Being your own boss

Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? You make your own hours, set your goals, achieve them, and grab a martini to celebrate at the end of a short but satisfying day.

Or, you know, not.

The reality is that when you are entangled in an entrepreneurial life, there’s never a right time — for anything. There’s no right time, because there’s no time (and usually no money, either). For having kids, for buying a house, for getting a dog, for taking a vacation, for going out to dinner. Planning becomes difficult when income (if it exists at all) is insecure and savings are usually (to put it gently) unsubstantial. No matter how loudly private life calls out for investment — of time and of money — the business screams even louder in its demands for both. An entrepreneurial life becomes all about postponing — “When we break even…,” “When we get that contract…,” “When we hire that salesperson…” — ah, yes, that’s when our lives can move ahead.

When you are your own boss, you are the one in charge of figuring out where your next meal is coming from. There’s no handy drone in the HR department cutting your bi-weekly paycheck. You can’t make a budget in May and expect it to be valid in December, since half your clients will be scarce around Christmastime.

As a freelance writer, everything is feast or famine. There are months when I have too much to do that I end up outsourcing some of it. And other months where I am sitting on my hands, praying for work. Some clients pay on receipt of a job – others are Net 60. How do you plan around that?

Some people choose to put their lives on hold for a few years while they get set up. Others refuse to live like that. It really all depends on how thick your skin is and how much sleep you want to get.

As the author of the quoted article points out, some things can’t be put off. A woman can only put motherhood off for so long before that window closes forever. You can only put off saving for retirement for so long before you actually reach retirement age. Time doesn’t stop just because you’re trying to make your business profitable.

Many thanks to @missusP on Twitter for pointing this article out to me.