When starting a business it’s often assumed that being your own boss will be an amazing, rewarding, liberating experience, with the ability to make your own hours and work how you want, with who you want, when you want.
Well that’s not entirely true, in fact, in most cases it couldn’t be further from the truth, at least for the start of the journey (however long that may be for you). 🤦♂️
So I wanted to break down some of the things they don’t tell you about what’s to come when venturing out on your own…
You’ll work all hours under the sun
Working hard, long, hours is part and parcel of the job. It’s generally necessary for growth in the early days. If you want to get somewhere fast you need to work smart, yes, but those extra hours do add up and while I would highly recommend ensuring you maintain a good work-life balance, there’s no getting away from the fact that you’ll often have to work more than most, pulling 14+ hour days to get things done. 😴
The good news is that due to your passion for the project/work/challenge/problem you’re solving, you’ll enjoy those hours and although often frustrating, stressful and scary, you’ll have a smile on your face most of the time. 😄
Money will become complicated
Money gets tough. You start to really miss a ‘normal salary’. You realise that paying yourself is not only tough some months but also complicated. PAYE, NI, all manner of taxes and paperwork. 😫
You realise that to grow, without external finance, you have to sacrifice your own. Your salary gets put back into the business, you take out as little as you need to, to cover your own finances and then spend the rest on unexpected bills, and growth through vital staff, marketing, software, etc.
Oh and don’t even get me started on mortgages. Business is great because a good month might let you set aside enough money for a deposit in one go, but because of uncertainty, most lenders need 2-3 years of solid accounts before lending to you. Fair when you consider their risk, but definitely very annoying.
Your social life will be limited
Due to your decreased budget and lack of time, your social life will take a hit. You won’t be able to see your friends and family as much and you may not even mind that much due to the huge new passion in your life. However, they will often not understand that and just see you as distant or less caring, not really understanding your new priorities, if it’s something they’ve never explored themselves.
Try to keep open communications with them so they understand. 🤗 It’s surprisingly & oddly embarrassing to talk about your business ventures to your non-business friends (or at least it was for me) so get to the point where they get it, support it, and you can be proud of it, as quickly as possible.
…and so will your dating life!
Much like your social life, your dating life will take a hit. This is a big one that people don’t account for.
Being an ‘entrepreneur’ was considered a cool career, but thanks to the swathes of people adding ‘CEO’ to their instagram bios people are more wary of that than ever before, often calling it out more accurately for what it is (certainly at the start of the journey) – “I’m broke and I have no time”. 🙈
So yeah, that doesn’t help.
Neither does the actual lack of money/having it tied up in your work – and the lack of confidence that brings in your ability to date. You may not want to take someone out because the knowledge that your next bill is due tomorrow means scrimping on the drinks or the meal.
The main difficulty though is mindset and connection. Being ambitious is undoubtedly a sexy attribute to most people and ambitious people are unsurprisingly attracted to other ambitious people. However, with you both focused on building your careers or businesses you have very little time to see/date/meet each other and so you end up living in a never ending circle of singledom. 😅
The alternative of course is to date someone who is quite the opposite, solving half the time/money issue with their stability. However, that also causes issues because they often don’t understand the sacrifices you need to make, the hours you need to put in, the trips you need to take away from them to make it work and even the reason you don’t want to talk about it when you get home (because it’s all you ever talk and think about the rest of the time).
BUT It’s all worth it in the end!
All said and done though, it’s worth it in the end. 10 years into being an ‘entrepreneur’ and it’s finally starting to work for me. That’s way too long a time to spend wandering around in the wilderness of life with other people asking you when you’re going to get back to reality but I promise you the payoff is greater than the sacrifice when you’re achieving what you set out to do and they’re proud of you for it. 😊
Anyone who ever did anything great was never considered ‘normal’, so just hang on in there, keep going, growing, sacrificing and eventually that win will come.
Patience is vital. Assuming you’re smart enough to understand when you’re flogging something dead on arrival, the best strategy to ‘overnight success’ is that it takes years of work and sacrifice.
If you’re cut out for that life, then maybe you should join the other weirdos just like you in the Yena community. We’d love to have you.
Oh and use the code ‘joinforone’ to get on board for just £1 for the first month too. 🙌
See you on the other side. 😉
