I have talked quite a bit about investing on this blog, but seldom my own experience, and how you can start my own businesses. Whilst I have been an investor for over 15 years, I have also been running my own businesses too!
I feel as though I should tell you my upbringing, I didn’t grow up rich, but I wasn’t poor either. My father was a banker, working for KBC Group his whole career, my mother was a secondary school teacher, teaching English, and later French. I grew up in a Belgian city called Ghent, before we moved to Antwerp, and later London, where I live to this day.
I was a good kid, I got good grades, I had a good home life, but I was constantly bored. My parents forced me to learn from the textbook in advance, they wanted me to get the best grades, and thus the best job. Which meant that when we learned something in class, I already knew it, and thus didn’t learn anything.
It broke me after a while, I tried to do other things, but then, I was still bored. Then, I met a friend’s dad, he owned his own business, and his life interested me, so I got a job with him.
He captivated me, and I loved it, I chose to start my own business, and I’ve never looked back. I now have over 10 businesses, I chose to start my own businesses for fun, and now it’s a massive holdings company.
But is it worth starting your own business?
That’s enough about me, this is about you, I told you about myself to show you my opinions. Here are just a few reasons as to why you should start your own business:
Choose your own hours, I understand this is a cliche used by MLM’s to get you to buy into them. But the best reason to start your own business is that you get to work from home, whenever and wherever you want.
Be your own boss, this too is quite cliche, but it is still true. No longer will you have to worry about your arrogant boss that you hate not allowing you that afternoon off. Nor will you have to worry about him rejecting your request for a 1.2% pay rise. If you want that afternoon off, you can have that afternoon off! If you want that 1.2% pay rise, you can give yourself a 3% one if you want!
Make as much money as your heart’s content. When you run your own business, you get special tax benefits. Whilst many will say that businesses pay more in tax, this in fact, is false. Most businesses, mainly corporations can deduct their costs of doing business from their taxable income.
Get fulfillment from your line of work. Most people hate their job, but you don’t necessarily have to. When people start their own business, this becomes their life. You literally eat, breathe and sleep your business. Most business-people love what they do, so most business-people don’t mind that their business is their life.
Do whatever you want (within the confines of the law). If you want the largest office in your office building, you can have it. No longer will you have to fight with your colleagues to get out of your cubicle. If you want to leave work at 3 O’clock to pick up your kids, you can do it, no one can tell you “no”.
Change the world as we know it. Do you remember those old Nokia phones with small buttons for each letter? Now think of the phone in your pocket (or the one in your hand) it’s probably Apple. Apple has revolutionized the cell phone market, who knows, maybe you’ll be the next Apple of your given market!
Be unique, most people work a typical 9-5 job, and absolutely hate it! So when your kid has a bring your kid to school day, and everyone is talking about their boring office job, you can stand out!
Build something from scratch that’s your own. Have you ever made something from scratch when you were a kid, and treasured it? Starting your own business is just the same! The only exception is that your descendants will get to see it for years to come! J.P. Morgan’s descendants can look at the bank today, and say that their relative built it, almost 150 years later!
Delegate tasks that bore you. You’ve probably had a task that you wish you’d rather not do. If you ran your own business, you could delegate these boring to your employees. After all, they’re not going to complain too much…
But what are the downsides when I start my own business?
When people start their own business, they worry about all the bad that might happen. But that is life, yes, it’s unlikely that your first company will become the next Apple, most new businesses fail. But, you become wiser, you learn from those mistakes and you never make them again.
Most people will say that running your own business is expensive, but this is not true. It all depends on your niche, my first business was started with $300 I earned from my job. We have even spoken about small business ideas that cost less than $500 to start up. That’s nothing compared to the latest smart phones!
Most people will also say that your business will force you to quit your day job. This too is completely false! My first business too was ran by me after school everyday, and over the weekends, that was on top of me working my regular job! Thanks to the internet, this has become even easier to do, no matter if you’re 15 or 50!
Conclusion
To conclude, it is definitely worth your time to start your own business! Even if you start your own business and it doesn’t work out, you can go again!
Personally, I have never worked a proper 9-5 job, I hate the idea of it. I like the freedom I have to do whatever I want, whenever I want. Plus, I have no formal qualifications, so I wouldn’t get a particularly good job anyway*.
When I start my own businesses, even now, I never worry about the bad things that will happen. I start my own business, and get on with it, I know that there will be problems. But I cannot control the future (I’d love to, but last time I checked, I sadly do not posses that ability), so I don’t worry.
Will you start your own business? What were the motivators behind you doing so? Tell me in the comments!
(*For reference I dropped out of school at 15 before any official qualifications were done. Mainly because my businesses were doing quite well, and I was bored at school, I’m sorry Mum.)
