When you decide to start your business, you go through a wide range of emotions from excitement to fear. All the emotions are reasonable because starting a business is a big step. It takes your time and energy, and often time revolves around elevated risk factors. You want to make sure you know what business you want to start, your target audience and the purpose behind your business. You could be selling a service, selling a product, or simply providing consultations. No matter what niche you want to go in, there are always pros and cons to everything. 

Pro: Be Your Own Boss

Owning a business comes with a major independence factor. You have the freedom to do a lot of things with your business. You can take time off whenever you desire, you can work at your own flexible time and so on. It also comes with creative freedom, you can perform different experiments with your business, implement new strategies, add cultural values and just overall you are able to unleash your inner creativity. When you own a business, you can dream as big as you want. The sky is the limit here because you do not have anyone putting rules and regulations on your goals. You have the freedom to set your goals and use your own strategies to achieve them. 

Pro: You Choose Your People

Often in your 9-5 you might be stuck with people who you do not want to work with. Sometimes those people do not possess the soft skills necessary to work in corporations, and since you work with them, you also might not be able to grow professionally. But when it comes to having your business you can choose your own people, you choose who would be the best fit in your company and who would be able to serve your customers. This is a major pro of starting a business because the right team can skyrocket a business. 

Pro: Financial Advantage

While starting a business comes with a big financial risk, it also pays it back once you dedicate full time and attention to your business. In your 9-5 job, your income is still limited even after several bonuses. But owning your own business makes big money, only if it is handled the right way and given full attention to. But with that you also need to know how to balance cashflow, when more cash comes into your hand, you tend to go out of place. So, make sure you know how to handle your finances. 

Pro: Security

Working for yourself comes with security, that means no one can fire you. Sometimes you also tend to have an inferior complex of not doing enough, and not achieving enough. Owning a business also eliminates that factor because you can achieve much more on your own. There are also several learning opportunities on your journey. So, you are not only learning but also interacting with people from all around the country which could help you grow not only professionally but also builds your confidence and gives you a sense of accomplishment. Now we will look at some cons. 

Con: Burnout

While starting a business comes with the advantage of being your own boss, it also comes with the disadvantage of being burned-out. Meaning working long hours without any breaks. As a business owner, there are a lot of things which you have to take care of on your own. There are several tasks which you have to look at. Even if someone else is performing those tasks, you still have to keep a check on everything to make sure that everything is running smoothly. So, eventually burnout can happen and often you cannot even take a break from work because you have responsibility over everything and taking a break is not an option. 

Con: Unemployed

Starting a business means good money in the long term, but in the initial years of your business you might have to get used to not getting paid well, but just in the initial years. As we know, building a business is a long and tedious process, so obviously it would be unfair to expect a great outcome right away. Everything takes time, and so will your business. It will not generate that much money in the beginning, and at times whatever profit you might generate might have to go back into the business as well. So, make sure to consider this factor before starting your business. 

Con: Feeling Lost

Being your own boss is an advantage, but that also means there is no real guidance. Being an entrepreneur, you would have to figure out so many things yourself and take big risks. It is obviously not easy to figure out everything on your own, sometimes you might feel so lost, but in such times, you would need to have a mentor with you. Having a mentor would make sure that you have someone to take advice from and can fall back to whenever you need a helping hand. Consultation and advising services are also available, which you can use if you are ever in need. 

Con: Risk

Now, the biggest of all factors; financial risk. You take several different risks when you choose to start a business, economic risk, operational risk, competition risk and so on. All these risk factors cannot be eliminated, you just have to work with them, take the risk, and be careful on your journey. Nothing in life comes easy so you would eventually have to take a risk with whatever you decide to do. Just make sure the risk is worth taking. 

Now that you have a list of pros and cons, you can decide if starting a business is something you would want to do. Everything has Its pros and cons, but it is on you to decide which field is worth your time, energy, and risk. I hope this was helpful and gave you an insight into the ups and downs of owning a business.