Are you ready to take the plunge? Chances are you’ve thought about it for a while. But maybe you’re past that moment of realization that you’re the only one holding yourself back from pursuing your true potential. – Reasons Why You Should Start Your Own Business

The moment when you know you can finally see a clear path ahead. That moment comes much earlier than some of us would like to admit.

We often convince ourselves we aren’t ready and simply don’t have enough time, money or skills to pursue a business idea.

The truth is, most of the time, those are just excuses. We don’t follow our interests because we don’t believe we have what it takes. But guess what? More often than not, you’re ready and could do it. Let’s explore 18 reasons to start a business today.

1. Freedom to pursue your passion

You’ve had this talent, skill, or hobby for years, maybe even since childhood. Now, you see a potential opportunity to develop a business structure and monetize it. So you decide to use your passion to start a business.

However, you may want to take a moment to assess the potential of your passion. Yes, it makes you happy, but can it pay the bills?

When you set aside emotion and focus strictly on cash and common sense, does your passion-fueled business idea truly have the potential to be financially successful? Don’t forget, with ongoing record inflation, you’ll need continuously increasing income to support yourself and your business. Can your passion keep you afloat?

If the answer is yes, start writing a business plan and go for it. If not, then you should likely rethink using your passion and explore other small business ideas. Consider another talent or hobby that can bring emotional fulfillment, as well as a tangible financial reward.

Or, do further market research into other opportunities outside of your core interests. You may find that there is another reason for being an entrepreneur is really what’s driving you.

2. Make a Living Doing What You Love

All your sacrifices for your current job may have finally paid off. You may have found a way to make a decent salary, but have you also found what you love doing? If you haven’t found the answer yet, going for your business idea may be what you need. If there’s that feeling that something’s off in your career, you may be kidding yourself regarding that “perfect job.”

3. Be Your Own Boss – Reasons Why You Should Start Your Own Business

Instead of bashing your head against a wall every time your boss makes a mistake, be the one making decisions – and hold yourself accountable to them. Of course, it’s human nature to want to avoid risks, but If you don’t take risks, you’ll always work for someone who does.

If that thought scares you, it’s time you begin planning your journey to become an entrepreneur. Here are just a few of the benefits of becoming your own boss:

Greater control: You decide where finances go, what kind of company culture you want, and the quality of work that should be expected
Flexible hours: You choose your working hours, meaning you have complete control over when you work and when you don’t
Diverse learning: You receive a crash course in every aspect of starting a business – from financial management to health and safety

4. To Pursue Your Passion And Purpose

Do you feel like you don’t know what your purpose is yet? Are you still on the journey of self-discovery?

As the world slowed to a stop over the past year, many of us are asking ourselves these questions. Starting a business is one way to get you a step closer to finding your purpose by simply sharing your passion with the world and doing what you love.

Whether you are an at-home pro-baker, a yoga teacher, technology genius, master marketer, or writer extraordinaire, you may possess unique talent to deliver a product or service that people need. By starting a business, you have an opportunity to share your gifts and fulfill your life’s purpose by creating a legacy.

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5. You Can Control Your Lifestyle and Schedule

Perhaps you’ve spent years in the corporate world and you feel ready to turn over a new leaf after years of reporting to a superior. Starting your own business can give you a more flexible lifestyle and schedule so you don’t feel like you’re running in circles on that corporate hamster wheel.

You can opt to schedule meetings around your family schedule or you can opt to work from home – the sky’s the limit when you’re the boss. You still have to get the work done, but nobody’s looking over your shoulder making sure you do it their way on their time.

Starting a business is hard work, and that flexible schedule may not happen right away. Even if you’re working long hours, however, you know that you’re doing it for yourself and your family and not for a distant boss or shareholder.

6. Create Your Ideal Workspace – Reasons Why You Should Start Your Own Business

Don’t be constrained by the fluctuating rules (and trends) of workspace policies. Small businesses and corporations alike often require you to work in determined locations. Even “remote” policies often have red tape that demand you live in specific geographic areas.

When you’re the business owner, you can work from your home, a co-working space, an office, or even the local coffee shop. You can take your work with you on the go, whether that’s the stereotypical beach side resort (please don’t get sand in your laptop) or the back of an RV on a nationwide road trip.

What’s your dream workspace? Is it a loft space with a ping-pong table? What about a giant corner office? Or maybe, it’s working at a collaborative co-working space or incubator?

7: Acquire The Quality Of Life You Want

One of the biggest reasons that Andrew Bliss, founder of The Adventurous Mailbox, wanted to start his own business was the geographical freedom that came with it. The business, which introduces cultures to kids through books and other products, is run from Tainan, Taiwan.

“If you want to live abroad or in a new region of your own country, that is entirely possible when you have your own company,” he says. “Starting your own company does not need to be only about realizing profits, but rather realizing the life you envision for yourself, wherever that may be.”

8. Create Something Of Your Very Own

What’s great about starting your own business is that you can start it very small with basically nothing and grow it at your own pace. Believe me, It is a wonderful feeling to lay the foundation of a business and watch it grow as you pour your heart and soul into it.

There are so many exciting achievements to look forward to. Making your first sale, breaking even, hiring your first employee, getting an office and so on. Before you know it, you won’t believe how far you’ve gotten. You will run a business that you can look at and be proud of.

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9. Make More Money – Reasons Why You Should Start Your Own Business

Unless you’re on commission, there’s likely a cap to your full-time income. You’re given a salary (regardless of your input or performance), and the only way to get beyond that is maybe with an end-of-year bonus. Plus, the time it takes to get to mid-level management, even in the most progressive of organizations, can take years of loyalty and corporate-culture assimilation.

When you start your own business, you get to decide how much money you make. Need more cash? Work longer hours or charge higher prices. Want more free time? Scale back your work and make less income.

It’s all up to you. Here are examples of how you can increase your earning potential as a business owner versus a traditional job:

Start an agency and set your own hourly rates > Asking your manager for an annual salary bump
Sell your solution and get credit > Solving a problem for someone else’s business
Become an expert in an industry under your brand > Move up the corporate ladder under one organization

There’s no cap on your salary as a business owner. You can always make more money and scale your business.

10. Directly Helping People

Many small business owners launch their own businesses to make a positive impact in their local communities. This can happen through the products or services they provide or through the local causes they support. Small businesses also account for nearly half of the private workforce, so launching your own business is a great way to provide jobs for many in the local community.

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11. Job Security – Reasons Why You Should Start Your Own Business

Have you ever been laid off, downsized, or fired? If you have, you get this. With entrepreneurship the security lies in the fact you are your own boss. You run the show and don’t have to worry about getting let go.

12. Opportunity For Innovation

Established organizations can create great change and innovation. Often, though, the most powerful new ideas come from small business owners that venture out on their own when they can’t get traction for their ideas in their current workplace.

Many business icons started with an idea that has changed the world. From Disney to Zuckerberg and Bezos to Gates, all of them had small ideas that turned into huge successes. Many of these entrepreneurs launched these companies from their garage.

13. Becoming an Expert

This point goes along with mentorship. Regardless of what you do as an entrepreneur, if you stick with it, you’ll probably become very good at it. And this gives you a sort of soapbox, so use it. You’ll have the chance to be interviewed for your expertise, write about it and get to spread your message.

14. You’ll Learn More Than Any Book Can Teach

With Google and YouTube at your fingertips, you can teach yourself anything. Even if you don’t have a computer or internet connection, you can go to a public library and find an infinite amount of free information on any topic you’re interested in.

But knowledge is useless without action, so you have to actually do something with all the stuff you learn.

By starting my own companies, I gained more wisdom than I could from any book. When I was building realone.pro, for example, I acquired a new perspective on what it means to run a business—particularly how the tech side of digital publishing works. Here, I gained a deep comprehension of all the different elements needed to start a company from the ground up.

As the captain of the ship, you need to learn how everything works in order to ensure you’re steering in the right direction.

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15. You Can Grow and Challenge Yourself

Starting your own business means handling a massive amount of responsibility. But this is where the fun part is. You get to face, accept, and conquer challenges as you run your business. You get to learn something new every day, whether it’s about sales or management or innovation, there are enough opportunities to grow and develop yourself.

16. Unexpected and Thrilling Experiences

If you become an entrepreneur, brace yourself for the unexpected. It is exciting to start a day not knowing how it will end, unlike the traditional office’s predictable schedule. Also, dealing with unexpected situations will be a great lesson on living in the moment and being present. You will sharpen your decision-making and problem-solving skills as you work to resolve the unexpected problems that arise when managing a business.

17. A Sense Of Pride

There’s nothing better than building your own successful business. Making your dream a reality, and knowing that all your hard work has finally paid off is a great feeling and is worth the stress and long hours it took to get there. There are also ways in which you can gain validation from professional bodies; for example you might be lucky enough to receive grants or awards for your hard work. Just knowing you’re in the small percentile of startups that made it past the first year is a great accomplishment.

18. Influence – Reasons Why You Should Start Your Own Business

I aim to influence business decisions globally – help businesses around the world to become better-managed. For example, by teaching how to implement business tools, theories and techniques into a business organization, I provide framework for managers, directors and CEOs how to run a successful company. I often discuss how real-life companies and their managers use business knowledge and skills to make business decisions.

Giving back to the society by writing about personal finance to help increase quality of life of millions of people in different countries is a social reason for my activity. I want to balance the commercial side of this project because I believe that balance is good for us as human being. I look forward to helping people with making better life decisions by applying business practices, so we can struggle less and become better.

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