Why do you want your own business?

28 Apr 2018

There is plenty of writing that talks about the hows of business. What interests me and what I think is often overlooked are the whys.

I spend a lot of time thinking about the whys and continually consider them, while making decision. Here, I want to put them down in writing.

My goal is to examine the reasons why one might want to be a business owner. My wish is that it helps the reader reflect on their own reasons.

I think that’s it is best to think about and resolve the points mentioned here before you start taking action towards building a business. The list is important because it probes the foundational values of your business. It is possible to just go ahead and jump right in, but sooner or later one will reach a point where you will have to decide whether you should go one way or the other. I wish you the very best in this this journey.

Here are just some plausible reasons for wanting to own your own business:

1.You want to be your own boss: Yes, it is plausible and quite likely that you are not able to perform at your full potential in a salaried job. Things outside of your control are limiting you in achieving your dreams.

On the face of it, this looks like an excellent reason, however keep in mind, that when you own your own business, your customers will be your bosses. They will expect your product or service to deliver value to them and will hold the purse strings.

Yes, certainly, you will have the “freedom” to choose aspects of how you run your business. Be sure to make a list of the freedoms that are important to you. Write them down in a list, from most important to least important and when it’s decision time about what business path to take, make sure your decisions are consistent with what you care about.

2.You want to make 100 times more money: Yes, another excellent reason to start your own business. Salaried jobs are unlikely to result in such high returns. Running your own business certainly opens the doors that allow for this result.

However, it’s possible that the opportunities and trade-offs in your business that open the door to grow 100 times, might come with requirements that might conflict with your other desires from your work.

This is okay, just be aware of what you are trading off. Sometimes, it’s possible to overlook cometing trade-offs for a short duration. In the long-run going against what’s important to you, will likely cause frustration.

3.You don’t want to work more than 4 hours a week: Yes, it’s is possible to build a long-term sustainable business working 4 hours a week. However, reaching a level of automation that allows you to put in minimal effort, will require you to build a deep understanding of your customers, their needs, a product that can be delivered and consumed with minimal time effort on your part. You will also be required to find a business that satisfies these qualities while providing sufficient returns for your effort.

4.You want to be in control: This is a very common reason for people wanting to start their own business. However, if you reflect on it, you will start to see similarities between this reason and the first reason, “you want to be your own boss”. It is quite possible that you can be in control of certain aspects of how the business is run. Ultimately, your customers, your employees will play a part in the success of your business, in doing so, they will take away control from you.

At it’s core, running a businesses involve making trade-offs about which aspects you want to be in control and which ones you want others to control.

In fact this is true for both enterpreneurs as well as employees. It is up to you to decide how control should given and responsibilty accepted. The most important thing is to do it with thought and care, because happiness of your future self depends on this in a way that might be hard to imagine today.

Keep in mind that:

1. What’s important is that you think about note of this list.
2. It’s okay to change your mind.