Being in love is great. Being in love with your business, when you’re an entrepreneur, is even better. Waking up each morning knowing you are getting to do exactly what you love is more than most people could ever say about any “job” they have had. Although there are days when tossing in your hat seems like a viable option, remembering how much you love your “job” can quickly snap an entrepreneur out of that mentality. Different business owners also have different reason why they love their business. It might be the products or the customers they deal with, or it could even be the fact that they are the ones in charge of it all. The reasons are as varied as the businesses themselves.
We asked some entrepreneurs what they loved about “being their own boss.”
#1- Turning passion into career
I am a great believer in the life changing-situations. If you have ever thought that you can do something better instead of just everyday routine tasks like “home-office-home”, than you have to be an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur is not just about making money for living, being an entrepreneur is the way of life. You can change the world around you by making new cools products, achieving high goals and bringing you crazy-innovative ideas to the real life. I am not saying that it is easy to do, but that is 100%-overwhelming for sure. However, you have also to be lucky enough to turn your passion into a career by working hard, but it is totally worth to try!
Thanks to Marina Shumaieva, CruiseBe, Inc.!
#2- Creating opportunities
Having grown up as a troubled and abused minority youth from a low-income neighborhood, with no college degree, I was not given a chance at many of the opportunities I then desired to pursue. I love that being an entrepreneur has allowed me to CREATE new opportunities, not just for myself but also for others like me who were pushed aside by society because we were dealt a less privileged hand in life.
Thanks to Bryan Jimenez, Archimedes Strategic Branding!
#3- The reward and freedom
I love being an entrepreneur! Besides my wish list of being a fighter pilot or an indy-car driver, being an entrepreneur is the most rewarding thing I've ever done in the professional world. I love walking between the tension of failure and success every day. I love looking for opportunities and quickly jumping on them. It's a treasure to structure my day as I best see fit and not by some over-paid manager who hasn't a clue what success really looks like. Sometimes it seems I could earn more money being employed. But after watching a few rounds of Shark Tank, I realize there is nothing that offers more freedom and reward than being an entrepreneur. This is one field where I'm sure most people have few regrets. If you pursue this field and fail, at least you entered this arena and gave it your best shot. If you pursue this field and succeed, at least you entered this arena and gave it your best shot. If you never pursue this field, you will never know.
Thanks to Glenn Davis, Glenn Davis Consulting!
#4-Freedom of Choice
After thinking about it, what I really value about being an entrepreneur is the freedom of choice you give yourself. What I mean by that is, rather than putting yourself on a career track that is largely predetermined by some outside entity, e.g. taking an entry-level job at a major corporation and hoping to climb the traditional ladder, you elect to carve your own financial path. Ask any serious entrepreneur about the pressures they feel to produce and survive, and they will attest to them openly. But also ask them if they'd rather choose between that and having someone above them dictating the choices they are forced to make for money. I guarantee that everyone would accept the risk wholeheartedly.
Thanks to Shaan Patel, Prep Expert!
#5- Freedom to innovate
One of the main things I love about being an entrepreneur and running my own business is the freedom to innovate. Of course, we have a business model at CoinCorner, but being a company ran by the owners means we can make quick decisions on new projects or features we want to explore.
Thanks to Danny Scott, CoinCorner!
#6- Being creative
I'm a creator by nature so my favorite thing about being an entrepreneur is being able to invent things, turn them into products, and sell them – sometimes on the spot! I've created quite a few products for authors that way, by looking at the process of writing a book, from idea conception through publishing and then long-term promotion, finding the gaps where authors need help, and then filling them with my inventions. It's an epic life when you don't have to ask for permission to be creative for a living!
Thanks to Christine Whitmarsh, The Ink Agency!
#7- The highs and the lows
Being an entrepreneur is exciting and fun! I wasn't raised with the entrepreneurial spirit, I had to acquire it. I was raised in the Midwest and the mentality was to work hard and work your way up. My father spent 30 years at the same company and I thought I would do the same. It wasn't until I was 26 years old and working for Anthony Robbins that I got the entrepreneur bug. I was around all entrepreneurs and I remember a friend of mine, work 80 million telling me, Tamara one day you will understand that it's the way of your future and your true drive in your profession. She was right! I started my own business at age 28 years and haven't looked back. The highs are high and the lows can be low but nothing is more gratifying than creating something from nothing!
Thanks to Tamara Bunte
#8- A number of things
I love being an entrepreneur because it is an amazingly fulfilling conduit for improving the world in a way that produces tangible and measurable results. I thoroughly enjoy the autonomy, creativity, ownership, innovation, and ideation that comes with navigating uncharted territory and pursuing dreams against numerous odds. I couldn't think of anything else I'd rather do more with my career. The immense amount of growth–internally and in knowledge and skill set– are also incredibly rewarding.
Thanks to Phaedra Randolph, Spero Foods!
#9- Countless things
I believe that a person becomes an entrepreneur by choice and not by force. Personally speaking, I have countless things that I love about my job. Apart from being an entrepreneur, you can be an innovator, having access to the system. Secondly, I have observed, on multiple events, that I had an opportunity to change a lot of people whom I met during conferences and events. At times, a successful business at a young age leaves you as a role model and I love motivating and inspiring young and budding entrepreneurs with my story. Next thing what I love is, I am not bored with my job. Every morning, when I wake up, I want to work, learn and achieve more with new challenges coming up every Monday. Not to forget my job has provided a lot of challenging work and I love finding solutions for. I would like to end with the known quote “with great power comes great responsibilities.
Thanks to Jitesh Keswani, e intelligence!
#10- Paying my staff
Being an entrepreneur is one of the most rewarding things I’ve chosen to participate in and one of the biggest reasons is my staff. I love the personal flexibility and the actual meat of what we do, but nothing makes me happier than paying my staff. I love that good work is rewarded with pay that supports 5 other strong women (and one man!). Call me an old-fashioned American but I am beyond proud to help put food on the table of a staff that works hard to earn it. If you can deal with long hours, weekend work, and very few days off, entrepreneurship has so many unexpected upsides that will make you and your team proud to build services and deliver end products that generate referrals.
Thanks to Emily Rowe, Social Sensei!
#11- Implementing ideas instantly
Having a great idea and being able to just go and do it, that day, without being held back by the bureaucracy and restrictions that are often in place in a large corporate. When you run your own start-up you have the advantage of being able to react faster, and this is a big advantage in an ever faster changing world.
Thanks to Mark Solomon, LovetheSales.com!
#12-Having a huge motivation and purpose when waking up!
I think this is the best thing about being the CEO. You can dream about your business while sleeping and it makes you extremely happy about it. Your business turns into your lifestyle and hobby. It defines you as a person and this is the kind of motivation that gives me not only happiness, but also a self-fulfillment and meaning in what I do. In my case it is – to bring back bargaining power to the buyers and letting companies compete for our hard-earned money! People say that my job is a huge responsibility, so stressful… – and yes, it is very hectic most of the time, a busy schedule and numerous tasks. But all of it is compensated by those small milestones that your business achieves, step by step into something great. You see that your own effort paid off and that’s where I get a purpose waking up every morning as a CEO!
Thanks to Paulius Vegele, RVLhub!
#13-I love the constant learning and growing
After years of studying for my Master's Degree and then law degree and working in a challenging field of litigation, I thought I've done a lot of learning. However, it doesn't compare to the amount of learning I had to do in my role as an entrepreneur. I've been recommending all the young people I know to start a business as it's an amazing education.
Thanks to Elena Ledoux, Chief Mommy!
#14- Fulfillment and impact
Aside from the glorious freedom of using my time how I see fit, I really enjoy the ability to decide what sort of impact I want to have on the lives of others. I get to carry my own authentic mission forward through my work and hope it inspires others in the process. I never had that same personal investment when I was working for a separate corporate entity. Now, I am excited to take on new challenges to learn and grow every day as my business grows with me. I’m fueled by the idea that it’s about more than just myself; it’s about the people I’m serving and inspiring with my art. My work has become more meaningful and I feel more fulfilled than ever.
Thanks to Megan Carty
#15- The feeling of complete potentiality
What I love about being an entrepreneur is having the freedom and flexibility to try new things, test out new ideas, collaborate on projects with other people in my industry and just have that feeling of complete potentiality. Of course, I experience some amount of pressure from day to day responsibilities, but by deliberately choosing how I spend my day and who I surround myself with, any stress is really of my own making and that pushes me to grow. The sky is the limit really, as an entrepreneur.
Thanks to Melissa DeMayo, Digital House Creative!
#16- Everyday is different
I’ve run my own businesses for the past 20 years. There is nothing quite like it. There are no ordinary days, there are no average days. You would think after 20 years and in different industries, there will just be a normal day, but every day is different. Not all of them are great, not all of them are fun. There are decisions you make that have impact not just in your life but in the lives of people who work for and with you. However, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Thanks to Fiona Gilbert
#17- The limits it eliminates
My favorite thing about being an entrepreneur is the limits it eliminates. There is literally no ceiling. You can always do more, be more, earn more, learn more, grow more, create more and even be more creative. There is so much opportunity and it's all on me to make it happen. There is something so terrifying and exhilarating to be in this position; it's like a runaway rollercoaster that never returns to let me off. I don't sleep and I don't care. I work 18 hour days and I don't mind. It's liberating and exhausting. It's amazing and terrible, and all at the same time.
Thanks to Corri Smith, Black Wednesday!
#18- I get to own 100% of the failure
When I first became an entrepreneur (23 years old) I did quite a bit of finger pointing when a situation went wrong or we lost a client. I would blame an employee for making a mistake, think the customer was being unreasonable or call into question the integrity of the situation on a whole. I've always been a rule challenger by nature but early on in my small business owner's journey I didn't see that owning the Failure is the most positive tool you can have as an entrepreneur. Now when I fail (I just lost a major client last week) I have the opportunity to post-mortem really evaluate the decisions I made that led-up to the end-result and put real action into making the next situation a success.
Thanks to Thomas Carnevale, Umbrella Technologies!
#19- Letting go
Being and Entrepreneur has been an exercise in letting go. Letting go of long held beliefs. Being a CFO turned entrepreneur in food and beverage sector, I used to think I was not a marketer, I have become one. I used to think that I can only write in bullet points, I have learnt to write prose. I used to think I cannot be a spokesperson for my brand, and here I am, with my photo on the website and the boxes. It has been a super learning experience and I get nervous each day and each day I tackle something that I thought I could never do.
Thanks to Shiwali Varshney, Conure, LLC!
#20- Doing a dozen of things
Too often, jobs today require you to specialize. You're expected to sit at a desk for eight hours a day doing the same thing. It's not healthy. My favorite thing about running Letterjoy is that every day I get to do a dozen things. Today I wrote code, answered customers, assisted team members in refining our production process, and researched historical letters. I did it while walking around, in an environment that I enjoy. There's no other job in the world where I get to work on so many different things in one day in such a comfortable setting.
Thanks to Michael Sitver, Letterjoy!
#21- Being in charge
As an entrepreneur, I feel like I'm playing a higher stakes game than I ever have before. Every significant business decision that presents itself makes me pause and every move I make feels like going all in. I never know what's around the next corner, but that's exactly why I love doing what I do. I love having the chance to direct myself towards massive success or tremendous failure instead of letting someone else steer the ship.
Thanks to Eric Johnson, The Wedding Collective!