When you first set out in business, fired up with enthusiasm, long hours do not seem too onerous. After a few months or a few years of late nights, little personal time and so much of your attention being fixed on your business you may start to question whether you can or should carry on the way you are going. The intensity of the work involved, especially at the start when there can sometimes be little real financial reward, can seem like an insurmountable challenge.
Uncertainty.
Firstly, it may be that running your own business really isn't right for you but even if it is you will probably ask yourself this question across your working life. Instead of seeing this as recurrent despair or uncertainty see it as your natural drive to frequently take stock of the situation and consider whether to change it and if so how. This is after all one of the most essential qualities of a person in independent employment and unless you inherited your business the chances are that you left your old job by this same process of assessment and subsequent action.
The answer to whether you really want to call is quits lies in your heart and your own mind. If you truly aren't happy and see no chance of being so then only huge success would ever make your situation bearable and without drive and passionate enthusiasm it's unlikely that success would ever be achieved. If your business really isn't what you want then you are faced with the prospect of letting it go in order to find better direction for yourself.
This dilemma will be equally hard and traumatic whichever path you choose. The process of choosing itself is stressful and accompanied by a lot of doubt and regret (if you have spent a lot of time on the business you are about to fold). The way to ameliorate this stress to some extent is to try and give yourself a transitional period where you keep your business running on small hours and find another occupation for the rest of your time. This is easier than making a clean break on something you thought you wanted and have put a lot of effort into.
If you decide to keep going with your business you still need to accept that these phases of doubt will most likely resurface. All efforts in life are usually subject to self doubt but where your own ventures are concerned they are always that much keener. If your business goes through a slow phase or you feel like you are missing out on other things be prepared for the times when you question what you are doing and be prepared to make a decision about whether to carry on, step back or call it a day.
Long Hours vs. Creative Thinking
If you get past all of the doubts and stick with your business you still face the challenge of the work intensity and this is another point where assessment comes firmly into play.
The challenge of maintaining and building up your business is an endless pursuit, you can always put more hours in and pursue new avenues of growth. It's very easy to let this knowledge make you agitated and stressed, you may end up working yourself far too hard and neglecting other aspects of your life. The key to controlling this is to apply a managerial approach.
No matter what your dedication and abilities when it comes to your business you are still just one human being. Due to the importance of hard work it's easy to get stuck in a rut where you assume that the only way your business will grow is if you keep pouring the hours in.
The challenge is to balance hard work with realistic and creative thinking. Time has to be allocated to stepping back and viewing the big picture and to calmly look at new avenues and ways of working. You might need to hire someone to work for you and free up more hours for your own work. You might decide you need to become more qualified or that you need to purchase new equipment to help your business.
Pulling back in this way and spending time considering how to change your methods of work can go against all your instincts and drive which tells you to keep working all the hours you can and hiring and buying can feel extremely difficult since your are spending such hard earned money. In order to grow your business you need to have progression and when it comes to finances and time that often means reinvestment.
This balancing act is a core challenge of running your own business. Long, difficult working hours naturally tend to make you get fixated and unwilling to stop work to consider rearrangements. Scheduling regular blocks of time dedicated to this assessment process can be an effective way to make sure it stays a part of your agenda.
Risk.
Apart from these constant and meditated sessions where growth and change are considered you will often be presented with riskier opportunities.
Risks take many forms, for example it could be a consignment of stock that you are getting for a good price but aren't sure you can sell. Another common risk is an opportunity for promotion that will give a lot of exposure but cost a lot of money.
These kinds of unsolicited opportunities will regularly crop up, they could be the equivalent of pouring money down the drain or they could be the most important deals you will ever make in your working life. Many people have a knee jerk response to these events; they immediately say yes, no or take a gamble and decide yes or no based on guesswork alone. This often leaves a trail of lost opportunity and wasted resources.
In order to make the most of this risk equation a considered and calculated response is needed.
You need to constantly be aware of all aspects of your business and to have a good idea of how much money, time and resources you can legitimately play with. Sketch out what constitutes a large investment and what constitutes an average or small investment. Then consider all the things that are or could be useful to your business and rate then in a similar hierarchy.
Now when an opportunity is presented to you apply your assessment criteria. A high cost opportunity should correspond to a high or at least moderately high business need.
For example you may get offered a deal on advertising in a high end fashion magazine. In this instant you are getting a good service for a lower price which makes it a good deal but if your customer target is elderly country residents interested in gardening then this advertising is not suited to your business and therefore unless the price was extremely low it would not constitute a high business need. Advertising elsewhere that is more expensive and yet tailored to your target audience matches a high business need even if the cost is higher. Your assessments of the two things should always correspond closely.
If you are presented with a risky opportunity and feel like you don't know what to do then you don't have enough information to make a good decision. Before you start guessing and in so doing gambling the success of your business you need to either consider the situation more closely or attempt to acquire more information.
Life and work.
Another major challenge of owning your own business is balancing your life and work. When you decide upon this form of working life your social life (be it time spent with friends or family) and the time you have to yourself will dramatically change.
Having less available hours will mean spending less time socializing or relaxing, it may even mean cutting out certain people and/or activities altogether. What is important to remember as your social landscape changes is to remain aware of the changes as they are taking place and make sure that you exercise choice in the process.
It may mean sacrificing some activity to maintain a friendship or vice versa but remember that running your own business is about being in control of as many aspects of your life as possible and at all stages of change you should stay aware of exercising this choice in order to reap the satisfaction associated with such independence.
Ultimately, challenge should be something that appeals to you if you wish to own a business, you should hope to thrive in such an environment. There are ways to manage and control the impact of these challenges and to cope with them but if you want to avoid such stresses altogether then you should consider very carefully the full extent of what you may be letting yourself in for.