Grab your checklist for preparing to work from home full-time
I absolutely love being a small business owner. It is the perfect thing for me!
But that’s not to say that owning a business is right for everyone—and it’s not something you should just jump right into. It requires some careful thinking and assessment of your character.
Wondering if you should start your own business? Here are 4 questions you NEED to ask yourself before you make the leap:
1) How much do you enjoy the field that you will be working in?
If, for example, you decide to start your own freelance writing business: how much do you enjoy the actual act of writing?
Also important here is to consider your experience and education. I would actually go so far as to suggest that a love for the field is more important than having a ton of experience; you can build experience and do continuing education after you start your business, but if you don’t have a passion for the work, you’re not going to succeed in your business.
(That being said—it’s important to have some degree of experience and education! Do NOT start your business without any background in the field.)
2) How much do you enjoy the business side of things?
Just as with the first question, you need to enjoy the business side of things if you are going to start your own business! And again, experience and education are important, but they aren’t quite as important as really enjoying it.
You can always learn more, but if you absolutely hate business, you’re going to run into some serious problems.
3) What is your ability to learn new things and manage yourself like?
You have to be your own manager—which means you have to be motivated, disciplined, honest with yourself, and productive.
You also need to be able to learn new things, both in your field and in the area of business. There is so much to learn! If you aren’t open to that, or if you really struggle with learning new things, it’s going to be an uphill journey for you.
Keep in mind that although you can hire other people when you own a small business, you still need to be able to do a lot of things for yourself. You have to be owner / CEO, CFO, secretary, project manager, assistant, etc. Can you juggle all of that? Can you learn how to do these things if you don’t have expertise in them yet?
4) How flexible are you?
Things aren’t always going to go according to plan when you have a small business.
Contracts may fall through, clients will come and go, the direction of your business may change. All kinds of things can happen—it’s an exciting venture in life! You need to be flexible and adaptable to change when you own your own business.
This is really insightful. I think you really have to be passionate about the field in which you own a business or brand, because it’s so much self-motivation!! I couldn’t agree with your points more!
For sure – self-motivation is fundamental to success! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Great tips. I’ve learned the hard way with freelancing that you have to be obsessive about your work to earn anything substantial–and the more you do it, the better you get!
It is definitely a huge time investment! But very well worth it.
Being self-employed it hard. But it gives a flexibility that I cannot achieve any other way.