The Real Reason Running Your Own Business is Harder Than Your Corporate Job

May 6, 2013, Written by Sue Miley


The corporate job is associated with the rat race.  Those corporations, the THEY of every employee’s conversations, don’t care about the employees, make you sit in meetings all day, and are going to do what THEY want anyway.

When speaking of THEY we see and hear words such as bureaucracy, cold-hearted, money-grubbing, and obtuse.

It was hard to see things THEIR way and you thought you could do it better.

Finally, you garnered enough support and courage to start your own business.  Full of hope and light and energy you immersed yourself in your start-up.

I don’t need to tell you what happened next.  You lived it.

It started out fun.  After all you didn’t have a ton of customers.  Taking care of the few accounting tasks, and setting up your website, was inspiring.

With a little success begins the juggling act.  Now you are servicing customers, paying bills, posting on FB, and trying to put an ad in the paper for your first employee.

It’s okay though.  “The balls are still few enough that I can manage”, you think.

Your Big Break Threatens To Break You

Until you get that break you have been looking for.  A surge.  A surge in customers for your one man show or small team puts a heavy burden on your newly formed structure.

Your laying in bed at night hoping you didn’t forget anything big today at  work.  Did any balls fall?

It’s hard.  Much harder than the corporate job.  After all, you don’t have an HR department to just handle the hiring.  Where is that marketing manager when you need him?

And you start to doubt yourself.  Your old corporation had low level employees doing the accounts payable and billing, how can it be so hard?

Running Your Own Business is Hard Because You Wear So Many Hats

It is hard to own a business.

I think it is much more difficult than the corporate job.  At some point or another you have to do a little bit of every role in the company.  We read about staying in our strengths at work, but you don’t really have a choice in your own company.  You are in a sea of strengths, weaknesses, and “I don’t know yet, I have never done this before!”

This truly makes running your own business harder than your corporate job.

There Is Purpose, Not Just a Paycheck

But take heart, their is a reason, a purpose in what you are doing.

Jesus never promises us easy.  He promises that we won’t be alone.  He gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us.  And, He promises to work through our weaknesses.

And nothing has changed in your vision.  You can do it differently.  You can stay away from the bureaucracy and wasted meetings.  You can create a team based on the culture and vision God has given you.  You can build a foundation of solid systems and processes.  Soon you will be marketing to a niche that appreciates why you are “different” than the rest of the pack.

It may take time and hard work, but it is possible, and if you stay the course and cling to God on the journey…..

It is probable!

Nothing is too hard for our God!

[optin]

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Sue Miley

Sue Miley MBA, MA, LPC helps small business owners build successful businesses on a foundation of Christian values. After 20 years in business, and 10 years as a Christian counselor, Sue uses a combination of faith, business and psychology to help clients in business and in life.

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