From the category archives:

Career

Are you Sure you Want to be Your Own Boss?

What is the #1 thing that it seems that most entrepreneurs say they love about being self employed and also the #1 thing that most aspiring entrepreneurs point to as being the best part about the “job” of being an entrepreneur? The fact that you get to be your own boss! While this certainly sounds like a great thing are you really 100% sure that you want to be your own boss? For me the answer is a resounding yes. That being said, there are certainly some very important things to keep in mind before you jump out on your own and think that being your own boss is all rainbows, cotton candy, and lollipops. As someone who has had many different bosses over the years while working for “the man” and as someone who has been their own boss for the last 6 years here are a few observations to consider.

The Pressure is All on You

If you love pressure then you will love being your own boss. If you break out in a cold sweat just thinking about your company’s current ratio tanking and potentially not being able to meet payroll, or pay the business credit card balance off, or having to not pay yourself a salary while your startup company is just getting off the ground then guess what? Many first time business owners find themselves in that scenario over and over until either their cash flow situation stabilizes or they go out of business. When you are your own boss the pressure is all on you. Some people love the pressure and some people get paralyzed under the weight of the pressure. Being the boss is not for everyone.

No One Tells You What to Do

“Yes!!! No one is telling me what to do! I am my own boss! I can do whatever I want! Yesss!!!” …. “Wait… what am I supposed to do exactly and how am I supposed to do it?” If you are someone who just simply works better when someone else lays out a clear plan of action for you with specific tasks to accomplish then you are probably not cut out for being the boss and especially not cut out for being your own boss.

Being your own boss means that you often have to make order out of disorder, deal with ambiguity, and make tough decisions on a daily basis. If you are not a highly motivated person that is comfortable with attacking projects and tasks where there is a lot of uncertainty about how to accomplish the task then welcome to being your own boss and starting a company where you are often learning many new things as you go (paying taxes, health insurance benefits, business licenses, etc.).

Yes, it is important to rely on trusted outside advisors and the more you learn then the more experienced you become but the fact remains that if you are unwilling to be self motivated and constantly learning then you may not be so thrilled with being your own boss as you maybe think you might.

You Have to Pick up the Slack, Jack

In the corporate world when things go wrong then you likely turn to your superior for guidance, assistance, and maybe even a little good old fashioned “cover your rear” precautionary “if something goes wrong then it’s not my fault” evasive maneuvers that one sees so often in corporate America. Well, if you are your own boss then there is certainly none of that because when things go wrong then the cleanup usually falls right at the big boss’s feet (Hint: If you are your own boss then that’s you). It’s up to you and you alone and that can be either a good thing or a bad thing. Your company may have great customer service and that is a good thing but when things go bad in a small business then it’s usually the boss and not one of the underlings that has to make things right.

So – Do YOU Really Want to be Your Own Boss?

I love being my own boss but it’s certainly not for everyone as there are both pros and cons to being your own boss. What about you? Do you want to be your own boss? Do you think that you are cut out for being your own boss? If you already are you own boss then what other pros and cons to being your own boss do you have?

This was a guest post by Joel. Joel is a CFP® and serial entrepreneur that loves working for himself (although he sometimes gets sick of how “his boss” makes him work such long hours). He has been working lately on a website for comparing insurance providers and also a website for comparing car insurance companies.

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How Much do you Take for Granted?

Last week I found myself watching the show Undercover Boss. It is where corporate executive go undercover within their organizations to get a better idea of how their business is really operating. The show is a little bit cheesy but the idea of sending a CEO “undercover” in an organization is pretty solid. Think about the CEO of the company you work for, if you even know who he/she is, and you can imagine how out of touch that person really is with the day to day operation the company. It is the nature of business that upper management becomes concerned with the bottom line and efficiency while losing touch with the regular employee.

Last week the show featured the CEO of 7-11 who was working undercover as a new employee at different jobs in 7-11. He grew some stubble and then went to start work as a stock boy, night shift clerk, warehouse worker, and delivery driver. Not surprisingly each person he met and worked with had a touching backstory, the delivery driver he worked with was Igor from Kazakhstan. The following clip from the show is Igor’s segment, I don’t know why but this piece moved me.

Now think about someone you know, or hell even yourself, doing this job. Most likely you would resent the company for keeping you away from your spouse and making you work long hours. You would complain about this that and the other. This guy gets it, he is the happiest guy in the world and he is a delivery driver for 7-11 who sees his wife two days a week. This guy doesn’t complain about his hours, bitch about his pay, or complain at all. Why is he so happy? Because he has freedoms and the ability to earn that he never had before. He said it himself when he told the CEO “America is the best country in the world, you guys just don’t really know how blessed you are.” He couldn’t have said it better. Americans have gotten to a point where they feel they are entitled to this, entitled to that. We complain when things aren’t pretty and perfect but fail to realize how good we really have it.

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When Opportunity Knocks, Open the Damn Door!

Seriously, if opportunity comes knocking open the door and quit trying to figure out why. That is what everyone tells you to do anyway. I am personally of the belief that opportunity does not come knocking on your door. Opportunities are something you make as a result of your actions and choices in life. Everything we do drives us towards our future, and what we choose today will have an effect on what happens tomorrow. The “opportunity” to become wealthy isn’t going to fall out of the sky one day, we have to make that opportunity happen.

Think about this, how often does someone say “The opportunity to become a millionaire just fell in my lap and I took it” more likely it is “the opportunity to steal a million dollars presented itself and I took it.” You see fraud is a crime a of opportunity, someone realizes the chance of getting caught is less than the trouble to take the money. The opportunity exists for them to take the money and they do. This isn’t how things work in real life. You are 1,000,000 times more likely to get caught committing fraud if you have to create the opportunity, in life you have to create your opportunities. The point I am trying to make is that in most instances when an “opportunity” presents itself to you the consequences are most likely not to your liking. On the other hand if you work to create opportunities for improvement your success will also increase.

Living the American dream is a perfect example of creating your opportunities. Have you ever noticed that the owner of your mom and pop gas station is there every day from open to close? They are creating their opportunities by working their butts off to live their dream. They didn’t wake up one day and say man I hope an opportunity presents itself today, they worked their asses off, and do it every day. Stop waiting for your opportunity to present itself, get out there and create it, TODAY!

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Organize Your Office

December 10, 2009

One of the key pieces to getting your daily work accomplished is maintaining and organized workspace. Whether you work from home or work in the office being organized is crucial to maintaining a productive work environment. Your workspace not only says a lot about you but it has a direct effect on HOW you operate. [...]

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When Do You Stop Looking for a Career and Take a Job

December 9, 2009

Lets start with some simple definitions: A job is work you do to earn a wage but you don’t see yourself pursuing as a permanent line of employment a means to reach you desired job. A career is work you do to earn a wage where the work is related to your desired job or [...]

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