Employee or Entrepreneur?

Are you ever really your own boss? Is being a business owner better than working a 9-5? I hear a lot of people complaining about working a job and desiring to become an entrepreneur. Being that I’ve had experience in both, I don’t think one is better than the other. Both will have their pros and both come with cons. I want to shed light on my experience with both.
 
Working on a job comes with many positives. There is no overhead for one. You don’t have to pay any expenses, worry about lawsuits, hiring new employees, and making sure everything gets done correctly. Although work may be stressful, it’s nothing compared to being the owner. Most jobs usually have great healthcare benefits. Normally you will get a steady paycheck if you’re the employee. You get retirement after 20 or 30 years. If the company doesn’t make a profit the boss will usually try to pay you to make sure that you don’t quit. With the positives also comes negatives. You may get steady pay, but it’s usually limited to your hourly or salaried pay. If you’re the owner you earn more if business is exceeding expectations. As an employee you have to listen to the boss. You have to do what they tell you. Sometimes this may limit your creativity. You have to provide service to customers or do tasks that you may not agree with if you want to keep your job. You can’t just show up to work when you want to. Usually there’s a certain number of days that you can take off. A promotion or raise is only given if your employer feels the need to, not if you have the required skills to perform the new position.

Now to being an entrepreneur. My experience comes from working with my dad in his logging business and starting my own tree service. It’s truly a great thing, but it may not be for everyone. The great things about it are that you get to make your own schedule and accept clients that you want to. You have to be careful because if your business is doing well, it may cause you to focus too much on making money and neglect spending time with your family. If you feel that something is immoral then you have the control not to do it. You can make $10,000 or a have a really good profit on a good week, but remember you still have expenses to pay: equipment payments, insurance, payroll, gas, etc. Benefits like health insurance will be higher because you don’t get the group rate that larger businesses get. But being an entrepreneur are you really in control of everything? You’re never really your own boss, because you have to listen to the customer’s demands. If I own a restaurant I can’t just fix people’s food how I want to. If I do then I won’t be getting much business. With my dad’s logging business the property owner will tell us what trees to cut and how many. If we don’t obey we’ll be liable for paying for our mistakes. If we damage property we have to pay for that. In the service industry your customer is your boss. Depending on what kind of business you have, demand for it will be seasonal. For example, logging in the winter months it gets muddy in the woods so you can’t work as much. You can go from making that $10,000 to not even $1000 but your expenses are still the same. You have to save money from when business is booming for those slow seasons. A breakdown can cost anywhere from $50 to $5000+. You never truly get time off work. Either you’re trying to attract new clients or are trying to fix equipment. Usually you won’t make much money starting off because you have to buy equipment. Then if you’re not careful you may not make any when it’s paid off if your equipment gets worn down and starts needing repairs. There’s definitely a lot that goes into running your own business. Getting in it thinking that you'll become rich is the wrong mindset. That may happen for you, but you should do it because it's something that you enjoy doing and will allow you to show your own creativity. If you desire to become a business owner, don't be afraid to step out on faith and pursue that dream. But know that it will come with challenges.

I don’t want to discourage anyone from one or the other, but I want to make you aware of the sacrifices of each. Me personally, I like doing both. I like the benefits of not having all of the responsibility working a 9-5 and the freedom to work my own schedule and use my own creativity as an entrepreneur. One isn’t better than the other and we can’t look down on people who don’t desire to be entrepreneurs. Both of them are of equal importance. Whatever you choose, do you best to work diligently and provide great service.