When Your Work for Yourself, Do You Really?

The Truth about Working for Yourself

Break the chains! Become self-employed! Start a business! No more bosses. No more pointless meetings. Work when you want and how you want. You decide. Sounds exciting. Wouldn’t it be great to say, “I quit! I’m breaking out on my own. I’m in charge.” Very romantic but not very accurate.

Working for yourself and building a business can have huge rewards - financially and personally. I encourage everyone to investigate starting a business and I also encourage everyone to understand what comes with business ownership.

What is it really like to work for yourself? What is it really like starting a business?

When you work for yourself, you are in charge, but not as you think. You are in charge of satisfying your new bosses. Yes… Your new bosses!

“Wait a minute!” you are thinking. I work for myself. I set myself free.

Now that you are free, free of your old boss, you have replaced this person with dozens of new bosses. Who are these bosses? They come in four groups. Fail them at your peril.

Meet Your New Bosses

1. The Government
When you start a business you must consider the government first. Federal taxes, state taxes, municipal taxes, labor laws, health codes, business licenses are some of the countless ways the government shows you who is boss.

Do you want to do things your way? That’s great as long as you do it the government’s way.

2. Customers
They can hire you and they can fire you. Cater to their needs or you are out. Customers are still much better than your old boss.

In almost any business you will have many customers. It’s unlikely that all of your customers will dump you at the same time. When you had a job there was probably only one person who was directly responsible for your fate. In business, many customers decide your fate.

Customers are the easiest of all bosses to deal with. Offer them good value paired with good service and your chances of success are also good.

3. Employees
“My employees are my bosses? What? I pay them. I’m in charge!” You are in charge, in some ways, but… You do not have absolute control. At times it will feel as if you don’t have any control at all.

For your business to truly excel, you must create a working environment in which you employees want to contribute, not just put in their time so that they can cash a paycheck. You work for them so that they are able to do their work.

If you still don’t believe employees are bosses, be late one day with the payroll and you will understand who’s in charge.

4. Financial backers
Lastly, if you have investors or bankers who have given you money to launch and grow your business, you have just added another layer of bosses.

Your investors want to profit from their investments in your company. To ensure that they profit, the will stipulate how the money is to be used and how it will be paid back. You have to play by their rules.

Money from others always comes with strings attached. Always!

Where You Have Control
Now that you have so many new bosses, it may seem that you have no control whatsoever. You do have control over many critical aspects of the business - product and service, pricing, marketing, and operations. You have control in the areas most people think of when considering starting a business.

The coolest part of working for yourself is that you have total control of how you handle your new bosses.

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Tagged as: business myths, customers, employees, regulations, self-employment, startup