Being your own boss can be terribly appealing, but remember that now your success is your responsibility. Entrepreneurs are baby business owners and stereotypical job situations happens in their arena just as often as anywhere else. Success can be defined in any particular way, so try not get caught up in someone else’s version of ideal. The essential first step is to decide what successes and accomplishments you actually want. A collection of 1000 surf boards, 50 gold bricks, three paid off homes in non tax countries, time and income for charity work and so many more ideas are possible.
The approaches to being your own boss are diverse and your personal best fit is the place to begin. It is complicated because of all of the factors involved: skills, goals, preferred timeline, industry of choice, location, lifestyle, social situation and personality must each be factored in and accounted for. Depending on your location and lifestyle costs, a side hustle could easily be your only job and cover costs. For example living costs in some states such as Florida can be much lower than in other locations such as say, New York City. You could live on the beach and spend most of the time surfing without necessitating a grand new career. Or maybe you have an organic farm and with quiet in the winter months and want to open a seasonal Etsy store as a side hustle for better cash flow. The beginning for starting tends to have a slow period, how long that is depends on the dynamics of what you are beginning. You might start a company, become a freelancer or work to create passive using a blog through advertising, books, products or services.
Consider first your long term goals. Do you want this to last and build income for longer than five years? What do you want or are you willing to do in terms of money, time and building? If your idea is a bit specialized or seasonal it may be closer to a side hustle. They can be very lucrative so don’t be dismayed. If you want to use your skills and sell your services much like a consultant then freelance is the simplest approach. You can work independently and set up your own website or work through various platforms. If you want to make something, but not be too involved then investing, blogging or passive income generally is your best direction. People often talk about starting companies, but I left that idea last for a reason. A company is a permanent investment of time and energy unless you place someone else as CEO. It necessitates a range of other things such as legal paperwork and often times people find it was not actually their preferred choice. A business can be a wonderful creation but it is a demanding one so be sure it is your best fit.
Begin at the beginning and choose your goals, define the meaning of success for you. For example if I wanted a personal penguin habitat with five penguins to begin my own menagerie. Then pick your approach to being your own boss. In the beginning it may be hard to sort out a timeline of more than your personal output because you don’t know how successful you may be. Now brainstorm and model out how this will work and the associated costs in time, money and resources. It comes down to basics: legally how does this work?, what are people paying me for?, what do I need to do this?, how do people find me to pay for it?, and can this be scaled? For most of these situations you will need: services or a product, a website, a phone number, and clients. What you automate, how you do customer support or marketing can be very diverse. It is as simple or complicated as you make it to be. Your penguins are just around the corner.
Being your own boss can be freeing or overwhelming. For some individuals it is not a good or healthy choice to make and there is nothing wrong with that. Working a traditional job usually shields you from whims of the market or economic world, with the exception of mass layoffs. However, as a side hustler, entrepreneur, freelancer, or blogger you might feel it more acutely. Now if you are someone who is aware in a wider sense of the world then you might be able to plan ahead. If this is not a part of your personality and lifestyle it might detrimentally effect you while working as your own boss. As well, being polished and professional is a general must for being a success even if only when writing your blog and doing taxes.
As a person if you have difficulty setting a goal and finishing it without external reminders then working independently would be hard. It is the same issue for those with narrow focuses, easily distracted and people who have a love of tangents. Your personality must mesh well with working independently. To some extent you will need to be versatile to handle different areas of business or at least properly outsource. If it doesn’t mesh well personally then choose a job that builds something you want to be part of and enjoy the journey.
Being your own boss can be a wonderful chance at transforming your life. You can remove your dependence on a job with a company that might let you go. Provided decent success unemployment could move into a thing of the past. So pick your penguins and launch your very first brain storming session. It may take less time than you imagined to start something new. Choose your very best fit for an approach. Wish you the very best of luck in your endeavors!