Is being self employed for me?

Being self employed can come with some great benefits, like not having to work for someone else or it can offer flexibility to your life and your family but how do you know if its right for you and what things might you consider when deciding?

First of all having a good understanding of why you want to be self employed will help decide if you have enough determination for it or not.  What is your ultimate goal? Is it because you don’t want to work for someone else, because you want to be your own boss or simply because you want to be able to spend more time with your family?

If you can keep sight of your goals or the achievements you want to make, then the chances are; you will have the motivation that is needed to keep you on the right track, even through the toughest of days.

You may have come up with a fantastic idea for becoming self employed but if your heart isn’t in it then you will soon find your motivation start to drift away.  Is your business idea truly doing the things that you enjoy doing? You need to have a passion for what you’re doing and be willing to work extremely hard at it.

No matter how much you think you know already, there will always be new skills to learn when starting up and working in your new business. You have to be prepared to except help sometimes and be willing to learn something new.

You should be able to enjoy growing as the business grows too. You need to be able to learn new things in order to keep up with modern times and carry your business into the future with you.

Things are bound to go a little wrong once in a while, we’re only human after all but it’s how you deal with those problems that will really put you to the test.  Are you really prepared to except ‘the customer is always right?’

Can you except if your business isn’t going too well, are you able to problem solve to find ways to make it better, rather than giving up?

If you’re not planning on taking on lots of staff then being self employed can sometimes become quite lonely and being self motivated becomes a little bit harder.

If you are one of them people that is often quite content in their own company then you probably wouldn’t find this too much of a problem.

No matter who you are, you are likely to need some support at one time or another, whether it be business, family or emotional support. Do you have the right sort of encouragement around you?

Not only support from other people will be needed but it’s also important to be able to support your self emotionally. Do you know when it’s time to take five minutes away from it and have a breather, do you believe in yourself enough to make this happen?

A huge number of businesses fail in their first year of start up simply because their finances are not in order. Are you able to do you own book keeping or afford to hire someone else to take care of that for you?

Have you taken into consideration that your business may well run into some unexpected expenses along the way? It would be helpful if you have a little bit of extra money put aside in case that happens and to ensure that you can still support yourself and your family if times get difficult.

Probably one of the hardest things you will find to do, is being able to switch off from your business and you’ll be tempted to work around the clock. Remember all the reasons why you wanted to work for yourself and that life must still go on outside of your work hours too.

When starting up in running your own business, preparation is key to making it successful, but also knowing when it’s time to ‘stop thinking about it and start doing it’, is as well.  Often if you think about something too much then it becomes really easy to talk yourself out of it, so if you have everything in order and your sure you can do it then what are you waiting for? Life waits for no one!

“If you find a job you love, you will never work again” - Winston Churchill

“I never worked a day in my life. It's not work when you love what you're doing” - David Shakarian

“We work to become, not to acquire” - Elbert Hubbard