Answer by Nick Loper, chief side hustler at SideHustleNation.com
The best part of running your business is that it’s one of the most challenging, rewarding and stressful things you’ll ever do. It’s a completely different ball game from relying on someone else for a steady paycheck.
Have you ever worked for 100% commission? That’s what ALL small business owners do, every single day. If they don’t sell anything, they won’t earn anything. It’s scary and exhilarating at the same time.
At any job, there’s a limit to how much you can earn — a salary “ceiling,” if you will. With your own business, you can smash through that ceiling if you make the right moves.
The downside of course is you lose the floor, too.
I love having the freedom to schedule my days how I see fit, to try out new ideas, and not have a boss to answer to. If that means taking off on a Tuesday to go skiing, awesome. On the flip side, it often means working late into the night and on weekends to take care of an important job or client.
For me, the worst part of running a business is a lack of direction. By that I mean there’s no one else telling you what to work on or what tasks to prioritize. Every decision has to be made by you, and it’s stressful.
The way around that is to build a team of people you trust, either within your company or outside it — preferably both. One thing that’s really helped me recently is a mastermind group of like-minded entrepreneurs, a group to bounce ideas off of and hold each other accountable.
Answer by Richard I. Polis, entrepreneur/consultant
Best: Ultimately, everything depends on you.
Worst: Ultimately, everything depends on you.
Answer by Ken W. Green, entrepreneur
The people you hire. You’ll discover who you hire encompasses the best and worst parts of running a business. I’ve discussed this with numerous owners and executives over the past 20 years and we can all agree, finding good people is by far the most challenging aspect of running and/or managing a business, regardless of size.
Good people are hard to find and your employees really do make a difference, so spend extra time evaluating an applicant before you hire, and create a procedure to quickly identify if they will succeed in their position. If not, let them go as quickly as possible. Unproductive employees will drain you of time, resources and much needed money.
Once you hire a good one, you’ll truly know the value of a great employee, and nothing can quite match that. They make all the other pains and hassles seem much smaller too, often times making them disappear altogether. And the best part, you’re able to delegate and assign responsibility, which allows you to focus on the big picture, which I believe is the best part.
Answer by Ken Larson, recipient of SCORE National Achievement Award in Small Business Counseling
Starting my enterprise was a logical extension of the work I had been doing as an individual contractor, so the transition seemed easy enough.
What I had to learn very quickly was the business planning, marketing and competitive analysis aspects of operating an enterprise, as opposed to negotiating single person efforts. Industry teaming, having others work for me and dealing as a company instead of a person were all challenges.
It took roughly two years to adjust, develop a client base as a company, and progress to profitability.
This question originally appeared on Quora: What are the best and worst parts of starting your own business?
