Some people are born entrepreneurs. They started their first business as children or teenagers and have never looked back since. It is in their blood. They have never taken up a regular job, and have always worked for themselves. Some others were forced into entrepreneurship because they found themselves suddenly without a job, and needed to find a way to make money during that time.
Starting and running your own business is not a walk in the park. It involves high risk, a lot of time, dedication, patience and hustle. You have to be willing to do what 98% of the population would not do, so that you can be among the 2% of people who would like to work.
Starting your business is a rewarding experience and has so many benefits. I would like to warn you afore hand that If you are not ready to put in work, please do not start a business. If you are not prepared to fail, then keep thumping at your day job. You are better off in your safe zone.
Why is now a good time to start a business? Across the world, thousands of people are constantly changing or losing their jobs. A lot of employees are dissatisfied with their job. They are unhappy and grouchy and this tends to spill over into their personal life and relationships. Here are eight reasons why entrepreneurship is so great.
1. You won’t get fired.
About fifty years ago, the traditional route was to go to school, get a job, and retire. The job would take care of you for your entire life. Now it’s the opposite, a lot of companies are constantly downsizing. You are living in a world of fear of the unknown because you do not know if you would have a job when you walk into the office the next morning. Everybody has 24 hours every day. Do you realize that you are trading your hours to someone else who is getting richer off of you?
You’re Fired !
Statistics show that by the year 2020, half of the workforce would be freelancers. One can already see this emerging with the help of the internet providing websites that host freelancing gigs such as Upwork, 99 designs, Amazon, and fiverr. More people are choosing to work from outside the traditional workplace and earn money. It is now easier to engage with people from anywhere around the world to work collaboratively on projects and tasks. Some business owners work in the United States, but their virtual assistant is in the Philippines.
Some people choose this route on their own for the freedom, while others have been forced into it due to the straining economy. When you work for yourself, you are your own boss. When the economy is down and business is not doing great, you are sure that you would still have your job. The company will not let you go because they are trying to curb costs.
According to Jeff Goins, the best way to keep a job is not to rely on only one job, acquire more than one skill, mix and match the skills with your talents and passion with the constantly-changing economy. This will ensure that you are well rounded and can adapt easily.
As the boss, you are incharge of all the decisions and can do and undo.
In a research carried out TNS Custom Research, out of 3000 partipants, “personal independence and Self-fulfillment” was the major reason (54%) people would like to work for themselves, followed by “freedom to choose place and time”, surprisingly, only 9% of people said “better income prospects” was a motivator to start their own business.
2. Freedom.
When you are an entrepreneur, you decide your work hours. You decide how much time you want to spend with your friends and family. The regular 9 to 5 does not hold for you. Flexibility is your friend. You get to spend more time on what really matters to you. Although in the beginning, you may have to work very long hours to get your business off the ground, which means that you will have less time. As the business grows and you employ people to take over key positions, you free up more time for yourself to focus on the aspects of the business that you enjoy. You also have more time to spend with family. You decide when you want to go on vacation. Your life becomes more wholesome because there is a semblance of the constantly elusive balance.
3. Happiness and Satisfaction
Entrepreneurs on average work longer hours, and receive less income than people who work for others, but are generally content and happier. Research carried out by the Pew foundation showed that 39% of entrepreneurs are happy with their job compared to 28% of employees. This satisfaction does not stem from only money. It was reported that you would have to pay an employee twice as much as an entrepreneur earns to achieve the same level of satisfaction. The satisfaction that self-employed people enjoy also spills over to other parts of their life, making them happier people.
Happiness and Satisfaction
Jane* was a successful accountant at a large firm. She was very good at it but was frustrated at work, even though she was earning a 6-figure income. She worked long hours and was angry a large amount of the time. Her temper was quick and according to her subordinates, not a very nice person to work for. She also suffered from constant headaches. Her frustration at work was taking its toll on her relationship with her husband and two young children.
She finally decided to leave her prestigious job to focus on her freelancing and consulting business she had started on the side. When the business picked up, she employed another accountant, and was able to free up more time to focus on the things that really mattered – her family. She became happier and fun to hang out with. Headaches no longer bother her. She started coaching people on how to transition from employee status to business person.
4. Large array of skills
In the beginning of building the business, it requires one to learn a large number of skills that they would not have learnt otherwise. The Entrepreneur has to be a marketer, accounting, salesperson, writer, SEO expert, strategy invoicing, communication and so many other skills, particularly when the business is boot-strapped. These skills enable the individual grow the business until they can afford to hire other people to carry out the tasks they do not enjoy doing, so that they can focus on growing the business.
5. Build Wealth
As an entrepreneur, you have a chance to slowly build wealth and not just income. You are solely in charge of your cash flow and what you direct it towards. When you set up a business system, which means the business can run on its own in your absence. As an employee, you are exchanging your time for money. That means if you are out of a job for some reason, then you do not get paid. But when you can set up your business, and automate it, you can walk away for a day or two and will still get your money. Put people who know what they are doing in charge of things and check in when required.
Build Wealth not Income and leave a Legacy. Source:creditdonkey.com
When you trade time for money, you are limited by what you earn. There are only 24 hours in a day. Most people sleep for 8 hours, commute for 2 hours and use the rest to eat, exercise, relax and so forth, leaving only 8-12 hours for work. No matter how much you get paid per hour, you have a limit: time. Time caps the amount of income you can earn because it is finite. You could also ask for a raise, but not all the time. You could get promotions as well, but employee tax is pretty high, so you are taxed for more, when you get paid more money. Bummer! If you are out of a job for some reason, then you do not get paid.
Relying on income alone is obviously not the way to go if you really want to build wealth. Entrepreneurship is an avenue to stop you trading hours for money. It removes the time cap and you can start earning money 24 hours a day, even when you are asleep. Here is where product based businesses have the upper leg over service based businesses for a solopreneuer.
6. Leave a Legacy
Matthew is the Vice-President of a fortune 500 company. He earns a lot of money, travels around the globe, has a large home and mingles with the rich and famous. When Matthew retires, his kids will not take over his position in the company. They may have company stock, but that is about it. The company will not belong to them. The position is handed over to someone else
Bill’s successful company was founded 20 years ago. He retires in two years. His son and daughter will continue to run the company. Their young kids help out at the office after school and during the summer, and they plan to hand it down to them. It is challenging but also rewarding. Bill has left a legacy for his children to inherit. His family’s future has been altered. His kids and grandkids learn entrepreneurial skills simply by observing because that is their reality.
L’oréal S.A., the world’s largest cosmetics company was founded by Eugène Schueller. His daughter, Liliane Bettencourt inherited the company when he passed away. She started as an apprentice at the company. According to the Forbes 2016 edition of “The World’s Billionaires”, Liliane is the richest woman on earth, valued at more than US$ 40 billion dollars. Bettencourt along with her daughter, son-in-law and grandson have served on the board of directors of L’oreal. Since 2012, her grandson, Jean-Victor was appointed board director.
The family tree was changed positively because Eugène a chemist turned entrepreneur started his own company. One can only imagine how different their lives may have been if he did not take this monumental step towards becoming a founder.
7. Improve the community: Provide Jobs
When your business begins to grow and expand. More hands will be needed on deck. You will be able to open up job opportunities for individuals. It may be job opportunities in your local community where individuals work on site, for example warehousing. It could be an offsite job for example designing your website or mobile application. Whatever the case, you are creating job opportunities.
Internet giants, Google.inc. was founded by two Stanford University Ph.D. students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. They started with one employee and reportedly have over 57,000 employees in over 40 countries. That means that they are providing for 57,000 families across the globe. They are impacting on the lives of individuals and communities.
8. Become a Mentor
Mentorship is another way that you can give back to your community after becoming successful. Your advice and experience could be the difference between a person’s success or failure. There is not enough good mentors to go around. Having mentees ensures that your lessons, successes and failures are not lost. It affords an opportunity to pass down knowledge and create lifelong friendships.
Becoming an entrepreneur is a very rewarding endeavor. There are so many reasons why one should consider starting their business. It does not have to be a big enterprise. Start small and see where it goes from there. You just might be surprised.
“The true Entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.”
-Nolan Bushnell
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