The Benefits of Owning
Your Own Business

By
Michael T. Robinson
CareerPlanner.com

There are many benefits to owning your own business:

• Your years of hard work can result in wealth not unemployment
• For the self employed, just about everything is a tax writeoff
• You will have the ability and time to help others
• You will have more time to spend with your family
• You will have more self-esteem
• You will have much more freedom

Here is my personal perspective.  When I look around at the friends and collegues I have known and worked with, the happiest and most satisfied people are those that own their own businesses.  They have the most freedom, even more than the top CEOs.

I'm not saying that being an employee is bad, but if you have an opportunity to be self employed you should consider it carefully.

Yes, I know some CEO's who are on top of the world, and I am very happy for them  They worked hard and smart.  They took very good care of their people.  They made some unbeliveably brilliant strategic decisions.  They made a lot of small decisions that added up. They truly deserve their success.

On the otherhand I know many high level executives, including CEO's who are unemployed, and many of these had little choice in the matter. 

As an employee you can dedicate many years of your life to a company, only to find yourself out of a job due to situations totally out of your control.  Management changes, mergers, acquisitions, downsizing and outsourcing all have a tendency to force sudden and unexpected change.

On the otherhand, if you own your own business, you will still face competition, change, legal battles etc.  But in everycase you will have time and an opportunity to fight and win.  Big difference.

However, the risks in starting your own business are far greater than if you were an employee who worked for someone else.

According to Michael Gerber, author of  The E-Myth, in the US, there are over 1,000,000 new businesses started every year.  40% of these fail in the first year.  Another 40% fail before year five.  So the odds are against you.

However, there are ways to beat the odds.  The success rate for franchises is much higher.  Something like 50% or more of the franchises make it past five years.

The key according to Michael Gerber is that franchises offer you a proven "Turn Key" business.

However, franchises are very risky. We know people who lost a lot of money and are still not self employed.