I spend a lot of time looking at the doom and gloom side of the small business world. Today, I’m going to take a break, and talk about all the fantastic things about that come with owning your own business. So here is my list of reasons you should consider working for yourself!
1) Flexibility – I take my kids to school, pick them up, and run them around town. While that may not seem like the most important time in the world, last year I found it actually was. Walking home from school, my daughter would tell me about her friends (which was awesome), but also about tell me about the kids at school that were not so nice. Those are things we can’t always predict our kids from, but we can teach them how to navigate through those types of things. And guess what? That’s generally above a babysitters pay grade. So yeah, flexibility.
2) Unlimited Upside – If you kill it and bring in lots of business, the rewards are yours to reap. No more hoping that you performed well enough to warrant a good bonus or pay raise. Personally, I have always been like that dirt mule with a carrot. Unless that carrot is dangling directly in my face, I’m just not motivated. Being a business owner always requires me to push ahead because there is no guarantee of a salary unless I make it happen.
3) No corporate politics – I don’t have meetings or bosses. Sure, I have client’s who are basically a boss, but I don’t have anyone breathing down my neck to get an Offer In Compromise submitted, or to respond to an SBA request for information (that I already gave them three times!)
4) Pride of building something from scratch – One thing I’ve always been really proud of is that I took an idea, and from that have been able to generate a living. Since I’ve never been able to replicate that with any other ventures, I’ve come to appreciate what I built even more. It’s an amazing feeling. Sure, some of it was just luck. Being at the right place at the right time definitely helped, but I’m still dang proud of the business that I’ve built and all the people I’ve helped with their SBA default situations.
5) No commute – I work from home, and it’s pretty awesome. Especially in my area, most people spend an hour or more commuting to New York City. That’s generally an hour each way. This means I have 2 extra hours every day to spend with my kids, but also two less hours of white knuckle driving, train delays, and stress.
6) Puppy Power – Since I started working from home full time in 2011, my golden retriever Daisy has been my constant companion. On most days we talk a nice long walk (always striving to get my 10,000 steps!) and she loves each and every minute of it. We have friends down the street who say they wish they could get a dog because they love dogs, but with their work schedules, it just wouldn’t be fair to the dog to be stuck at home. Daisy has never known a life where she has to sit home alone day after day. She has a great life, and I could not imagine having to be away from her for 10 hours per day.
7) Exercise – On days when I have no client calls or files to work on, I get lots of exercise. My desire to exercise comes and goes, but at the very least I can get out for an hour or two, listen to my favorite podcast and enjoy being outside.
