I am self-employed and on the whole, I love it — I wouldn’t trade it for anything. There are distinct pros and cons of owning your own business, however. Here are a few to consider before you start your own business.
Pros:
Being your own boss. Well, you probably guessed this already. Many people work best when they are self-regulating, and of course there is always the flexibility that being self-employed offers — in many cases, if you need to rearrange your schedule to make time for a doctor’s appointment or an event at your child’s school, you can!
Having greater income opportunities. When you own your own business, you don’t have to wait for a penny-pinching manager to decide to give you a raise. In general, your income is a direct result of how hard you work to grow your business!
Working from home…or wherever you please! Not all small business owners can work from home, but many can. If you can, count yourself lucky — this is one of the best advantages of being self-employed!
Cons:
Long hours. Most startup businesses require a lot of work before they become established. During this initial stage, many small business owners don’t have the money to outsource certain tasks, and end up putting a lot of long hours in. If you can make it through this, however, the result is usually quite rewarding!
Lack of flexibility. Yes, I know I listed flexibility as a pro — but sometimes small business owners find that there’s a lack of flexibility. If you have a store, for instance, you will be bound to store hours. You should keep this in mind when looking at franchise opportunities. Are the store hours something you can commit to?
Vulnerability to the market ups and downs. As an employee, you have to worry about layoffs during periods where the market is slow — but at least then you get unemployment benefits. As a small business owner, you will need to be able to ride the slow times as well as the busy periods. For instance, people who run eBay stores face periods where everything sells really well, as well as periods where sales grind almost to a halt. This requires the ability to plan ahead and always keep some emergency funds in the bank.
I love being self-employed, but realistically it’s not for everyone. Consider the pros and cons carefully before making a decision!
A few years ago, a laptop belonging to the college I had graduated from was stolen. A staff member had taken it home with them, only to have their apartment burglarized. Unfortunately, the laptop contained sensitive information on students dating back 10 years, meaning that a whole lot of students could potentially be victims of identity theft.
Since then, I’ve been a little more cautious about protecting my identity. Most credit cards now offer protection against identity theft, and it’s not too difficult to prove that a new card opened up in your name wasn’t actually opened by you. The problem is all the hassle of having to do this, and the possibility of frozen accounts, debt collectors, and other financial troubles until you get it all sorted out.
Here are some of the things I do to protect my identity now:
Shred sensitive documents before throwing them away. We have one of those home shredders, but eventually I want to upgrade to something a little nicer — not homeland security shredders or anything, but something that will shred in both directions for greater security. i Shop Shredders has a pretty good selection, I think.
Keep an eye on my credit report. In Colorado I get a free credit report every year — not to check my score, but to see what is listed on my report. If I see anything that shouldn’t be there, or an account that I have but that is reported inaccurately, then I’m right on it!
Check my financial accounts online and frequently. No more paper statements for me! Not only are electronic statements environmentally friendly, they also offer greater security because they can’t be stolen out of your mailbox!
Taking certain precautions is important because it dramatically reduces your chances of being a victim of identity theft. Don’t let those dirty thieves get you!
You’ve heard of the proverbial "water cooler" — a place in the office where all the employees gather to gossip during the day. This place doesn’t always have to be a water cooler, though. It’s usually just someplace where people tend to go periodically throughout the day. It could be work related — for instance, the room where you keep fax machines, printers, copiers, or electric paper cutters. It could also be someplace the employees visit on short breaks, such as the bathroom, water fountain, kitchenette, break room, or coffee maker.
It’s good for employees to have an opportunity to destress and chat a little bit throughout the day, but of course you’ll want to make sure it doesn’t get out of control. If you start noticing that people are gathered at your office’s version of the water cooler almost continuously throughout the day, it’s probably either time to set and enforce some rules, or to call a staff meeting.
Here are some examples of things you could do to prevent gatherings like these from interfering with work productivity:
Put fax machines, paper cutting machines, etc. someplace that is highly visible. Employees are less likely to congregate if they are in plain view — particularly of their supervisors!
Or, you could put machines like this in a room that requires a badge to electronically unlock the door. This way there is a sense of being monitored, which may prevent employees from lingering too long. This is an especially good idea if you have expensive equipment that you don’t want to be subject to coffee spills or personal use, such as paper stack cutters.
Send a questionnaire around asking employees about their opinions on their work hours, break times, etc. Sometimes the problem may be as simple as your employees feeling overworked. A different break policy could resolve the problem.
I’ve thought long and hard about how I’ll promote my book when I get it published. (Contrary to popular thought, traditional publishers don’t typically do a lot to promote your book unless you are already successful. Therefore, whether you are publishing traditionally or self-publishing, a lot of the promotion falls on you.)
Here are some of my thoughts:
I’ll have a website for the book. I already have a writer’s website, but I want the book to have its own website. However, just posting a website isn’t enough — you have to be proactive about getting the word out. A website can quickly get buried among all the other websites out there, so in order to generate a higher search engine ranking…
I’ll have a blog on my website. This will be updated regularly, which will help in several ways: It’ll boost my search engine rankings, help to keep readers coming back, and (hopefully) generate contextual links to my blog and/or website from other people’s blogs.
I’ll write press releases about my book. This is a dual marketing effort: I’m trying to get mentioned in the media, but I’m also using it like many online marketers’ link building compaigns. The more links point back to my site, the more popular it will seem to the search engines, and therefore the more useful and relevant they will assume it is.
I’ll write marketing articles on topics related to my book. These can also be excerpts published for free on other sites. The idea is the same as the press releases: To increase visibility, but also to increase my link popularity. This is another approach that is often used by a search engine marketing company.
I’ll know when to let someone else take over. Of course, all this takes time. And if everything goes as plan, I’ll be successful with my first book and be working on my next book, so I’ll want to make sure I have enough time to devote to that. If it comes down to it, I’ll need to be willing to find an Internet marketing service to take over all of these tasks, freeing me up to do other promotion such as book signings and still have enough time to write.
