The hustle and bustle of the work world has never agreed with me. That is why I decided to go into business for myself. It was the best and worst decision that I ever made. There have been a number of benefits to working for myself, but the road has been bumpy. The lessons I have learned are priceless though. I quit my full-time job in 2009 in order to write online articles from home. Working for myself has proven to be a challenge, yet I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
Things I have learned from working for myself:
Medical Benefits- I have learned that medical benefits are very expensive to obtain when working for yourself. The expense is too much to handle most of the time and I have not had any benefits since leaving my full-time job. If I get sick, I am in big trouble. That is something for others to consider when deciding whether to go into business for themselves.
Work Schedule- My work schedule gets interesting sometimes. Given the nature of my work, I can work any hours that I choose. The problem is, there are many interruptions during the day. I rarely get all the work done that I need to in a regular work day. I usually have to work throughout the evening and sometimes throughout the night to make it work. Many people do not understand that I still work during the day, I just don’t leave the house to do it. Although I can change my schedule on occasion if necessary, I find that I have to change it all the time because people need me to do other things. Even after all this time, I have not learned to stay on task.
Family- My family is the most important thing in the world to me. I have been able to do more for my family since quitting my full-time job. I was able to spend more time with my father who was dying of kidney failure. I am able to help my daughter with her kids so she can go to work and not worry about who is going to watch her kids before and after school or on snow days and holidays. In short, running my own business has allowed me to be much more flexible than I could have been working outside the home.
Money- I have learned that running my own business means there are times of feast and times of famine. There are months that I have more work than I can handle. On the other side of the coin, there are times that I am scraping to find enough work to survive. The lesson from this is that it is important to budget. Changes occur quite frequently in the type of business I run. Those changes are not always good.
Running my own business has been both a blessing and a curse. There are good things and bad that go along with it. I have found that the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. It has been well worth the effort. I was able to make one of my dreams come true through this experience.
If you decide you want to go into business for yourself, be prepared with a backup plan in case things do not go quite as you have planned. The economy is tough. Do not give up a good job to start your own business without a good business plan and extra money to back you up in sparse times.