More and more individuals are leaving their day jobs and choosing to invest their money in their own ideas and passions, rather than fuelling the ideas and passions of another person or company. The initial decision to take that leap of faith is oftentimes the hardest part of the process – so much is up in the air, so much is undecided. Starting your own business can be a daunting prospect, but it is a choice that is more than capable of proving its worth. As with literally any given industry in the world, there are stories of failure and there are tales of triumph. For every business idea that has flourished and blossomed into its own empire, there is an idea (or three) that has not bloomed beyond the initial stages of budding. Like plants, businesses are fickle things, and they require a lot of love, attention, and effort to keep them alive and thriving.
Being your own boss and choosing to work from home or while travelling (or simply in an effort to maintain a schedule that suits your needs) places an individual in the same category as the relatively new career field as a digital nomad. Regardless of if you travel as you work or you work from the comfort of your own home, the term digital nomad essentially refers to an individual that works from their electronic device, carving out their own schedule to be as flexible and accommodating as they need or want it to be. In so many ways, a business is much like a flower. The concept can sound alluring, even mesmerising, but once the seed takes and the business begins to grow, more effort and time must consistently go into the concept to keep the business alive and thriving.
Some individuals start their own business as a side project, while they keep their day job. There are obvious advantages and disadvantages to this approach (as there are with any approach). There are all the exciting steps of starting one’s own business, from designing and ordering business cards to drafting out the initial business plans that will form the foundation of their empire for years to come. Having a specific goal in mind for the business and a set business plan allows the individual driving the concept to develop a strong foundation, and thus a stable business model. Having the power to decide every aspect of your own business – including when, where, and how you run it – gives an individual a sense of pride and empowerment. It also ensures that the individual accepts accountability for any and all their business’ actions, decisions, and responses, in a way that helps them to grow as a person and expand their horizons as a business owner. Through setbacks, they learn perseverance and determination. In their accomplishments, they learn to be humble and they learn what it is that works for their specific business model. The freedom of running one’s own business ensures that they can determine what they deem to be the perfect life/work balance for them – just as not every business functions on the same marketing principles, not every boss thrives on the same life/work balance as the person next to them.
Choosing to keep one’s day job can be beneficial because it ensures an additional financial stability that can be a potential risk factor for entrepreneurs that leave their old jobs behind in search of their great beyond. The risk, however, is that you simply cannot give half the effort to an idea that you are passionate about, and expect it to exceed your expectations and succeed. It takes time and effort, and the biggest problem with this is that investing so much time and effort into both a passion project and a day job can (and nearly always does) burn you out. Individuals must be very careful of their own limitations before deciding to go either way when approaching a potential self-employment opportunity. Businesses are most vulnerable in their initial stages. Before a business has firmly established its relevance or its longevity, it can fall victim to any number of contributing factors that can send it diving into nonexistence.
Individuals that choose to tend to their own businesses rather than feeding into the pre-conceived societal notion that they must work for someone else to make decent money, choose to live their life on their terms – and they are happier for it (most of the time). Running a business is no easy task, but with hard work, determination, and a passion for the idea in its bones as well as its surrounding concepts, building a successful business can not only positively impact the business itself, but the brains behind the operation. Working for one’s self has never been such a good idea – it just takes a little tender love and care to get the idea off the ground and sprouting into fruition…and then the real fun starts.