Pros and Cons of Being your Own Boss

There’s a day for everything.

National Coffee Day, National Cat Day, National Clean-Your-Desk Day, National Fruitcake Toss Day (which is January 3rd, in case you’re curious 😉 )…

Today is National Boss’ Day! So as if there couldn’t be more reasons to lovelovelove going into work on a Monday morning, now you have to celebrate your boss. Hopefully that’s a good thing. 😉 I, for one, lovelovelove my boss. She’s super cool and let’s me sip champagne on the job, AND she let’s me bring my cats to work. My boss is me (get it? ha!), and since this is the first full year I’ve been my own boss, I figured I’d celebrate by sharing some pros + cons of being your own boss, in the spirit of the holiday. Falalalalaaaaaalalalala…

{PIN THIS BEING YOUR OWN BOSS POST FOR LATER}

The Pros & Cons of Being Your Own Boss featured by popular Philadelphia lifestyle blogger, Coming Up Roses

PROS of being your own boss:

  • TIMING. Setting your own timeline can def be a huuuuuuge perk of being your own boss. Like, one of the biggest + best. You don’t have to clock in at 9 and out at 5. No obligatory night meetings or too-early conference calls. You call the shots on your own calendar, instead of being at someone else’s disposal.
  • CONTROL. You can go as fast (or as slow) as you’d like. Control is a biggie across the board in terms of pros in being your own boss. You control basically whatever you want to, from how much you make to how much you work, from when you work to where. You control what you do on an everyday basis, you control who you collaborate with, you control what products/services earn your living. You. are. in. control. (TIMING + CONTROL count for doubles here in the “pros” column, cos they’re kinda reaaaally big deals!)
  • There is no ceiling. You can do + earn as much as you’d like. If you’re Ambitious AF, there’s no set salary to hold you down if you’re skyrocketing ahead at hyperspeed. You can pretty much do yo’ thaaaang at whatever speed feels comfy cozy.
  • Job security. Hypothetically speaking, you’ve got job security for the foreseeable future. Who’s going to fire you? Yourself? More on this below, but *hypothetically* you’re set.
  • You’re creating your dream lifestyle. You wanna live your days doing whatever you want, working for yourself on an island in the Caribbean? You got it, dude! It really is amazing (+ empowering) to know that you can do WHATEVER you want in life. You’re not actually confined to a desk in a cubicle. If you want to work from a coffeeshop with an “acoustic jams” Spotify playlist going and a venti soy chai to sip, YOU CAN. If you wanna jetset to Fiji for a workcation by the sea, YOU CAN. If you wanna spend all morning journaling, working out, cleaning, catching up on shows, and then start work at 3 pm and go until 10…YOU CAN. You’re the shot caller, and the shots are there to be called by you.

RELATED POST: 10 Things I Learned in 4 Years of Blogging

  • You don’t have a boss to constantly impress. There’s no Big Boss standing behind your shoulder, micromanaging your every move. If you’re someone who neeeeeeds that feeling of approval before carrying on in life, this could be a huge weight off of your shoulders.
  • Get Starbucks whenever you want. This is important. Coffee runs are non-negotiable.
  • Get pizza delivery to the office whenever you want. This is also important. Obvi.
  • Have a cat on your lap while you work. ALSO IMPORTANT. And highly underrated.
  • Watch Ellen everyday. One of my best friends, Rachel, turned me onto this one and now I #CantStopWontStop. She always told me, “Er, one of my only criteria in having a job is that I can watch Ellen everyday. That’s why I’m an entrepreneur.” HA. But she was SO RIGHT. Ellen DeGeneres is just a ray of friggin’ sunshine in the world. You can’t watch her show and NOT be happier. Plus, since it comes on at 3 pm for me, it’s at the *perfect* time in the afternoon when I’d otherwise be unproductive + needing coffee, anyways. It’s a great time to catch up on more mindless work while refueling for the final push of the day.
  • If you get bored/tired/upset/stressed/etc, you can just stop + leave. This one’s huge for me. I lovelovelove that if I’m just having an off day, I can up and leave. I can distance myself from the stressful situation for a hot sec to just *BREATHE* + respond instead of react. There have been many a time in the manicure chair where it’s just a “that day” mani. And that’s A-OK. Whether it’s a mani/pedi, a bubble bath, a Frosty + fries (my fave combo) – being your own boss means you can have your thing that’s your little escape when you need to treat yo’self midday.
  • You really do have the power to make your own dreams come true. You KNOW I’m all about making it happen. When you’re your own boss, you have no other choice BUT to make it happen. Make it happen, or it doesn’t happen. Pointblankperiod.

RELATED POST: 12 Powerful Things to Remind Yourself Today

The Pros & Cons of Being Your Own Boss featured by popular Philadelphia lifestyle blogger, Coming Up Roses

CONS of being your own boss:

  • Set your own timeline. Making your own timeline means you can hypothetically work around your family’s schedule, etc. But it also means it can be HELLA hard to turn down work, + hard to have set hours.
  • Not everyone else is on your timeline. When the people paying your paychecks aren’t on your timeline, it’s not as easy to work solely on YOUR timeline
  • There is no ceiling. No manmade markers of “success.” If you’re like me, where you like knowing what you have to do/be to be “the best” at something…this is hard. HA. It can be even harder to stop working when you know there’s always more that you *could* do for your biz. And take it from me – this is a suuuuuper hard mindset to break.
  • Your business determines your job security. Yes, your job security is hypothetically intact if you are your own boss. BUT, if your business isn’t booming…how do you make a living? Anyone can pick up + become an entrepreneur, but not everyone can STAY an entrepreneur. If business is good, job security is even better.

  • Sometimes your dream lifestyle becomes a nightmare. We see it all the time. The gorgeous, all-inclusive trips around the world, globetrotting for free and “just taking pretty pictures for a living.” But if you’ve ever been on one of those trips, you know it’s pretty much nothing like what it seems. You have the amazing opportunity to travel, and then to provide all of the deliverables required in exchange for the opportunity in the first place, you’re literally just working all the time to “get the shot” or execute creative vision. You’re not actually just lounging around – you’re working to make it LOOK like you are. Trippy + crazy, I know. But it’s the job of a content creator! I know so many girls who have had to pull an all-nighter for a deadline, or change important plans because a brand campaign’s deadline moved. Some things are just out of your control (like any job), and it can become not-like-the-movies (or, not-like-the-Instagrams) quickly.

RELATED POST: 7 Mistakes I Made in my First Year of Owning a Business

  • Being your own boss means you might have the hardest boss of ALL to impress. Anyone else unreasonably hard on themselves? *raises hand wildly* I’m nearly impossible to impress for myself. I have to be really strict with setting measurable goals and not shifting them the second I hit them, or my life becomes a constant string of un-met goals that were too-sky-high to begin with. (The second I hit my income goal for the month, I raised it by a few bucks instead of acknowledging that I had, in fact, ACCOMPLISHED SOMETHING DANGIT).
  • Decision-making. I’m not one to knock decision-making; usually I AM the decision-maker, and I don’t mind it. In business, I lovelovelove it. But science has proven that we’re only able to make a certain number of decisions a day before we’re essentially burnt out from deciding. There’s no one to take over in shot-calling if/when you decide you need a break from deciding.
  • Isolation. Especially when you’re a team of uno (or at least predominantly working solo), it can be hella hard to not feel lonely most of the time. I’m an extrovert (or I’m an ambivert – I like my “me” time to come back to center, but I need to be in contact with other people!), so it’s sooooooo excruciatingly difficult for me to just be at a desk by myself in silence all day long. I’m constantly texting + FaceTiming my girlfriends who get it (and my mom, hi mom), cos otherwise, the isolation can become extreme.
  • No insurance. Wow, talk about being thrown headfirst into adulting. When you’re at ground zero when it comes to insurance options, it can be HELLA overwhelming (+ expensive).
  • No regular paychecks. Or, at least, inconsistent income. If you’re someone who banks on regular trips to the bank (pun intended), then the enterpreneur’s life is not for you. One day you might hit it big, the next you might make literally $0. Many days you’re working with zero guarantee of anything in return. And OFTEN in the life of blogging, you’re being asked to work for free, or you’re dealing with folks who don’t quite understand how the world works. HA. Your time is money, and wasting your time trying to educate folks who will never get it and who are just trying to take advantage of you is just that…a waste of time.
  • Anyone cutting you a check becomes your boss. Yes, you’re your own boss. But not really. Your paychecks come from clients/customers/etc. If you’re providing a product and/or service to them…in a way, THEY become the boss for a hot sec. You’re collaborating to help execute a vision that meets their goals. So you’re not the sole shot-caller anymore. You’re a key collaborator and the end-of-the-day say, but there ARE others that absolutely need to be taken into account.
  • No guidance. In being your own boss, you also need to find your own mentorship – and fast. I’m someone who craves mentorship and really values the guidance + support of others who’ve #BeenThereDoneThat. Especially when you’re in a pave-yo’-own-path kinda career, it can be difficult to find people who have been through what you’ve been through – or are willing/have the time to create a sort of mentor-mentee relationship. Which is totally fine + understandable – everyone’s time is precious + limited, so relationships have to be mutually beneficial to be worthwhile. But point being, being your own boss means not having guidance from above most of the time, which can be hard if you’re someone who likes having some reassurance along the way.
  • Doing #AllTheThings solo. 85% of the time (JK JK, 95% of the time), my biggest struggle is having waaaaaay too many things on the list for just one person. In the life of a blogger, you’re oftentimes the writer, photographer (one of them, anyways), graphic designer, developer, editor, secretary, social media strategist + marketer, negotiator, accountant, and operations lead all in one. Granted, you can hire out specific roles as needed, but especially when you’re just starting out, that might not be realistic or feasible. And especially when you’re just starting out, I think it’s important to at least UNDERSTAND how all roles work, so that you’re never paying someone to do something in your business that you couldn’t do yourself in theory.

Would you ever consider being your own boss?

I will be accepting Starbucks gift cards in lieu of “Happy National Boss’ Day!” cards, since I don’t have an office of peeps to throw a party. The cats are on it, but I don’t think think they got the right memo – I think they’re just expecting extra treats? WTH.

If you ARE your own boss already (woo!), happy national boss’ day to you, too! What pros and/or cons would you add to the lists above?

If you’re NOT (yet), do you wanna be???

Happy MONDAY. Let’s make it a great one.signature blog