September 23, 2024 • 7 mins
This episode I'm going to talk to you about five advantages and five disadvantages of being an entrepreneur.
These are based on my 6 years of experience as an entrepreneur.
Thanks for checking out the Frugal Entrepreneurs podcast!
Subscribe to the show for awesome episodes about entrepreneurship, frugality, and everything in between!
These are based on my 6 years of experience as an entrepreneur.
Thanks for checking out the Frugal Entrepreneurs podcast!
Subscribe to the show for awesome episodes about entrepreneurship, frugality, and everything in between!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Frugal Entrepreneurs podcast, where I break down frugality,
entrepreneurship and everything in between. And today we're talking about
entrepreneurship in particular. I'm going to talk to you about
five advantages and five disadvantages of being an entrepreneur. And
these ideas are based on my experience after being an
entrepreneur for the past six years. So let's look at
(00:23):
some advantages of being an entrepreneur. Number one is scaling
your income. As an entrepreneur, you have the opportunity to
scale your income. Scaling means removing yourself from the business
to improve your income. This includes delegating, automating, eliminating, and
improving processes. One of my favorite business owners is Josh Hall,
a web design coach and founder of the agency called
(00:46):
in Transit Studios. He scaled his income and web design
agency in a few ways. First, he offered website maintenance plans,
which added reliable, recurring revenue to his business. Second, he
hired people to offer adjacent web design agency services like SEO,
graphic design and general digital marketing. Third, he consistently raised
(01:07):
his prices. This came with experience and offering better value
to his customers. Aside from owning assets, scaling your income
is the only way to get rich in life. Number
two is passionate work. The second advantage to the fact
that you can do passionate work, you can start a
business in any industry you want. For example, I got
my start in entrepreneurship by teaching guitar, and I started
(01:29):
when I was nineteen years old. At that time, I
had already played guitar for eleven years, and my eleven
years of experience made it easy for me to teach guitar.
And on top of that, I thoroughly enjoy teaching guitar.
This is awesome because I got to make a living
associated with two things I love very much, guitar and music. Three.
(01:50):
Say your own schedule and have time freedom. As an entrepreneur,
you get to be your own boss, which means you
get to set your own schedule. This has its limitations,
but in my experience it has been incredible for starters.
I don't work weekends. Lots of entrepreneurs might prefer to
work weekends, and that's okay because it's their life and
they can set their schedule. Second, I never have to
(02:11):
ask for time off during this past summer, the summer
of twenty twenty four, I took a nine day trip
from Idaho to Texas. That would have been very difficult
schedule if I was not an entrepreneur. Also, this past August,
I got a nasty virus called the norovirus. I was
not able to work during that time, so I hired
my brother to do the work for me. Lastly, I've
(02:34):
improved my relationship with my wife, family and friends. I
go to lunch with them, call them, and spend lots
of in person time with them. And that's the power
of setting your own schedule. Four, you're in control. This
means you get set the rules for your business and
work as smart and hard as you want. For example,
(02:55):
you can work smarter and save money for your company
by choosing a logical website builder. Such as if you
were working for a company and you didn't like the
website platform they were using, there's very little you could
do about it, even if you showed the company executives
how much money it could save them. Also, there's not
much for you to gain by making suggestions to executives
at a company that you work for. As an entrepreneur,
(03:18):
you have everything to gain by making smart logical improvements
in your business. Five Personal growth. Being an entrepreneur is
a never ending journey, and this leads to growth. You'll
grow when you learn new skills. You'll grow when you
make a customer happy. You'll grow when you make your
first ten thousand dollars. You'll grow when you give someone
(03:38):
a job that allows them to feed their family. Overall,
the personal growth opportunities are exceptional, abundant, and rewarding as
an entrepreneur. All right, now, let's work. Sorry, now let's
look at some disadvantages of entrepreneurship. Number one liability. As
an entrepreneur, your company can and will be held liable.
(03:59):
Long story short, You could get soon. And this is
an even bigger worry once you start to hire, because
you'll have more people to hold accountable. With this in mind,
you need to make sure your business has a good
legal structure in place. You'll also want to look into insurance.
For example, I use pet Care insurance for my pet
waste removal business. Two marketing. The second thing that may
(04:20):
be a disadvantage for the average entrepreneur is marketing. As
an entrepreneur, you're going to face up against established companies.
No matter what type of business you're running, this means
you need to be aggressively marketing your business and you
need to learn to sell. I suggest setting up all
the passive marketing channels that you can, such as a
Google business profile, Facebook page, and website. From there, work
(04:41):
on just one or two active marketing channels. Make sure
they are marketing channels where your ideal customer hangs out. Three.
Accounting and finances. One of the first things you want
to do as an entrepreneur is build up your financial foundation.
For starters, figure out your accounting. This means figuring out
how you're going to take payments from customers, how are
you going to put that money, and how you will
(05:02):
report your income to the irs. Start by finding and
using a practical accounting system like freshbooks or wave apps.
From there, talk to an accountant about how and when
you need to pay your business taxes. Lastly, regarding personal finances,
it will be a while before you can get a
loan as an entrepreneur. This includes credit cards, car loans,
and a mortgage for stability, another disadvantage as an entrepreneur
(05:26):
is stability in your business. For starters, a lot of
businesses go through feast and famine cycles. The feast refers
to making lots of money, and the famine refers to
the times you're making no money. These cycles can be
eliminated or reduced by offering recurring surfaces. Also, as your
business grows larger and your name spreads, you'll have far
fewer of these cycles. Seasonality is another stability factor. Practically
(05:50):
every business has seasons where they will do better. For example,
my pet waste removal company's best season is the spring season.
I live in Idaho, and when the snow mell in
the springtime, the dog owners are left with a big,
not so fun surprise. This is great news for my
business because we get out there, clean up the mess
and make some good money. Five. Hiring Scaling your income
(06:13):
is awesome. The hiring can be difficult. The first thing
you need to know about hiring is that you will
never find an employee who cares about your business as
much as you do. The second thing you need to
know is that it can be hard to find someone
who wants to work for you. I think the easiest
way to improve these odds is by offering good wage benefit,
good wages and good benefits. Lastly, employees can be unreliable,
(06:36):
and you have to remember that they are human like you.
They have family emergencies, they get sick, and they have
bad days. And I can almost guarantee you that as
a small business owner, your employees will do a much
better job if they believe your company cares about them
and takes care of them. To conclude, those are my
five advantages and disadvantages of being an entrepreneur. In my experience,
(06:58):
the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. But I know that's not
the same for everyone else, and I respect that there's
no shame in working for someone else. Thank you so
much for listening to the Frugal Entrepreneurs podcast. Subscribe to
the show for more episodes like this and leave a
review If you liked this episode, thanks again and have
(07:21):
an awesome day.
Welcome to the Frugal Entrepreneurs podcast, where I break down frugality,
entrepreneurship and everything in between. And today we're talking about
entrepreneurship in particular. I'm going to talk to you about
five advantages and five disadvantages of being an entrepreneur. And
these ideas are based on my experience after being an
entrepreneur for the past six years. So let's look at
(00:23):
some advantages of being an entrepreneur. Number one is scaling
your income. As an entrepreneur, you have the opportunity to
scale your income. Scaling means removing yourself from the business
to improve your income. This includes delegating, automating, eliminating, and
improving processes. One of my favorite business owners is Josh Hall,
a web design coach and founder of the agency called
(00:46):
in Transit Studios. He scaled his income and web design
agency in a few ways. First, he offered website maintenance plans,
which added reliable, recurring revenue to his business. Second, he
hired people to offer adjacent web design agency services like SEO,
graphic design and general digital marketing. Third, he consistently raised
(01:07):
his prices. This came with experience and offering better value
to his customers. Aside from owning assets, scaling your income
is the only way to get rich in life. Number
two is passionate work. The second advantage to the fact
that you can do passionate work, you can start a
business in any industry you want. For example, I got
my start in entrepreneurship by teaching guitar, and I started
(01:29):
when I was nineteen years old. At that time, I
had already played guitar for eleven years, and my eleven
years of experience made it easy for me to teach guitar.
And on top of that, I thoroughly enjoy teaching guitar.
This is awesome because I got to make a living
associated with two things I love very much, guitar and music. Three.
(01:50):
Say your own schedule and have time freedom. As an entrepreneur,
you get to be your own boss, which means you
get to set your own schedule. This has its limitations,
but in my experience it has been incredible for starters.
I don't work weekends. Lots of entrepreneurs might prefer to
work weekends, and that's okay because it's their life and
they can set their schedule. Second, I never have to
(02:11):
ask for time off during this past summer, the summer
of twenty twenty four, I took a nine day trip
from Idaho to Texas. That would have been very difficult
schedule if I was not an entrepreneur. Also, this past August,
I got a nasty virus called the norovirus. I was
not able to work during that time, so I hired
my brother to do the work for me. Lastly, I've
(02:34):
improved my relationship with my wife, family and friends. I
go to lunch with them, call them, and spend lots
of in person time with them. And that's the power
of setting your own schedule. Four, you're in control. This
means you get set the rules for your business and
work as smart and hard as you want. For example,
(02:55):
you can work smarter and save money for your company
by choosing a logical website builder. Such as if you
were working for a company and you didn't like the
website platform they were using, there's very little you could
do about it, even if you showed the company executives
how much money it could save them. Also, there's not
much for you to gain by making suggestions to executives
at a company that you work for. As an entrepreneur,
(03:18):
you have everything to gain by making smart logical improvements
in your business. Five Personal growth. Being an entrepreneur is
a never ending journey, and this leads to growth. You'll
grow when you learn new skills. You'll grow when you
make a customer happy. You'll grow when you make your
first ten thousand dollars. You'll grow when you give someone
(03:38):
a job that allows them to feed their family. Overall,
the personal growth opportunities are exceptional, abundant, and rewarding as
an entrepreneur. All right, now, let's work. Sorry, now let's
look at some disadvantages of entrepreneurship. Number one liability. As
an entrepreneur, your company can and will be held liable.
(03:59):
Long story short, You could get soon. And this is
an even bigger worry once you start to hire, because
you'll have more people to hold accountable. With this in mind,
you need to make sure your business has a good
legal structure in place. You'll also want to look into insurance.
For example, I use pet Care insurance for my pet
waste removal business. Two marketing. The second thing that may
(04:20):
be a disadvantage for the average entrepreneur is marketing. As
an entrepreneur, you're going to face up against established companies.
No matter what type of business you're running, this means
you need to be aggressively marketing your business and you
need to learn to sell. I suggest setting up all
the passive marketing channels that you can, such as a
Google business profile, Facebook page, and website. From there, work
(04:41):
on just one or two active marketing channels. Make sure
they are marketing channels where your ideal customer hangs out. Three.
Accounting and finances. One of the first things you want
to do as an entrepreneur is build up your financial foundation.
For starters, figure out your accounting. This means figuring out
how you're going to take payments from customers, how are
you going to put that money, and how you will
(05:02):
report your income to the irs. Start by finding and
using a practical accounting system like freshbooks or wave apps.
From there, talk to an accountant about how and when
you need to pay your business taxes. Lastly, regarding personal finances,
it will be a while before you can get a
loan as an entrepreneur. This includes credit cards, car loans,
and a mortgage for stability, another disadvantage as an entrepreneur
(05:26):
is stability in your business. For starters, a lot of
businesses go through feast and famine cycles. The feast refers
to making lots of money, and the famine refers to
the times you're making no money. These cycles can be
eliminated or reduced by offering recurring surfaces. Also, as your
business grows larger and your name spreads, you'll have far
fewer of these cycles. Seasonality is another stability factor. Practically
(05:50):
every business has seasons where they will do better. For example,
my pet waste removal company's best season is the spring season.
I live in Idaho, and when the snow mell in
the springtime, the dog owners are left with a big,
not so fun surprise. This is great news for my
business because we get out there, clean up the mess
and make some good money. Five. Hiring Scaling your income
(06:13):
is awesome. The hiring can be difficult. The first thing
you need to know about hiring is that you will
never find an employee who cares about your business as
much as you do. The second thing you need to
know is that it can be hard to find someone
who wants to work for you. I think the easiest
way to improve these odds is by offering good wage benefit,
good wages and good benefits. Lastly, employees can be unreliable,
(06:36):
and you have to remember that they are human like you.
They have family emergencies, they get sick, and they have
bad days. And I can almost guarantee you that as
a small business owner, your employees will do a much
better job if they believe your company cares about them
and takes care of them. To conclude, those are my
five advantages and disadvantages of being an entrepreneur. In my experience,
(06:58):
the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. But I know that's not
the same for everyone else, and I respect that there's
no shame in working for someone else. Thank you so
much for listening to the Frugal Entrepreneurs podcast. Subscribe to
the show for more episodes like this and leave a
review If you liked this episode, thanks again and have
(07:21):
an awesome day.
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