The best part about being an entrepreneur

I was wondering what you think the best part is of becoming an independent entrepreneur?

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Freedom in many areas (e.g. today was great weather so on a whim I took most of the day off to spend with family and do a bit to catch up tonight).

Worst part - being enslaved to the business! (e.g. I am taking a holiday next month and I will have to spend an hour or two each and every day on business, depending on what comes in. At my scale no realistic way around it and to be honest I donā€™t know any business owners of any size who can ever truly ā€˜tune outā€™).

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I actually saw an infographic that backs you up on the whole ā€œfreedomā€ thing. It shows that for 72% of employees, who want to quit and to be entirely independent, the main reason for choosing the independent career path is ā€œfreedom.ā€

Yeah, Ryan is absolutely right. The only other requirement to being a entrepreneur (successful or not) is the support you need at home. Namely, having a significant other who understands the sacrifices you (as a couple) need to make: money (depending on where you are in your business) and more importantly time.

Itā€™s damn hard work, but it can be rewarding in more than one way.

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Pretty much what @rhino said - freedom/flexibility. Iā€™ve just got back from 3 weeks travelling around Costa Rica with my family - but I had to take a laptop!

One other thing is a general lack of stress. It was stressful for the first year, when I wasnā€™t sure I was going to make a success of it. But after that it has been less stressful than being an employee.

I donā€™t promise dates or features. I donā€™t have sales targets to meet. I refund unhappy customers. I donā€™t have a boss to make me do crap I donā€™t want to do. I donā€™t have any underlings to supervise/cajole/fire. I can work as many or few hours as I want (as long as I am responsive to customer emails). If I am tired I take a nap. If I am bored I go and do something else for a while. I have enough savings and low enough overheads that I donā€™t have to worry about a bad sales month.

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When on holiday, I occasionally mistime my plans, and find myself driving in peak-hour traffic. Every time this happens I realise how good it is to not have a daily commute.

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