You definitely have to be self driven in a big way. If you’re the type to procrastinate, or to get up late, or put off big and little decisions like doofrat is, then you will do better working for “The Man”
If you’re the driven type, then your own business can be the gateway to freedom and unlimited riches. There’s the positive, now some negatives from someone who’s been there and couldn’t hack it:
If you don’t have any employees, any second you are not working, you are not making money. Go to the bathroom, you’re not making money, post on piggington.com, go on vacation, Etc, Etc, Etc., you’re not making money.
When you work for The Man, they provide sales support, marketing, accounting, payroll, Internet service, e-mail, etc. etc. etc. When you work for yourself, you have to supply all this.
The things like renting office space and paying for Internet service just take money, so that’s the easy part.
If you’re competent at your specialty, again, that’s the easy part.
No matter what your specialty is, you also need to be the expert at marketing, sales, customer support, shipping, accounting, tax, etc. etc. etc., that’s the hardest part in my opinion, and it really takes a lot of your time and energy that would be better spent focusing on what your business specializes in.
Also expect a fair amount of bullshit you’ll have to deal with as far as regulations go. In the US in general there aren’t too many roadblocks to interfere with business relative to other countries, but there are some things that can be a pain in the ass. In my case, we were buying normally taxable items tax free using a wholesale license and then shipping them out of the country. As a result, the tax board was expecting a lot of sales tax that they weren’t getting. Dealing with the Franchise Tax Board over and over on this every year was a total pain in the butt and caused a lot of stress.
And speaking of taxes, expect to pay quite a bit more in tax. There are some taxes (Social Security and Medicare) that an employer pays that you don’t even see, and you’ll have to cover these now. To help save on taxes, just remember that the more you procrastinate and the later you get in, the less you earn, which means you’ll pay less in tax!
