Why do you want to start your own business?

We sometimes seem to be conditioned to think that the path to life nirvana is to start our own business. If we could all just be our own bosses then everything would be alright. Immediately, one would probably think of a quote where someone said that if they spoke to other people the way they speak to themselves then they’d get arrested. This problem also arises when we are our own bosses – if we treated our employees the way we treat ourselves people wouldn’t work for us and we’d end up in court. So why would we want to start our own business and do this to ourselves?

So, to return to the original question, why do you want to start your own business? If you’re reading this post then you must be thinking about it, so what’s your motivation?

I hate my job

Reasons to start a small business include:Why do you want to start your own business? - work stress

People often quit their jobs and start a business on their own because they hated their jobs. This could be compounded by the fact that they share an office with co workers who have serious personality problems or a boss who had an attitude. Maybe not a bad decision in either case then. Other than the personality thing, this is quite a bad reason to start your own business, especially if you put as little thought into it as I did. If you just want to get out and do not really have much of a plan for what you would do once you escaped.  Years later, you would probably appreciate the experience it will give you but at the time it would be pretty uncomfortable.

I want to be my own boss

If you have a crappy boss, you might be considering starting your own business. Many self-employed people are working for themselves mainly because they are incapable of working for anyone else. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, so if you are one of these people it may go well or it may go badly. Remember, if you run your own business, there are so many things you need to do. You have to think of promotional strategies to bring potential clients to your doorstep although you can certainly hire a marketing agency to help you gain more customers.

I want to be rich

Why do you want to start your own business? - work stress - successful entrepreneur

Don’t we all! There’s no doubt that having your own business is one of the best ways to become rich and the list of self-made millionaires and billionaires proves this. Donald Trump, Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Alan Sugar, Warren Buffett, Felix Dennis, Carlos Slim, Lakshmi Mittal and on, and on, and on. So yes, this is a pretty good reason.

I can do so much more than I’m doing now

This is something a lot of people can relate to. Working in a job and being frustrated that there is so much more we could do but we are not given the opportunity. Having our own business would let us stretch ourselves to do all these things. This is a great reason to start a business, to enable us to develop ourselves in so many ways that a constraining job doesn’t allow. And while you’re at it, utilize the expertise of a full-service SEO team so you can focus on growing your business.

Have you seen the idiots that work for themselves?

Well, have you? You would be astonished at how stupid a lot of seemingly successful business people are when you meet them. This is something that could make us believe that, “if they can do it, then so can I”. But are we missing something? We have to be careful in the way we just people’s capabilities. Maybe these people have the ability to work longer hours than us, or tolerate rejection better than us, or to keep going when it all seems hopeless in a way that we never could. So, exercise caution here.

It seems to be the thing to do and I just think I should

This is maybe about envy and seeing what other people have. Over the years, you may have read about all sorts of people starting their own businesses and it probably made you feel like there was something wrong with you or if you didn’t (or maybe couldn’t) do it too. This one can be a bit of a trap that we might fall into and was certainly a part of people leaving their perfectly good jobs with the vague aim of starting my own business. Just because other people are doing it, and seem to be doing it successfully, doesn’t mean we should all drop everything and do it too, and right now.

So if you do want to start your own business, why do you want to do that?