Owning and operating my small business has been one of the biggest blessings in my life, though it has not came easily or without challenges. There are several misconceptions about being a small business owner (SBO) and I wanted to bring more awareness to some of them.
The first misconception, which I feel is one of the biggest ones, is that you set your own hours. In a sense this could be true, but if you set your own hours around when was most convenient for you, then you likely wouldn't have much success as a SBO. As a SBO, we need to set our hours of work to reflect the need of our customers. We need to be available for our customers which often entails the same hours as a typical 9 to 5 job. If we went into business with the mindset of i'm only working 3pm to 10pm then we likely would lose our customers by being unreachable to the vast majority of them when they need to ask questions.
The second misconception which also ties in to the first, is that small business owners have more time for leisure activities/to do what they want. In some perceptions, yes you can do what you want but doing what you want more than what you need to do wont equal success. Before creating my small business, i was a bakery manager and i worked 6am-2pm, 5 days a week. When i clocked out and came home, I was truly off work and couldn't work if i tried. Now that i have my own small business i feel like i don't ever truly "clock out". My small business is heavily tied to the use of my phone and between shipping issues/delays, requests, customs, general inquires my phone usually doesn't stop. I am not complaining because i know this is just part of it, but rather i am trying to show that sometimes it feels like i work 24/7 compared to a traditional 9 to 5 where you can leave work at work. We run our business from our home so it also makes the home feel less "homey" and more like i live at work. Again, i am not complaining and am forever grateful, but i'd like to point out the misconception that we have more time as SBO's, when in reality we work double, or triple the time and also don't always make the money we did when we worked a 9 to 5. If we started our business with the mindset of "oh this will be fun, i can work whenever i choose" then we wouldn't have successful businesses. At the end of the day our livelihood and our family depend on our small business, so our efforts and time need to match that level of importance. We aren't a household name like Wal-Mart or Target, so we have to work harder to get our name out there, work harder to prove we are worthy, work harder to prove we will treat our customers right and work harder to gain buyers trust, trust that other big box stores already have.
The third misconception would be that you need a business degree or experience in the business field to run your own business. This could not be further from the truth. I went to school and got my Bachelors Degree in CIS, and i can tell you that what i learned (even in the business classes i took) I have not used it in any part of creating my own small business. I will tell you that 90% of what creating a small business is, which is trial and error, and mistakes. You learn some of the most valuable and essential business knowledge from trying and failing. You make a mistake and then you learn from that mistake and then you make changes and adjustments so that it doesn't happen again. Enough trial and error and then you have a good foundation of how things should be done versus what you were doing. The other 10% is pure will and dedication. If you have pure will and dedication to make it work and have it in you to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes i think that is better than any business degree.
The fourth and final misconception i would like to discuss is that "you have no boss." In one sense that is true, but you do have your customers and your customers are the ones that will hold you responsible if you do something wrong or make an error or break a promise/deadline. You may not have someone breathing down your neck telling you xyz needs to be done by Friday but you do have customers that are expecting their item to be ready by Friday, and if you don't deliver on your word then you've lost a customer and lost a bit of integrity, which ultimately could hurt your business. So in a sense, your customers are your boss.
I wanted to make a post on common misconceptions about being a SBO because so many think we have it made "being our own boss", "choosing our own hours", and having "all the time in the world" when these just simply are not the case. Our livelihoods depends on us to put in twice the work as any other job and twice the love and care.