Getting Through The Days Of Endless Silence

There will be times, unfortunately, at the start when you're sitting there, all geared up for business and ready to go, with your flash new computer, desk, new suit and phone but it fails to ring.

There will be dark days when you feel that there is a witch casting a spell on you and your business, but please fear not, it happens and as they say, you have to be in the game three months before most start up businesses start actually making any money.

The finance rule

Money - after all, amongst the reasons for ditching the boss and going mono, we do it not because we think we're going to make lots of money, but we do it for financial freedom which is an entirely different thing altogether. It is the way we make money in this world that bears down on our shoulders.

When you make money for your employer, you will no doubt feel as though you are not appreciated. You know that for the money you earn, your employer will take a vast amount of the credit and at the same time, probably earn twice as much as you. When you work for yourself you take the money (well, the taxman will have a shared at the end of the year too, but that's not the point) you know that you are earning and no one else is going to take the credit of take a bigger share of the profits than you.

Another thing which happens to us in the world of the self employed, is that we work more effectively and productively. Gone are the days of seeing how much time you can spend each day going to the toilet or making coffee just to make the day go quicker. When you're working for yourself, you will find yourself working harder, for longer and then suddenly realising that you've spent 14 hours that day working - now, you wouldn't have worked like that for a boss would you?

When the merchant of silence comes knocking at the door (well, muffled...)

How do you react when you spend day after day waiting for the phone to ring? It's a difficult to answer and to be honest, the reality of it is going to be down to the sort of character you are.

• There are the resilient of us who will take literally everything is their stride, even a band of thugs wailing how bad they are, will not stop these entrepreneurs reaching for the top.
  

• Then there are the ones who are a little bit more down to Earth who will worry about bills and the mortgage and how much longer they can survive on the market before giving in to the job section in the local paper.

Let's face it, we are all human and to succeed in this game you have to be a little bit of both. Be the entrepreneur and reach for the stars, but at the same time, stay with that head in the sky, with both feet firmly on the ground. Don't let yourself down. Be the greatest employer you've ever had, you know the type; the one who would never put his staff and his business on the brink of destruction.

Remember, you need to be half a dozen people to run a good business...

Sometimes I think the best entrepreneurs are secret schizophrenics...

onemum 2009.