What You'll Give Up When You Start a Small Business

“I have never been this tired before," says one of my colleagues, speaking about the birth of his son. "I never understood what ‘this is hard’ meant before.”

Being a father myself, I get what he's saying. But, you don’t need to have a kid to experience that kind of shocking, life-changing responsibility.

Just open a small business.

If you think I’m being facetious, think again. My first two years in small business were the most difficult of my life. Nothing could have prepared me for what was coming.

A small business is a living entity, and like a baby it demands constant care and attention. Except, it doesn’t go down for naps. You can’t hand it off to a babysitter. It consumes everything you feed it and hungrily demands more.

What follows is a small list of things you should prepare to sacrifice if you decide to start a small business of your own. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it should give you at least an inkling of what to expect when you take the plunge.

1. Your job security.

No one loves working the 9 to 5 grind, and entrepreneurial types are especially averse to clocking in and out. But you know what’s great about a clock?

It’s dependable. It just keeps going around and around. There’s no confusion about what it’s telling you. As long as you provide basic maintenance, 2 p.m. means 2 p.m. every single day.

Same with a regular job. You get a paycheck twice a month. You can see a doctor if you need to. You can go on vacation and put your feet up, because you’re part of a smooth-running machine that’ll survive your temporary absence. 

Not so with a small business. When I started my first small business, I’d go months without getting a paycheck. I once put off visiting a doctor until I was coughing blood. Vacations of any duration were out of the question.

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Author: Levi King