking it to get tenure or wasting time on a dead-end job route. Many people see becoming self-employed as a way to get out of the 9 to 5. Here, you’re not starting a business for the money, the passion, or the freedom it may offer; rather, you’re doing it to escape the rat race.
When your only concern is making sure the shareholders are happy, you can forget about having any real security at all. Whether it’s a pandemic, the economy, or the unemployment rate, being a business owner gives you the opportunity to demonstrate control over your life and work at all times. It is understandable that millions upon millions are relying on side hustles and startups to sustain themselves financially in these uncertain times, given the devastating impact of losing one’s work.
8. Be Your Own Boss
You call your own shots. You get to set the rules. You get to choose everything:
- Who do you work with
- Prices you charge
- Marketing strategies
- Who you hire
- Who you fire
- Where you operate
- When you operate
- How you operate
No one will ever make a thoughtless or cruel choice that could harm you. But now that you’re here, the burden of responsibility is squarely on your shoulders. Being your own boss is a great responsibility, but it’s not without its challenges.
9. Identify Your Life’s Mission
Have you ever walked into work and felt completely aimless? Is making a living your constant goal? Contrary to becoming a workaholic, starting a business can offer tremendous purpose and meaning to your life.
When you find your calling and create a company around it, you’re not just working; you’re living out your passion.
Meaning, that feeling of purpose, motivation, and immense worth, is the result of the collision of freedom, pride, enthusiasm, and commitment. A meaningful existence is something everyone wants, and it doesn’t have to remain a pipe dream.
10. Build Your Own Career
Instead of listening to your boss or HR dictate your professional path, chart your own course. You can change your focus later on, but you’ll start at the very top (hello, CEO). To focus on what truly excites you, you can delegate day-to-day operations to a manager or even engage a chief executive officer to oversee the company.
It’s usual for entrepreneurs to delegate the role of CEO to someone else so they can focus on other interests. You get to choose whether you even want to think about creating your own business, which is the finest part. Some career paths that a business owner can take are as follows:
- Be a lifelong founder and CEO with complete control
- Handoff day-to-day responsibilities to a CEO but still make major decisions
- Build your business so you can exit for a major payday
- Sell your business and start a new business
There are no limits on your career as a business owner.
11. Start From Scratch
There’s something rewarding about building a business from the ground up. Sure, it’d be nice if you could start with a profitable business that’s raking in 6-figure revenue numbers, but where’s the challenge and fulfilment in that? Here are the benefits of starting a business from scratch:
- Create a unique brand identity
- Become a disruptor in a market
- Create a business that aligns with your values
- Reach a new audience
Starting your own business is like staring at a blank wall. Every aspect of the company, from the name to the voice of the brand to the main product, is up for grabs. It’s going to be a wild journey, but you get to choose the direction.
12. Learn New Skills
Whether it was product road planning, email marketing, sales, or headhunting, your previous corporate position probably needed you to excel at one area. You get to be your own boss when you launch your own company.
Gradually, you’ll be able to hand off these tasks to others. But there’s a lot to learn, and from day one, you’ll probably have to wear many hats in the business world.
You will rapidly learn and adapt, even though it may feel overwhelming at times. Along with learning what you want to do and what you hate to do, you will also pick up some new abilities and uncover some latent talents.
You will have the opportunity to quickly explore various career paths and immerse yourself in foreign languages in this role. One day you can find that SEO is your life’s work, and the next you might hate dealing with customers. After trying everything out, you may choose which tasks to retain and which to assign to others.
13. Be Creative
There is no one best approach to managing a company. The existence of tried-and-true methods does not imply that they are the sole path to achievement, though.
Use your imagination. Seek out novel concepts. Enter a realm where no one has ventured before.
Whether it’s in the goods and services you provide or the atmosphere you establish at work, creativity is key. It can be in the rules you follow at work or in the ways you help those in need.
Play around every once in a while; don’t be so serious all the time.
14. Leave a Legacy
While our time here on Earth is limited, a company’s impact can last for decades. Why not establish a long-lasting company if you wish to make a lasting impression?
Your children and subsequent generations will benefit greatly from the security and predictability that a family company can provide. Although mom-and-pop stores are often thought of when people hear the term “family business,” many well-known corporations actually began as family heritage concepts.
Companies like Walmart, Ford, Samsung, Ferrari, Chase, Amway, and The Hershey Company show how a corporation may leave a legacy that affects more than just one family for many years to come.
Leave a lasting impression. Can you establish a dynasty that will last for generations to come?
15. Solve a Need
Many entrepreneurs begin their journey so that they can solve a need they recognize. For example, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia founded Airbnb because they struggled to afford rent in New York City and decided to rent out their floorspace to conference attendees.
What needs do you want to solve? They could be as big as climate change or as tiny as a lack of chicken wing options in your town—each is an opportunity to build a business. Here’s a list of needs and problems you can solve through a business:
- Improve a system in workflow management or manufacturing.
- Create a product that hacks everyday problems.
- Create a product that is specialized for a niche audience.
- Start an agency that helps other businesses in marketing, advertising, or design.
- Build a brand that offers unique content experiences.
- Start the first coffee shop in your small town.
Most importantly, find a problem that you’re passionate about solving.
16. Build a Team
Have you ever pondered the question, “how was that individual hired?” Put an end to asking those enquiries.
When you work for another else, you have no say in the selection of your coworkers. Being a business owner gives you the power to assemble the team you truly desire.
Start assembling the best startup team ever while wearing your “Moneyball” cap. The people you collaborate with on a daily basis will be entirely up to you, and you will have the honour (and weighty duty) of ensuring their financial stability.
As far as team building is concerned, there is no one best approach. Either consult your younger siblings and cousins first or go ahead and hire a web developer you’ve never met.
Assemble new team members when it makes sense, and fire those who are a drain on resources. Recruiting new players is under your purview as CEO and coach.
17. Establish Your Brand
Working for a big company or advertising agency can make you feel like just another part of the machine. When you help someone else realise their dream, your name isn’t associated with the work you do, and your personal brand doesn’t grow.
You can restore your reputation by launching your own business. Your personal brand will expand in tandem with your business. Although it may not be your primary motivation for starting a business, receiving recognition is certainly preferable to a certificate that doesn’t mean anything after another quarter of balanced budgets.
Consider Elon Musk. Not even Tesla or SpaceX can compare to his personal brand. He could launch a completely new, prosperous enterprise using just his name if those companies collapsed tomorrow. Personal branding is powerful in that regard.
18. Because You Want To
That is an adequate justification. An entire book might be written outlining all the reasons why one should start a business, and an equally lengthy book could be written outlining all the reasons why one should not.
It’s simply how things work in life.
Ultimately, it’s never a poor decision to answer the urge to strike out on your own and launch a business. Without leaving your 9 to 5 job, you can always launch a side hustle and grow it with minimal to no risk.
Never undervalue the simple desire to strike out on your own as a valid justification.
19. Give Back to the Community
A shortage of resources is a common cause of the many problems that plague our planet today. If your firm is doing well, you will be able to take action on the topics that matter to you.
Even better, you could adopt a social entrepreneurial stance and redirect your efforts from maximising profit to improving society.
Help young people going through tough circumstances by starting a business or provide support to single parents by launching a venture. In most cases, everyone benefits when individuals choose doing good deeds over generating a profit.
However, doing good can be an afterthought rather than the foundation of your business. A counterargument could be that Facebook isn’t very helpful. But the company does good in the world by donating millions of dollars to organisations all across the globe.
