Part 2 Business Vs. Job: Should We Go For It?

They say a business owner wears many hats.  It’s true. When you work at a job, you get pretty good at the one thing you do.  But when you run a business, you acquire many new skills. 

A job simply does not let you do that.  If you’re ambitious, you have to hope a boss likes you enough to give you a promotion.  If you say you want to limit your job to maximize free time, your boss will probably send you packing.

When you own a business, you are only limited by your ambition.  If your goal is to become rich, then you can grow your business to meet that goal.  If you want to stay small to maximize your free time, then you can create a business to meet that goal.

In my case, I worked as a writer for one of my former companies.  But when I started running my own company, I became the accountant, marketer, lead salesman, and whole lot more.  I learned more in one year of running my own business than I did working 5 years at a company.

It is true that the income of a job is steadier.  But you can make more money having a business. A business gives you the greatest opportunity to make money. If you work to grow your business, you could earn more money in one day than you did in a whole month working for a company. 

Another thing is that a business rewards your results.  If you’re good at your business, you earn more money from your labors. A job?  You get paid to show up.  And how many of you see that many others do much less work for the same money as you? When it’s your business, you can actually get paid what you’re worth.

This is one of the greatest benefits of having your own business—setting your own schedule.  If you have kids, this is especially important. Now, it’s not always possible to have any schedule.  As I noted in an earlier post, you can be on-call 24 hours a day when you are an owner. But you’re not working all 24 hours. A job means 9-5 (or worse).

These are freedoms a job just does not offer. And if you ask me, this is the #1 reason why your own business is better than having a job. It’s not always about money. It’s about freedom and taking control of your own destiny. A business gives you that freedom.  A job doesn’t.

A business gives you the opportunity to implement your vision.  A job means you have to implement someone else’s vision. Remember the saying: you can’t be more honest than your boss. In fact, the greatest freedom you have is being able to hire whoever you want. Work with the people you want to work with.

With my business, I would drop the kid off at school, go to the gym, and then run some errands.  Shopping at 11AM is wonderful. No one’s there.  Go to the gym at 5:30 and see what happens.  Go to the grocery store at 7:00PM.  D. A business gives you the greatest control over your time because you can get things done while other people are working at their jobs.