Open for Business

Some how I got to be in this boat ... this tub of business ownership.  I swore when I was small I would never own a business.  Working for "the man" was fine by me.  I knew it was fine by me because I watched my father, who ran his own busineess, deal with the stresses of business ownership, and I wanted no part of any other those stresses!  My husband, had other plans for his life and we've owned more than 4 business.  Each of which has been larger than the one before, more complicated, more financially stressful, and more meaningful if successful.  I thought I would do a list of pros and cons because sometimes I forget the good and the bad of this situation I'm in because I'm too busy just surviving the details. 

I am all about being an employee for the following reasons:

1. I know my paycheck comes right on time, every time, no matter how well I performed
2. I don't have to worry about how my coworkers are doing as far as bringing in money
3. I don't have to worry about how snow days are not equal to income
4. I don't have to worry about paying taxes on other people's income
5. I don't worry about how labor laws take even more of my profits away from me
6. No one assumes employees are "rich" just because they are called an "employee"
7. When I clock out, my work day is done and I can worry about the things that are important to my personal life
8. I don't have to worry about another entire set of bills or budgets, or anything really!

Why I'm not all happy skippy about being a business owner:

1. Snow days eat into profit.  If your shop doesn't open you can't sell anything
2. You have to pay taxes not only on your profit, but on your inventory, your employee earnings, your thought, your hopes and your dreams
3. Everyone assumes you are "rich" and then begin to "borrow" (read steal) things that do not belong to them because you're so "rich" you have enough money to buy more!
4. You have to worry about how the employees treat each other and if they make it a good or bad work envirnoment for each other, if they lie, steal, or cheat on each other, and if they lie, steal, or cheat you OR your customers
5. You have to out smart more than 10 people to out think them, provide before they realize they lack, and to know everything about everything.  You are considered a tax expert, a health care law expert, a city and state law expert, and/or an industry expert
6. You are personally invested in something you have almost no control over -- you depend on other people's actions so much so they have the chance to defeat you before you know it, if you don't stay on your a - game
7. Vacations cease to exist, you are forever tied to a payroll period, a holiday staffing nightmare, a broken phone, a broken computer, etc., etc., etc.
8. The business does not return any investment money to the owner for years! In fact, it often requires a steady influx of personal money.  Such money must be gathered by loan, by credit, or through hard work at a "second job", a full time job, which is acutally the job that pays for the bills and the buiness to keep going.

Why I am happy to be a business owner:

1. I am the boss and what I say goes ... at least until there is a law against it!