Do you really want to become an entrepreneur?

‘I wanted to be my own boss’ this is the most common reason most people give for quitting their ‘9 to 5’ job and becoming an entrepreneur. But being your own boss is not as simple as it seems. Along with it come a lot of responsibilities, which are not so exciting. As an entrepreneur who does not want to become an employee you must be aware of them; after all you do not want to get caught in the cobweb.

Self-motivation – Most of the time it’s the fear of being late for work and getting a salary deduction that makes you get out of your bed in the morning; projects are completed on time because the boss will ask for reasons for not meeting your deadline. But when you are on your own there will be a lot of liberties. Whether you take advantage of it or disadvantage will depend on you. Avoid becoming lazy and not assessing your performance regularly. You must strictly discipline yourself.

Building credibility – If you are young or fresher in your industry, you m ight not be known to many people and hence with no credibility in the market. There might be big players, who can pose competition. These were things you hardly thought about as an employee but now they will be determining factors of your business.

Loneliness – No matter how big a loner you are, the loneliness of an entrepreneur is something only those with experience can understand. If you do not have somebody to share your vision the walk along the entrepreneurial journey becomes even more difficult. Those with business partners are not so vulnerable but others are.

No steady income – You must be mentally prepared to give up the security of a regular pay-check. Their might not be any income for quite long durations. You might be left with just your savings and no clients. But do not lose hope. Think of solutions. 

Work schedule – The work schedule of an entrepreneur is never predictable. It might be months before you can spend an entire weekend with your family. An emergency can keep you from family functions and sick leaves.  

Erratic schedule – “At 7 in the morning my delivery boy called up to say that he won’t turn up for work. Being a start-up I do not have a back-up. In the day I had an important meeting with a client which could not be rescheduled. To add to all this the Internet connection at my office was not working. And I am the only one who had to take care of all these. As an employee I had never thought about these things; Internet failure meant calling up the IT department and there would be other delivery boys to take care if one did not turn up,” says Ashish Jain, who has just started his own company.

It is not an easy ride that you are planning to undertake. But what’s the fun in taking a ride which is not challenging!