Being An Entrepreneur Is NOT For Everyone! (Being Honest About Business)

what's up guys i'm paul and welcome to my channel so over the past couple of years i've seen an uptake in online content creators who specialize in the business niche pointing out different forms of content almost trying to imply that anybody who has a normal regular nine-to-five job is an idiot because everybody should be out there trying to be an entrepreneur you should be taking control of your own destiny and forging your own path in life and i don't completely agree with this and while i do think that anybody can be an entrepreneur i don't think being an entrepreneur is for everybody and i'm going to explain why in this video because as somebody who's been starting and running online businesses for pretty much a decade now i feel i've got quite a bit of experience when it comes to being an entrepreneur even though i absolutely hate the word entrepreneur but for this video we're gonna stick with it and this is because a lot of these videos because i've watched quite a few of them they always just cover the good points of being your own boss which is basically you're your own boss you set your own schedule and your earning potentials are unlimited and while all these things are completely true they very rarely cover the negative points of being an entrepreneur or a business owner so in this video i'm going to try to give a balanced view of what it is actually like to be an entrepreneur or a business owner so that you can go into this with an open mind and understand exactly what it's like to go and start your own business because i'm not trying to put anybody off from starting a business this channel is all about helping people but i just want you to go into it with your eyes open and know that it's not all rosy and it's not all fantastic and sometimes it actually does suck a little bit to be your own boss and to be an entrepreneur so with the introduction of the way let's jump into the video so the first thing is the lack of security when it comes to being an entrepreneur and when i'm talking about security i'm talking about financial security on this one because when you're an entrepreneur you have no guarantees of income and you can work months or even years without seeing a penny come into your business and i'll take this youtube channel as an example i posted my first video in september 2019 and i didn't make a penny from the youtube platform until february 2021 that's nearly 18 months of posting videos on a pretty regular basis i wasn't completely consistent but putting out quite a few videos over a near 18 month period and not making a penny from it and this is something you do need to accept when you're planning on starting a business you may not make money for months or even years whereas if you're an employee as long as you fulfill the terms of your contract which for a lot of people is being at a place for a certain amount of hours a week and doing the job to the best of your ability you're going to get paid either the following week or the following month depending on when your company pays you you've got this security that as long as you do your job you're going to get paid now i know there are exceptions out there with companies not paying employees but 99 plus percent of employees will get paid as long as they fulfill the terms of their contract and there's generally only two reasons why this will end if you don't choose to leave that company on your own and that is the first one is you get fired or number two you get made redundant i've only experienced one of these and it's the first one [Applause] yeah but as i've said in previous videos i'm not the best employee in the world because i've always wanted to do my own thing and literally forge my own path in life but when it comes to being an employee as well there's also other benefits outside of your main pay now this does depend on the country you live in and also the company you work for but there's things like holiday pay sick pay pension contributions and individual companies will also have other benefits as well some companies are a lot better to work for than others but when you're your own bus when you're running your own business you don't get any of these perks especially in the early stages and as i've already said you can go a long time without making any money and for a lot of businesses it is very much a case of if you're not working you're not getting paid so if you're going on holiday or if you're not very well you're not going to gain pay for those days you're not working there's very few businesses out there that actually do make money consistently while you're not working almost kind of passive income sources but for a majority of businesses you are actively going to be doing things in order to make your money now i have spoke to a lot of people over the years about setting up businesses i've had a lot of people ask me what it's actually like to do and when i've explained this first point which is arguably the most important one which is the financial aspects of it i've generally got one of two responses the first one is it excites them it drives them on to go and be successful in their own right and this is what i have personally i kind of love the uncertainty of not having a guaranteed income i like that thing where i've got to go out and actually work and earn that money well the second one is it scares you and this one is completely understandable because it is scary especially if you've got people depending on you if you've got a family or there's other people you need to support with a regular monthly income it can be scary the prospect of not having that and there's nothing wrong with it scaring you because if it does scare you and you want that security you want that safety then being an entrepreneur probably isn't for you because you're not going to have those guarantees so this is the most important one in my opinion you need to think of is the risk versus reward when it comes to financial aspects yes we've been an entrepreneur potentially you could earn millions and millions of pounds or dollars whatever your currency is but there's a lot of risk and there's potential that you won't ever make a penny whereas if you're an employee as long as you fulfill your contract you're going to get paid at the end of the week or the end of the month so it's that risk versus reward thing and only you can answer what is going to be best for you and the second thing is you never switch off from your business you're thinking about it basically every hour that you're awake now i know there's jobs out there where it is very difficult to switch off but generally these come with some kind of remuneration package to match that responsibility and generally the more responsible your job the harder it is to switch off so people in things like medical fields people in the legal fields or upper echelons of businesses do find it more difficult to switch off but they're usually paid for that responsibility but when it's your own business you can be earning nothing and you still can't switch off from your business and this is something i have struggled with a lot over the years because since i launched my first proper e-commerce business back in 2012 i don't think i've actually had a day where i haven't thought about my business in some way shape or form and to give you an example of this there was one night i was out i was in the middle of a club i'd had a few drinks at the time but i had this idea for an instagram post to promote a new product i just had in for my jewellery business and i know i had a picture of this product on my phone so in the middle of the club i think it's about one o'clock in the morning i actually created an instagram post i was out with my mates having a good time but yet i was still thinking about my business and i posted this instagram post from the middle of a club and what actually got me with this i'd had a few drinks at the time i was quite impressed that it was actually coherent when i read through that post the next day but that's how much you don't switch off from your business you're going to be thinking about it all the hours you're awake and i had it with my commerce business and i have it with this business as well and it doesn't matter how much your business grows there's always going to be something you're thinking about and you're always going to be switched on to your business even if you're on holiday or you're having a nice relaxing day there's still part of your brain that's still going to be thinking about building your business whereas if you're an employee most people when they clock out at the end of the day that's it they're done they don't think about it until it comes to going to bed so they have to get up for work the next day they go home they do whatever they want to do spend time with the family just chill relax whatever it is they generally don't think about their job once they're finished but as a business owner you don't really have that luxury in a way because you're just constantly thinking about it because it's on you to grow your business and the third thing is you have to wear many different hats in your business because most people when they're just getting started they haven't got the money behind them to employ people to do all these different jobs and you're gonna have to do all of them and i know there's people out there who do multiple different jobs when they're at work but the difference is when you're at work you're doing like one two possibly three other people's jobs when it's your own business and there's just you in it you have to do everybody's jobs from the top to the bottom so from making decisions on the direction of your company from doing the sales and marketing providing the service to doing accounts and admin even down to keeping the place clean and tidy you're gonna have to do all this when it's just you in your business and this is something that can get quite stressful because there's so many things you need to think about and this is one the thing that puts a lot of creative people that i know off from actually running their business because i have a lot of friends in the jewellery trade and while they love their creative aspects of their business so dealing with customers and actually creating the pieces it's the kind of other stuff the boring stuff the admin the account making sure the website's all maintained and up and running it's all things like that that put them off from actually running their business and there's been quite a few people i've actually known over the years where it's this having to wear the many hats has actually made them give up their business even if their business has been successful and go back and work a normal job where they just have a set role of what they need to do so this is something else you do need to think of is you're going to have to do so much in your business and there's so many different things you're going to have to learn because you want your business to be running efficiently and for some people this is going to be awesome because they're going to love learning about all these different things and all the different things they need to do i've loved learning different things over the years from how to build websites to sales and marketing to dealing with companies i've loved learning all of it but for a lot of people this is going to be too much and it's going to be too stressful so that is something you need to think about how much stress do you actually want in your life because running a business is stressful especially when you're just getting started so the fourth thing very much follows on from the last point and that is it's all on you because when you're a solo business owner you're the end of the line you're where the book stops you're the one who has to make the decisions now this isn't as bad if you're in a partnership or there's a couple of you run the business because there's a couple of people at the same level you can bounce ideas off and then you can take like joint responsibility for things but when it's just you at the head of the table it's you who needs to make the decisions and this can be quite stressful especially when these decisions have financial impacts because this could be taking money out of your pocket if you make the wrong decision and making decisions is something that i have struggled with over the years i can be quite indecisive until i just get to a point where i think right i've got to make this decision and sometimes these decisions have cost me money sometimes they've worked very much in my favor but you have to have that confidence to make those decisions as well and when you start having employees you need to be confident in leading those people as well and be confident in taking the company in the direction you want to take it to and this does differ quite a bit from being an employee because even if you have a responsible job and you do have to make decisions generally a lot of these decisions even if they have a financial impact for the company won't have a financial impact on you if you still do your job you're still going to get paid and there's generally also somebody further up the line that you can ask and run these ideas by because i'd imagine not many people watching this video are going to be ceos of big multinational companies if you are let me know in the comments but that is one of the things you do need to be aware of you don't have this kind of support network that you almost have with being an employee and when you make decisions and it's your own business if these decisions don't work it can cost you money and ultimately it could cost you your business if it really does go wrong so you need to be prepared to be able to shoulder that responsibility and be accountable for your decisions as well so i hope this video has been helpful and it's helped give you a more balanced view of what it's like to be an entrepreneur but as with everything there's good and bad sometimes it's absolutely awesome other times it absolutely sucks but it all comes down to you as an individual as to how you see these things if these are challenges that you want to embrace then you've probably got that entrepreneur mentality if these things sound scary and you don't want to face them then you probably aren't cut out to be an entrepreneur but as i've said in this video there's nothing wrong with that because it does take a in my opinion a unique mentality to be a successful entrepreneur because of the way you need to think about things slightly different from a large proportion of the population but as i say this isn't to put anybody off from being an entrepreneur it's just giving you a balanced view so hopefully you go into it with your eyes open and you know that it's not going to be all champagne and laptop lifestyle like a lot of these gurus make it out to be so thank you so much for watching guys i really do appreciate it if you found this video helpful a like would be absolutely awesome because it helps me out with the almighty youtube algorithm also if you'd like to support the channel you can do by buying me a coffee using the link in the description below so once again guys thank you so much for watching i'll leave another video here so you can go and check that out as well so thanks again guys i really do appreciate it stay awesome and i'll see you in the next one

Channel: The MoneySmith

Views: 100

Keywords: being an entrepreneur is not for everyone, being an entrepreneur is hard, being an entrepreneur is not easy, being an entrepreneur is lonely, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, business advice

Id: w05RoPjXKxc

Length: 13min 46sec (826 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 17 2021