by Stefanina Hill

Created on: September 22, 2008   Last Updated: January 31, 2009

Despite infamously long hours, potential risk and no small amount of stress starting a business is a popular ambition. To enjoy living this kind of life the benefits need to be appealing enough to outweigh any of the downsides and the difficulties involved.

The joy of being your own boss is about more than being able to take the afternoon off when you don't feel like working. You're in control of your whole working landscape and can shape it to better suit both work and personal time.

Of course convenience is a great bonus and the squeeze those extra hours put upon your social life can to a great extent be ameliorated by the flexibility available to you. Additional to this convenience however is the advantage of being in control of planning out your work in order to achieve maximum satisfaction and efficiency.

When you work for someone else your time is structured to help them and not you.

Breaks are a good example of structuring as almost everyone has a different preference for the length of time a break will last and what activity they will pursue during that allotted time. It's a great advantage to be able to work with your concentration and abilities where you might otherwise be working within a system that slows you down and holds you back.

This control extends throughout all aspects of your work since you can tailor your business activities to avoid your weaknesses and exploit your strengths. As your interests, skills and abilities change you can adjust the business and its course to follow your own life as closely as possible. This way your work is part of your life and not just a vacuum that you get sucked into every day in order to pay your bills.

One of the biggest drawbacks of working for someone else is the fact that your colleagues and customers are chosen for you. Workplace bullying, tension or plain lack of professionalism can all transform even the simplest tasks into a living nightmare. With your own business there is no boss to contend with, you choose your colleagues (if any) and to an extent you have some control over the customers you deal with as well.

With so many ways to make sure you are doing what you want to be doing and are good at and so many ways to ensure that your time isn't wasted by unnecessary procedures you will find that your work is much more satisfying and enjoyable and your effort produces more efficient results.

Efficiency for your efforts is highly emotionally and psychologically beneficial, you may be putting in more hours when you run your own show but you have the satisfaction of knowing that the business you are building is all yours and is comprised of your efforts and time. When you work for someone else you never get that sense of achievement to the same level and many people never see any result for their work except a pay cheque.

Whilst running your own business brings many practical and tangible advantages it is the sense of fulfillment that makes this lifestyle so enjoyable for many people.

When you run your own business all the hours you put into it go into building and maintaining something that is truly yours and that develops alongside you over the years. When people ask you where you work or what you do instead of giving the name of an office block you give the name of your own living, breathing enterprise that represents your own ingenuity, hard work and growth which is a feeling that is hard to beat.

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