5 Common Myths About Being Your Own Boss: BUSTED

After an hour or two of negotiations with the customer, she took a sigh of relief.

A train of thoughts and a brief glance around made her realize how the room of a promising techie had transformed into that of a budding entrepreneur. 

On a typical day, her “workspace” functions as her bedroom, with inventory tucked in every vacant corner.

Being your own boss seems like a cinematic trailer: making money while working from anywhere (preferably a white sand beach with crystal blue water!).

Although the effort and exertion that go into running a business vary for every entrepreneur, many of the myths about being one are universal.

Myth#1: You = Own Boss

Running your own store or company certainly implies that you take the final call on business decisions. However, it also means you’re the one answerable for those choices; that too not just for one person; you’re answerable to every customer, investor and employee.

When you switch from being an employee to being a business owner, you switch from answering to one boss to answering to everyone. Plus, the ultimate accountability for all things in your business, whether you control them directly or not, shifts to you.

As the business owner, you might have the liberty to dictate your agenda and calendar, but the responsibility for its performance never ends. And, if your business isn’t a cash cow, you’re presumably not making a stable income either — even if it’s because you’re unwell or on holiday or taking a break to start a family.

Myth#2: Recipe = Passion + Good Idea

Simply because you have a great idea or a plan you’re ardent about, doesn’t mean you have a viable idea that others will buy into. The difficulty with the “pursue your passion” anecdote, when you have to start a business, is that it prioritizes what you care about. But driving a business towards affluence relies on rendering a product or service that’s helpful to others. 

Even if you have what you might view as an exceptional idea and a passion to chase it, that doesn’t mean anyone else will perceive it that way, still less be ready to pay for it. That is to say, people don’t pay you to be passionate; they pay you to solve a problem or fulfil their demands. If you fancy building a flourishing business, your locus can’t merely be on your own passions and ideas, it has to be on sufficing your customers.

Only because a founder creates it does not mean customers will follow up to buy it. The conclusion to this saga is that customers will always purchase the best product.

Myth #3: A Lot More Free Time

Although viral success stories of entrepreneurs put business ownership as the key to “time freedom”, the notion that starting your own business is somehow less time consuming than a usual 9 to 5 is deceiving. While you might work different hours, it’s doubtful that you’ll work less — particularly in the first few years of establishing your business.

You don’t own a business, it owns you. If it is best for the business to attend its customers 24/7, it is up to the owner to fulfil that want, even if it means fulfiling it yourself. It’s not rare for an entrepreneur to invest 100 hours a week or cash in their chips for its survival and success.

When you work a 9-5, you’re also expected to get your scheduled paycheck despite how well your company is doing. Policies like sick leave, vacation time and parental/maternity leave can keep the money rolling, even when you’re not working. 

Many employees believe that their boss must be making big bucks. It’s only when they start their own business and see the large number of “mouths to be fed” from the revenue earned, that they realize that net profit margins are thin or non-existent.

Myth#4: A Lot of Money to Start a Business

That really isn’t true. Plenty of businesses can be started virtually without money. You may even get your customers-to-be to fund you.

If you’re careful and take the time to understand your capital and the technology to ease you control it, running a business can result in “financial freedom” and increased earning potential.

When you’re in regular employment and receive a regular salary straight to your bank account, you’re most probably oblivious to the financial complications of running a business. It’s someone else’s duty, most of all.

Contrarily, when you’re a business owner, you’re in command of everything. While it might seem discouraging, whether you’re a builder or a baker, managing the finances is not impossible but quite a difficult task.

You may begin micro-testing your product or service in small lots to compute your growth incrementally. Although big chunks of capital might benefit you faster, sometimes a slow and steady pace can help you secure your business while your profit margins rise.

Myth#5: The right time

False. The only timing that will always be right is now. To tell the truth, several entrepreneurs have started their businesses at the most unfavourable times in history and the most unfavourable times in their personal lives.

American entrepreneur Pat Flynn began his first online business during the time he was sacked from his corporate gig and his wife was pregnant with their first child. Nobody would likely want that high-anxiety period in their life to start a venture, but life leads us where we need to go.

Microsoft was established in 1975, near the end of a recession and then re-incorporated in 1981, just as the recession of the 1980s started off. These two terrible times to start a business didn’t stop Microsoft’s success. No time is ideal — that’s why one must start immediately.