Self Employed And Staying So, Or How I Managed To Run Away From The Love Of An Employer

Maintaining the equal Librium is probably about the most difficult thing to do in the first early stages of running a small business, far above anything else. It may well be said that it also outweighs the finances, the toils over what marketing strategy and even down to the bare essentials of "to invoice or not to invoice?"

The idea of juggling work, home, family and kids and just about everything else including the shopping doesn't sound that much of a big deal and until it is put into practice. The big sigh here in this posting today is that something DOES have to give and the real hard decision is, what. No one is super human and with starting a new business, comes sacrifices. All you have to do is figure out what in your life, you can do without.

Many entrepreneurs will argue that they didn't have to do this. The real story behind these guys is actually they are lying, because, and you will love me for saying this, the best business men and women of this world are cold, hard and calculating - they have thrown away perfectly good relationships, friendships and business partners in the hunt of a dream - they pursue what they know will work and they stick to it. All you have to do is the same.

With this business we find ourselves in, we would all agree on one thing: this business chooses us, and not, as we would think, the other way around. We are about as driven into this game as a Antelope is to the death by a tiger at top speed. We are guided into it, albeit, unwillingly at times.

So, the real lesson of today is all about focus. You have done the glamorous dreaming. You've thought up a name, written a business plan, even thought about how you are going to sign your business Christmas cards at the end of the year, but none of this means a dime if you 'ain't got that self drive.' You're in the game now, you have to show the world you are capable of playing along with it.

There will come a time when a certain employer will come knocking at your door and tempt you back into the world of your National Insurance and Income Tax being done for you. The vortex will open up and dancing girls will entice you back into the safety of paid holidays and office bonuses, and it will be here that you will find yourself at the first of several big crossroads (we'll come to the other 942 later) and you will ask yourself, 'Shall I go back to the safety zone of bosses, sleep and nightly dry sheets, or shall I march purposefully on through the black abyss on the road to nowhere, just me and my small business?'

Now, I suspect many of you will fall by the wayside, crying in a ditch wailing wildly in the arms of an employer who will pat out rhythmical 'there, there's' on your shoulder, but the other small number of brave souls will carry on until the next crossroads, determined to move the business along and live to fight another day.

So, the thought for the day is which path should you take? Of course you can pick up your ideas eventually later on in life, or you can stride on now and worry about everything in due course. I guess it is a time when you have to ask yourself, who important is this and is this the right time for me to be doing the things I am doing. If this all sounds too therapeutic then you're right. It just might the right time to put permanent feet on the small business ground and leave the employer for ever...