While there are significant benefits of being an entrepreneur, it has its disadvantages too. Being your own boss can be liberating and exciting, but it comes with its own problems and added responsibilities that you don’t have to face when you are a salaried employee.
Responsibilities
If you run your own business, there is no one to hold you accountable. You have to take all the responsibilities in your own hands. All the decisions you make will be your own. All rewards and risks that come from the decisions are yours. This added burden can be too stressful sometimes. You need to look into every aspect of your business to make the most out of it.
Careful planning and research is required before making any decision. Even your work profile isn’t defined as you might have to do work from a lot of different fields by yourself i.e. accounts, sales, marketing, customer service, etc. If you have hired someone, then their paycheck is also your responsibility.
If you have problems like procrastination and lack of self-discipline, you will have a bad time being an entrepreneur.
Competition
You cannot sit still and relax. Your competition surely isn’t going to. You have to compete in the market and beat all of your competitors, sometimes just to keep your company running. It’s a constant struggle to corner the market. Sometimes you even have to work for almost nothing just to get the customer base necessary. Your paycheck isn’t fixed so you have no security. Your sales are your paycheck.
If you company needs specialized skill then you also have to compete in the job market. That means that you will have to offer better salaries and perks to get the best people for the job. Sometimes you even have to gamble on the skills of freshers to try and gain an edge in the market.
No Routine
A salaried employee has the convenience to plan his activities around his work schedule which is often fixed. An Entrepreneur works around the clock. There is no fixed schedule to anything. An entrepreneur has to plan every second of his day to get the most out of it. Having no fixed schedule also means losing out on socializing. You rarely have a day off and that does not necessarily mean that your friends will also have a holiday. From calls to meetings to travelling to meetings again, you will not have much time for yourself. So you might feel lonely, and alienated from the rest of the world.
Risk
Success is never guaranteed in the market. Many entrepreneurs have started a company and failed, even if they gave it their best. There is always the possibility that you could go bankrupt. The risk of failure of startups is even higher.
Your ability to manage risk might be the determining factor in your success or failure. Things will often go wrong. You have to handle all of it on your own. You have to be able to take on failures and bounce back from them.