The joys of owning my own businessfeatured

Did you know that 600,000 new business are founded each year. I happen to be one who decided to take the leap of faith back in 2005.

I am happier
The long hours I have invested in growing my business doesn’t feel like work because I actually am having fun while doing it. This was a very conscious choice to make a living doing what I enjoy.

I am more optimistic about my future
One of the biggest differences in owning your own company as opposed to working for someone else is the sense of pride you establish in building something of your own. There is nothing like being successful through your own leadership, abilities, ideas and efforts. Not only are there benefits from such self-actualization – you also get to brag about what you do. People are actually interested in me and my story!

There’s no question that owning your own business is a risky proposition. But, with risk comes reward. The better I became at managing risk, the more rewards I reaped. There are an unlimited number of variables in almost every aspect of the company and as soon as you think you have things under control in one area, something changes. Specifically, I like living with the consequences of my good or bad decisions. I have felt that I have gotten better with time. I learned to recognize good opportunities from bad ones. I learned to create exit strategies for bad situations and how to maximize the good ones.

I live by my own rules
I admit, I have some type A personality tendencies. Thus, owning my business saves me from having to work for anyone else. I am in complete control and get to decide on how best to steer my company into the future. This might be overwhelming for some and one must know when and how best to delegate. However, when you are able to make your own decisions about how best to operate day-to-day, this leads to creating a culture, a brand and an organization. I also have the benefit of completely owning my schedule. I potentially could work from where I want, set my own hours and wear whatever I want.

I have better people skills
I really am excited to interact with my customers. I am completely responsible for dealing one-on-one with all theclients or making the decision to get rid of those customers they aren’t a good fit for the company. Interacting with customers successfully involves carefully extracting needs versus wants and establishing business boundaries without insulting anyone in the process. It involves building trust and getting along with different personalities and tendencies. The same skills apply when establishing partnerships with other businesses as well. Knowing how to act and what questions to ask are crucial components in defining mutual goals for me and my partners. One of the greatest fears of entrepreneurs is to deal with the drama of conflicting personalities. However, interacting with people is a part of life. No matter what, you will gain people skills whether you fail or succeed. These skills are a huge asset that will apply to practically everything you will ever do.

Another benefit is that I get to work with the people I want to work with. I have decided to surround myself with positive people who gives me the confidence and optimism I need to keep moving forward. I have learned to weed out the negative people.

I am a better public speaker
The constant interaction with customers and business partners have put me in front of crowds rather I liked it or not. Overtime, I have learned the best way to effectively communicate to those complete strangers. It’s the greatest feeling in the world when you can captivate your audience.