Self-Employment is NOT For Cowards
Our first “real” money making home business, the Olympic Munch, is frankly as labor intensive as raising a child. It takes dedication and determination to push through the mundane aspects of a brick and mortar business. Product inventory, supply inventory, processing in medium scale production (hundreds of bars a day and all by hand!), packaging and labeling, etc.
Why do we keep on? I guess for me it is two fold. One is that I get my kicks providing a great unique healthy snack like no other out there. And Two is that my mind needs to be creatively occupied and making Munch bars does just that!
Not everyone is cut out to manage or plan or create which is what jobs are for. Some folks are content to just put in 6 to 8 or more hours a day working for someone else. They may have a job that involves creating or managing or planning but you are still working for someone else. That someone else can tell you what you are worth, tell you when to take lunch and go to the restroom, when to take vacation, and for all your pains can lay you off on a moment’s notice.
Any way you look at it, working for someone else is the pits for someone who is not content to take orders from someone else, but is willing to take less pay/income in order to call their own shots, determine their lunch break, when to take time off, determine your own deadlines, and take the boss (or secretary) out to lunch any day of the week.
Yet the self-employed DO have a boss!! That boss is the consumer of your product or recipient of your service. If your product or service stinks – you’re not going to last long in business (i.e. you’re fired).
The self-employed person has to be on their toes with their ears and eyes wide open. He or she will need to be their own worst critic. How can I make my product or service better, more appealing? They are constantly looking for ways to make life better for someone through offering their product or service. The honest businessperson never loses sight of the Golden Rule “Do unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You”.
A self-employed individual is in it for the long haul. He/she will roll with the punches and rally after losses learning from the experience – making their business better because of it.
It takes guts to succeed. It is not easy but it is worth every minute of it. Lunch anyone?