I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’re probably in for a shock.
I hear it all the time from people thinking about going solo…
“I’m starting my own company so I can live life on my terms!”
“I’ll have more flexibility!”
“I’ll be my own boss!”
“I get to do what I want!”
And every time I hear it, I think:
“You’re going to be in for a shock”
Because if that’s what you’re after, you could be setting yourself up for the biggest disappointment of your life.
Let me try to break this down…
Bad day at work? Not your problem to fix. You do your bit, clock off, and someone else deals with the fallout.
Shit’s hit the fan? Someone else’s headache. You might get dragged into the solution, but ultimately, it’s not your responsibility to fix everything.
Massive new project comes in the day before your holiday? Not your issue. You’re still off to Disneyland, and they’ll have to figure it out without you.
Company’s struggling financially? Concerning, sure, but your paycheck still lands every month while someone else loses sleep over the numbers.
Difficult client causing chaos? You might have to deal with them day-to-day, but you’re not the one making the big decisions about whether to keep them or fire them.
Something goes wrong at 11 PM on a Sunday? Guess who’s opening the laptop!
Cash flow issues keeping you awake? Guess who’s losing sleep tonight!
Have employees depending on you? Guess who’s responsible for paying their bills!
Major client threatening to leave? Guess who’s dropping everything to save the relationship!
Website crashes during your busiest period? Guess who’s frantically calling tech support while everyone else is asleep!
Supplier lets you down last minute? Guess who’s scrambling to find alternatives!
Get the picture?
When you’re employed, problems are distributed across teams, departments, and management layers.
When you own the business, they all end up on your desk.
If you think you’re going to start a business where you work 3–4 hours in the morning and then sit in the back garden enjoying the beautiful British summer…
You’re in for a nice surprise.
Here’s what actually happens:
You start the day checking emails before you’ve even had your first coffee.
You spend those 3–4 hours in the morning dealing with the urgent stuff.
Then you spend the afternoon dealing with the important stuff.
Then you spend the evening dealing with the stuff that couldn’t wait until tomorrow.
And then you lie in bed thinking about all the stuff you didn’t get to today that you need to tackle tomorrow.
Plus the weekend work is real… I am currently sitting here on a Sunday morning writing this.. Because every spare second you have, needs to be invested in the business.
Rinse and repeat.
The idea that business ownership gives you more free time is one of the biggest myths in entrepreneurship.
You don’t get more time…
You get more responsibility.
And more responsibility means more things demanding your attention, not fewer.
Here’s the thing about being your own boss that nobody tells you upfront…
You don’t have one boss.
You have every client, every employee, every family member, and every bill as your boss.
They all demand your attention.
They all need you to show up.
During the week and at the weekends!
Your clients expect you to be available when they need you, not when it’s convenient for you.
Your employees need guidance, support, and answers to questions that can’t wait until Monday.
Your family still expects you to be present for important events, even when work is chaos.
Your bills don’t care if you’ve had a quiet month or if a big client hasn’t paid yet.
Each of these “bosses” has legitimate claims on your time and attention.
And unlike employment, where you can sometimes push back or escalate to someone else, as a business owner, the buck stops with you.
When you’re employed, you can genuinely switch off at the end of the day.
You can take a proper holiday.
You can have a sick day without the world ending.
You can say “that’s not my department” and mean it.
As a business owner?
You can’t afford to say: “Sorry, I’m off for the week enjoying work-life balance.”
Because if the business fails, it all goes down with you at the helm, and it’s so much bigger than just you.
If you have employees, their mortgage payments depend on you keeping the lights on.
If you have clients, their businesses might depend on the service you provide.
If you have suppliers, their cash flow might depend on your regular orders.
The weight of that responsibility doesn’t respect your desire for work-life balance.
It demands attention when it demands attention, not when it’s convenient for your schedule.
After reading all of this, you might be wondering why anyone would choose business ownership over the relative safety and predictability of employment.
Here’s the thing…
Even though it’s a fucking hard slog that requires an insane amount of work…
You can’t beat that feeling of watching it all come together.
Seeing an idea become a reality.
There’s something magical about taking a concept that exists only in your head and turning it into something real that solves problems for real people.
Building something that’s genuinely yours.
Every decision, every improvement, every success is directly tied to your efforts and vision.
Creating jobs for other people.
Knowing that your business provides livelihoods for other families is both terrifying and incredibly rewarding.
Making decisions that actually matter.
Instead of implementing someone else’s vision, you get to shape the direction of something you care about.
Having control over your income potential.
While employment offers security, business ownership offers unlimited upside if you can make it work.
The sooner you abandon the idea of work-life balance as a business owner, the better.
It’s not about balance.
It’s about work-life integration.
Your business becomes part of who you are, not just what you do.
Instead of trying to keep work and life in separate boxes, you learn to weave them together in a way that works for you.
Some days, that means working late into the evening to solve a crisis.
Other days, it means taking a long lunch to attend your kid’s school play.
Some weeks, you’ll work seven days straight to launch a new product.
Other weeks, you might take Wednesday afternoon off because you can.
The flexibility is there, but it’s not the kind of structured flexibility that employment offers.
It’s chaotic flexibility that requires you to be comfortable with uncertainty and constant change.
If you’re thinking about starting a business, don’t kid yourself that it’s going to be easier than employment.
It’s harder.
Much harder.
Painfully harder…
But for those of you out there who are mental enough to take the risk, it’s worth every sleepless night.
Just go in with your eyes open.
Understand that you’re trading the security and predictability of employment for the uncertainty and unlimited potential of business ownership.
Understand that work-life balance, as traditionally defined, probably isn’t going to be part of your life for the first few years.
Understand that you’ll be responsible for everything, all the time, whether you want to be or not.
And if you’re okay with all of that…
If you’re up for the grind…
You’ll have a great ride.
But please, for the love of all that’s holy, don’t start a business because you think it’s going to give you more free time.
Start it because you want to build something.
Start it because you want control over your destiny.
Start it because you’re willing to sacrifice work-life balance for work-life integration.
Just don’t start it because someone told you it would be easier.
Because anyone who tells you that is a liar.
