67. Income Droughts

You might experience months of not earning anything from your business like I did. This is common for a self-employed person in the early stages, so don’t panic.

However, being down in the dumps and slacking off will not help you in the slightest with this drought. You need to grind out those hours in order to dig yourself out of the hole. Keep pushing forward until you do see some fruit from your labors. It will happen, you just need to be tenacious.

Building a business is a marathon, not a sprint. For this reason, you need to have patience combined with a lot of persistence and an unrelenting work ethic.

These penniless periods of time can take a toll on an entrepreneur, psychologically and mentally. You have to fight this if you want to survive in business. Keep in mind that if you continue to work hard then you will earn the rewards for your efforts eventually.

An employee at an organization will only experience an income drought if they are denied hours that they can work. On the contrary, their boss will pay them for every hour that they do indeed work.

68. Payment Methods

An entrepreneur might earn income through lots of different payment methods. This is normally due to having many different streams of income.

It can make things more complicated as you have to keep tabs on them all regularly and that takes up more of your time. Your business might also have to cater to how customers want to buy from you.

A worker will normally earn their pay from their employer through the same singular payment method every time. They will know that this is safe and reliable for both parties. It has worked dozens of times before and so why wouldn’t it work many more times to come?

69. Payment Timing

Entrepreneurs don’t always know when their next paycheck is coming so exercise extreme caution before spending money. When your self-employed, it’s better to under-spend rather than over-spend in your daily life to combat this.

If you are working for yourself then you may have to pass through a certain payment threshold (depending on the sources) before you can withdraw your earnings. You will need to be patient and keep pushing forward until whichever platform you are working from allows you to cash out.

This depends on exactly what kind of online job you are doing. For instance, you might be earning money from advertising or affiliate marketing. This earner requires you to earn over a specific amount before you can withdraw your earnings from certain affiliate networks.

If you ever run in to any payment problems then you will have to chase down the people who owe you money. It can be an individual client or a company which can be a real hassle. This is far more aggravation than you would face if you were working for someone else at a company.

70. Secure Payment

The majority of conventional employees can put their trust in their employers to pay them in a reliable and secure manner, bar any mistakes.

They might experience a delay with their pay or the amount might not be right at times on rare occasions. Although, these are really the only problems an employee at a company faces in this area. Furthermore, they are all things that are easily fixable.

Sometimes entrepreneurs will get paid online through PayPal or other websites like that. This can be a little riskier when you compare it to a standard bank transfer.

You can generally test how trustworthy online payment methods are based on the experience of others. Do this by looking for reviews or proof of payment submitted by other people (preferably self-employed). I always do this just to be safe.

71. Working for Free

Some business models rely on entrepreneurs laying the groundwork and working for free for the first 2 or 3 years at least. I can hear you groaning as you read that last sentence, but sometimes that is the reality. You didn’t think entrepreneurship was going to be easy, did you?

You have to offer your customers a lot of value upfront. They should start paying attention, trusting you and then ultimately giving you their money. You will reap the rewards of the seeds that you have sown further down the road.

Although, if your business involves selling something then you can make a sale on your first working day of business. This is great because you are earning straight out of the starting blocks. At the same time, it might not be enough to make a living, at first.

As you can imagine, entrepreneurship is very disconcerting, financially. It will require a lot of patience on your part. This is not the case when working for someone else as you will be making money right off the bat. This is much more reassuring and stable career path in that sense.

Conversely, once you get into your stride as an entrepreneur then you will end up making more consistent passive income (everyday hopefully). Income stability won’t be a problem anymore if all goes well.

72. Hourly Payment

Most self-employed workers don’t receive their earnings hourly in the same way that most other employees do. They will need to work as many hours as it takes to earn the money they need to live on. This involves doing a lot of work beforehand in preparation.

An employee at a company gets paid hourly. This means they won’t mind too much if they have to stay behind and work overtime. They’re getting payment for it anyway so why not? They may even be grateful for the extra work if they desperately need it.

Earning cash by the hour also gives them more drive and motivation to work. After all, they know for sure that there will definitely be money coming their way at the end of it all.

I know from experience that it can be hard to muster up the positive energy to keep going forward if this is not the case. Positive reinforcement and reward are dealbreakers for some individuals.

73. Sales Commission

You might earn more through conventional employment if you work in a sales-based job. I have done this in the past. This means you will earn extra cash through bonus commission each time you make a sale. This will either be on top of or instead of an hourly rate.

A system of payment like this can apply to both people who work themselves or as employees for others. It also depends on the industry in question. Systems like these can put pressure on the worker to push for high sales targets so it’s not for everyone.

Although, this give you more control because the more sales you make, the more money you make too. It also gives you that added work ethic to push yourself. You know that you will earn increased rewards if you do.

74. Passive Income

An entrepreneur can earn a lot of income from a business, passively. This means you are not doing anything the second that you are earning it. That comes after.

You’ve already previously laid the groundwork so no action needs to be taken. You are reaping the rewards in the future from work that’s already been completed in the past.

You might go to bed one night and wake up the next morning to see that you’ve earned a grand. All while you were snoring away in slumberland. Wahoo! However, it won’t be this easy. In all honestly, this is a very perfect and idealized scenario.

A business owner will need to invest in doing a lot of work beforehand if you ever want to make this a reality. To truly understand what this means and exactly how you can benefit from it then I suggest you read books about passive income.

People don’t really earn passive income as company employees. You normally just earn payment the one time at a set amount for the work that you do per hour. Your employer will be getting the biggest benefit from the work that you’ve done for them.

It’s a completely different system of pay. A standard worker will perform a task once and get paid once. Conversely, an entrepreneur might create a product and earn income multiple times for it, forever.

75. Earning Potential

Most employee earnings will always be capped at a certain limit. These salaries mostly stay limited in order to make the people at the top more money. More money than someone at the bottom of the ladder could ever possibly make.

To be fair, this makes sense if you run a business. You will want to reduce expenses (including wages) as much as possible. This will make more profit for the business as a whole. Although, you may one day rise up the ranks to become one of these big wig fat cats one day. If so, good for you.

An entry-level McDonald’s employee will probably never make more than $20,000 per year. This is unless they earn a promotion into a more senior, managerial position. Even then, it won’t be that much of an improvement. Your salary will eventually hit a ceiling in regular employment no matter how hard you work.

Your earning potential is high but very gradual as an entrepreneur. It will be a steady climb so be patient and don’t foolishly expect overnight success. Your first few years of entrepreneurship will be tough on the old pocketbook. However, once you get going, you can really earn the big bucks.

Earnings will increase as a self-employed person once you find ways to cut down expenses and maximize income as much as possible.

You will learn how to do this with the experience of running a business. The growth of your income will usually coincide with the size of your customer base.

Business owners will earn more money not immediately, but eventually. The potential is staggering. You may make so much money that you could afford to retire early.

This can be true while still passively earning in the background at the same time. It can be a much better quality of life as financial problems won’t affect you as severely.

76. Unlimited Earnings

Don’t despair, you shouldn’t spend the rest of your life earning a meager salary as a successful business owner. It really doesn’t have to be that way.

You can lift this earnings barrier if you decide to become self-employed. Before long, you will be earning lots of passive income. You can do this without even having to think about or work that hard.

How much money does an entrepreneur earn? If you go in to something like investing or any other kind of market trading then your salary could be literally endless. However, this involves risking and investing a lot of your own capital which adds an element of danger.

There is nobody there to set your salary at a certain level without any chance of wriggle room. The only person who can increase or decrease your own wages is you. It can be as high or low as you want. This depends on how hard you work as well as several other important variables.

An entrepreneur’s earnings are only really limited by the entrepreneur themselves. It can hinge on the number of products that they make or the amount of work that they put in. Your earnings can only go up.

Self-employed workers can still earn residual income from something they worked on 5 years ago, for example. Think about that, you can still gain the benefits from work you did way back in the past.

77. Declaring your employment status

If you become a sole trader, declaring your business is one of the very first things you will need to do. Let your country’s government know in good time that you are working on a self-employed basis.

Not confirming this as soon as possible can come with penalties and fines. I took the precaution of doing this within the first few months of starting my first business.

You won’t need to do anything if you work for someone else. This is usually the default status for most workers. Only self-employed people normally need to go out of their way to confirm their status. It’s important because the way the government processes taxes is completely different depending on how you work.

78. Recording Your Earnings & Expenses

You will need to write down accurate and up to date records of your income and business expenses. You will then find it much easier to fill out a tax return at the end of each tax year.

Self-employed people are responsible for sorting out their own tax. This means keeping precise records to the best of your abilities.

Nobody is perfect so it doesn’t really matter if you are a few pennies out, give or take. It’s okay to make a few honest minor mistakes as long as you are making a decent effort to be accurate.

Having a good memory helps you remember who still owes you and when you will get your income. If your memory sucks like mine then you can remedy this by writing down a record of your due earnings.

Recording your earnings as an entrepreneur will also help you track your progress. You can then set financial goals for yourself.

For the most part, employees won’t need to worry about doing any of this. However, employers can always get their employees wages wrong.

In this case, it might be smart for those individuals to record their hours worked prior. This is just in case they need to prove this for any reason at a later date.

79. Tax

If you are in the UK, (like I am) then you will probably need to do an annual self-assessment with the HMRC. This will obviously be different depending on your country of residence.

Report your earnings to the IRS if you are a US citizen or whichever organization is applicable to your home nation. You can then pay your fair share of tax.

You may already know this but if you are an employee for someone else then your superiors will be responsible for sorting your tax out.

The flip side of this is that as a self-employed person you will have to do this for other people. That’s only if you ever decide to take on employees for your business.

Unfortunately, it can be a headache to sort out the tax for your employees. It’s one more job to do but you are responsible for doing it. Hiring employees definitely has its pros and cons.

As a standard employee at a company, your employer should deduct the tax from your pay automatically. This is usually at the end of each week or month so you don’t need to do a tax return. This is much less pressure and stress seeing as you don’t need to take any action on your end.

80. Accountants

You may only be earning modest amounts of money as an entrepreneur. If this is you then you can fairly easily do your tax return without the additional help of an accountant.

You may even be exempt from paying tax if your earnings fall under a certain amount depending on the laws of your country.

Tax returns look complicated at first. However, I can assure you that it’s very simple when you know what you’re doing. It gets even easier once you get the hang of sorting your taxes out year after year.

It can get tricky and more complex if you are earning lots of money from lots of different income streams. In this case, it might be easier just to pay an accountant in order to spare you the trouble and the time. You can then use all that spare time to do something else worthwhile.

81. Sacrificing Interests

One thing an entrepreneur will always run short of is time. You will sometimes have to sacrifice certain hobbies and pastimes if you want to make your business work.

If your main goal is to run a successful business then you should aim to cut unnecessary activities out of your day. Choose the ones that prevent you most from doing the work. I found that this will free up more time for you to work on achieving career goals more quickly.

Decide what you want more, a good career leading to a great life or throwing away time on frivolous activities that aren’t really that meaningful or significant to your life as a whole.

You might enjoy going disco dancing to the funky beats of the Bee Gees with friends every night. If you are truly serious about your career then you might want to cut this down to once a week. Perhaps stop doing it altogether (at least temporarily).

You probably won’t need to make as many sacrifices when working for someone else. You will have more free time in the evenings and on weekends to do more leisurely activities.

82. Priorities

If you want to make real progress as an entrepreneur then you won’t just have to work at your business, you will have to live it. Make it your priority above all else (well, maybe not family).

Why not follow my lead and make a list? Have the goals and activities that are most important to you at the top of the list. You can then work at those first during the day when you have the most energy.

You can then gradually list other lesser activities that are not as vital further down your list. This will help you really put things into perspective. It’s so important to focus on the right things and not to waste time.

83. Happiness

You will be more likely to procrastinate if you are doing something that you don’t personally deem as fun. This is another reason why you should choose a job that you get a lot of enjoyment out of.

A job is something that you are going to spend a large portion of your life doing up until you retire. It might as well be a job that makes you happy.

“Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never work a day in your life.” From my perspective, this Mark Twain quote isn’t 100% true. I agree with the first part but mostly disagree with the last.

You should find a career that you enjoy but don’t for a second kid yourself into thinking that it will be easy. You will still have to work just as hard as you would do for something you don’t like. However, I can definitely see Twain’s overarching point and there is still a lot of value in it.

People like to define success in other ways besides money. Of course, the point of starting a business is to make money. Although, you have to consider your own happiness as well.

You can measure your success by how much you like and are enjoying the work that you are currently doing. Keep in mind that certain people in high-paying jobs are miserable as all hell so it’s not just about money.

84. Misery

Many people work dead-end jobs that they can’t stand in a profession that bores them to tears. In many cases, this might be because they don’t really have a choice in terms of putting food on the table, which is fair enough.

On the other hand, you have the luxury of picking your fancied industry when you start your own business. The only limit is your imagination.

It’s never too late to change your mind career-wise. Your level of happiness or sadness at work can hinge on many different things such as:

• customers
• people you work with
• what you are actually doing
• something else entirely

You shouldn’t torture yourself by staying in a job that you hate. If you do, it can take a toll on your mental health and well-being.

85. Hobbies

It would be silly to pick a job that you don’t love or have any interest in. Surely it should be something you enjoy, wouldn’t you agree? In addition, it won’t feel as much like work if you do it this way.

It could even be a favorite pastime you love that you want to try to monetize. You can also learn about new, interesting things at the same time.

Find something you would like to know more about and then turn that into a business. You can do this with as many different and exciting subjects as you like.

Want to make a blog about cute cats wearing clogs combined with awesome alliteration? Go ahead. If you have a strong interest in something then chances are there are a lot of other people out there who like the same thing.

For instance, if you like cooking then you can create a food website with:

• recipes
• articles
• reviews
• blog posts

You can then monetize your site with:

• advertising banners
• sponsorship deals
• eBooks
• affiliate marketing links

Bang! There’s your business right there. What do you think about that?

Conversely, fashion might be insanely fascinating to you. You could buy cheap wholesale clothing and then sell your goods for profit online. You can do this fairly easily using websites like eBay or Amazon. There are all sorts of money-making options at your disposal.

86. Boredom

If you are working a job that is tedious to you then you might try to find other more fun things to distract yourself with. Look, a squirrel! This will put a dagger through your personal efficiency and make it harder to succeed in business.

This won’t be the case if are in a job that you actually like. If you enjoy something then you won’t mind spending time doing it.

You will sincerely want to be there and you are having a good time so you will be much more productive. A person in this position will actually look forward to starting the working day.

87. Standard of Living

If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you won’t have that much money coming in during the early days of your business. It is likely that you will need to lower your standard of living, at least for the time being. Cut down on luxury spending and only buy the bare necessities.

Trust me, it won’t be like this forever. Your standard of living will gradually increase as your business becomes more successful and makes more money.

An employee won’t have to be as cautious when it comes to spending habits. This is because they will be pulling in a consistent income every month.

88. Quality of Life

Entrepreneurship can drastically improve your quality of life if you get it right. Especially for those people who dread waking up on Monday mornings. If you are grinding away at your passion project then clearly you are having fun in the process.

You wouldn’t have that same positive experience in a job that you hate. After all, life is about enjoying yourself and having fun (at least it is in my book anyway).

If you work for someone else and don’t enjoy your work then obviously your quality of life isn’t as good as it could possibly be. Think about this carefully before choosing a lifelong career.

89. Work/Life Balance

Self-employment can provide both a better and worse work/life balance. It depends on which stage you are at in your journey.

At the start, it will be all work, work, work. However, as your business grows and the money rolls in then it will offer you a new kind of freedom. An employee just can’t attain this level of freedom.

A business owner can stop or start work at the snap of their fingers. *snap* Time to go make a sandwich brb. This freedom allows them a nice balance but they shouldn’t necessarily wield it recklessly. Entrepreneurship can take over your life to detriment of other areas like:

• friends
• family
• rest
• dating
• exercise
• household chores
• play

You will be spending the vast majority of your time working if you are running a business.

Employees will have more clearly defined times of working and not working. Typically, they work during the day and then have evenings and weekends free to do as they please. This tends to make it simpler for them to find a decent work/life balance.

90. Disposable Income

Having less disposable income will mean that you will need to learn to be more frugal and change your attitudes towards money. Really think about what you decide to splash out on.

This could range from cutting back on treats and materialistic goods to shopping at cheaper supermarkets. Try to downgrade the products that you buy in order to save money.

You don’t always have to buy the best of the best. Remember, two different cars of varying quality will still allow you to reach the same destination. Only make the purchases that are absolutely necessary for you to live.

91. Luxury Spending

You will want to cut down on little luxuries like:

• gym memberships
• cinema tickets
• phone contracts
• nights out with friends
• other subscriptions

You need to make sacrifices even if you do enjoy all of those things previously mentioned. Understanding the value of money is so important for everyone to learn, business owner or not.

If you become really successful running a business then you will eventually have enough money to purchase all the things you could ever dream of anyway. Minimize your outgoings now in order to secure a great financial future for yourself.

92. Free Time

Conventional employees will finish their working day and breathe a sigh of relief after a job (hopefully) well done. They can then go home and will be able to enjoy the rest of their free time as they please. I kinda miss that. They are not chained to their desk the same way an entrepreneur is.

This level of free time probably won’t be the case for the majority of serious entrepreneurs. They will need to fill this spare time with even more hard grind if they want to succeed.

Building a business is a long-term investment of time and pressure. It hinges on a lot of optimism and resilience on their part.

Most conventional day jobs offer you evenings and weekends off. You will also get annual leave for holiday or sick days.

It gives the employee quite a bit of structured free time. This means relaxing isn’t so much of an issue for an employee. On the other hand, your employer might expect you to come to work at a drop of a hat sometimes.

An entrepreneur has all the free time that they want … up to a point. However, a better question in this scenario would be “should they use this down time to relax at all and if so, how much?“

For me, I only use my free days very sparingly for emergencies and for when I really need to unwind. This will ultimately prevent burnout.

93. Leisure Time

Some people who run businesses reach a point where they just can’t mentally switch off for the life of them. In their minds, even just watching an hour of TV can seem like laziness.

I can understand this mindset although it’s not healthy or conducive for anyone to work every hour of every day. Make sure to fit some leisure time into your schedule. It can be anything as long as you are relaxing.

94. Taking the Day Off

Self-employed workers should take at least one day a week off just to recharge the batteries. You can use this day to spend time with your friends and family or whatever else you find fun. It’s all about finding a good balance.

Albeit, being an entrepreneur doesn’t mean shooting from the hip like John Wayne. Slow down, cowboy/girl. You shouldn’t be taking lots of days off just because you can. The flexibility just allows you to distribute your work time across the week at will.

You will still have to put in the necessary amount of hours nevertheless. Time flexibility isn’t an excuse for laziness. Don’t abuse this power as your business will suffer if you do.

If you want to take Monday off then you have your own permission to do so. The other side of the coin is the fact that you will no longer have an excuse to get out of things.

There is now nothing stopping your wife/girlfriend dragging you by the balls to visit your Mother-in-law. Did you just receive an invitation to a wedding you really don’t want to go to? You can no longer use the “I have to work” excuse.

Sometimes for whatever reason you just don’t feel up to working at certain times. It is okay to take the day off occasionally but you shouldn’t let it turn into a bad habit.

Think about allocating at least one day off during the week (let’s say Sunday). On this day you can chill and not have to worry about doing anything. This will recharge your brain and make you nice and fresh to get back at it the following week.

If you truly feel that you can’t stretch to taking a whole day off then maybe take a few hours out to catch a movie or something. Maybe just do a half day. A little entertainment and leisure can really go a long way towards breaking up the monotony of work.

95. Overworking

Of course, you shouldn’t overdo it when it comes to work as you will just burnout eventually. You can work, but you need to make time for rest and play too.

Overworking is like driving a car for thousands of miles without bothering to pump up the tires or top up the oil. It’s all going to go wrong eventually.

Don’t neglect the other aspects of your life. Any good at juggling? I’m not asking this question because I want you to run away and join the circus. I only ask because you will end up doing a lot of juggling as an entrepreneur (figuratively of course).

You can afford to work more leisurely as an entrepreneur when the income starts flowing. Although, you shouldn’t have this mindset when you are just starting out building a business for the first time. My advice is to only cut down your hours once you start to see major results.

96. Family Life

Entrepreneurship can be ideal for somebody who is young and single with no strong ties or commitments to anyone. Being in this position kind of gives you permission to be a bit more selfish than others. This is especially relevant when it comes to personal career ambition.

I don’t know about you, but I’m great at being selfish. In this scneario, you don’t have to worry about neglecting anybody and you can focus solely on your work.

If you are working a normal 9-5 job then you may struggle to find time for your family in between work. It will just leave you with evenings and weekend to organize family time.

Even then, you might be too exhausted to make the most of that time after working all those long hours. Working night shifts can definitely exasperate the issue. You will be sleeping while everyone else is awake and vice versa.

As an entrepreneur, you will dictate how much family time you can put to one side. You also choose when you wish to spend it and you could even go to the length of organizing a rota system. That way your free time will coincide with the free time of your family members.

This can be much more flexible. In addition, if you work for yourself from home, you will be around your family more often. This might be better for all involved. The downside to this is the fact that you won’t have much time to yourself to concentrate fully on the job with this distraction.

Having your family around may cause interruptions that will prevent you from working. However, you shouldn’t ditch your family in favor of work. Family time is something that you will never get back so cherish it.

97. Supporting a Family

Running a business is much easier to do if you live alone. This is because you aren’t responsible for providing for anybody else in monetary or even social terms.

Entrepreneurship will definitely be a challenge if you need to support a family with children by putting food on the table. Although, it’s not impossible to reach your goals if you take the right steps.

As a single person, you have more time for yourself and your cost of living will be much more modest. It will likely be a different story if you have a family that depend on your income.

Children are expensive. An inexperienced entrepreneur might struggle to pay for all of the child rearing related costs. Especially when they are just starting out.

98. Childcare

Working from home can be good for people with children. You won’t really need to pay for childcare in some cases. You can keep one eye on them and one eye on your work. Your kids will be more accessible to you too. You will be able to be more flexible when it comes to spending quality time with them.

Although, you will have to split your focus between children and work at the same time. This will likely make you a lot less efficient at your job.

You won’t get that much done if you have to entertain your kids and concentrate on work simultaneously. Remember the juggling? Kids can sometimes be a real negative distraction. They may distract you while you’re trying to work from home.

99. School Run

If you are a company employee then you will really have to plan things out. How you are going to take your kids to and from day care or school every week day? Can you get your partner to do it or will you need to handle it yourself?

Work can get in the way depending on the start and end time of your shift. Sometimes doing the school run isn’t possible at all for everyone. They will have to get someone else like a family member, close friend or a child carer to do this in their place.

A parent who works for themselves from home will have a lot more leeway. They probably won’t be as time sensitive in their work.

100. Financial Benefits

Working for yourself will mean missing out on company perks or benefits like sick and holiday pay. The employer might even provide health and dental insurance to employees. Maybe a nice pension too.

Although, self-employed people can sometimes apply for government income support. This is normally true if their salary is below a certain amount. Welfare like this can be really useful during the early days of running a business.

However, you will probably need to jump through a few bureaucratic hoops in order to gain access to this. One of these obstacle might involve presenting a business plan in order to be eligible.

101. Illness

If you are self-employed and too ill to work then that’s just tough. Sorry to sound mean, but you can either shake it off or you simply won’t make money that day. Sometimes, you just have to power through it to the best of your abilities.

I don’t really get sick very often so I’m quite lucky this way. Additionally, it’s wise to have a safety net of cash savings just in case rainy day scenarios like this arise.

I think that self-employed people should probably try to push themselves regardless of adversity. Try to at least complete some work even when you’re sick.

If it’s just a minor ailment that you’re suffering from which doesn’t stop you from working then you should continue grinding. However, I can understand wanting to take time off for more serious afflictions.

Employees will clearly have to deal with a lot more aggravation and resistance when calling in sick to their bosses. Entrepreneurs don’t need to explain themselves at all to anyone when they are feeling under the weather.

102. Personality Types

I believe anyone can become an entrepreneur if they put their minds to it (no matter what their defining personality traits). If you don’t possess the desired traits then it doesn’t matter. You can learn to develop them with a bit of work like I did.

Nevertheless, there are aspects of business that certain personality types will both excel and struggle at. Don’t assume that I’m picking on you or your character. A certain industry might suit a certain individual.

103. Introversion

Running your own business can be perfect for someone who is introverted or independent. If you are a sole trader then there is nobody around to force you into working in a team with other people.

This is great for those of us hermits. To be specific, I’m talking about the people who enjoy locking themselves away from the world and working on our own.

A business that solely operates online would be perfect for someone of this persuasion. You will still have to interact with customers on some level, but it won’t be face-to-face contact.

On the other hand, communication is really important in business. Introverted people might have a harder time because of their quiet, unsociable nature.

Some people may occasionally wrongly mistake this personality trait for rudeness, arrogance or snobbishness. This can cause friction in the workplace.

104. Extroversion

Sadly, entrepreneurship can create hardships for a sociable person. Loneliness and cabin fever can easily set in if someone is stuck on their own in one place for a long time. However, you can take on employees to relieve the conversational boredom. Taking on staff will also grow your business at the same time.

Then again, entrepreneurship can also be good for an outgoing extrovert. Self-confidence is a characteristic that you can utilize well in the world of business. This is particularly useful in terms of:

• leadership
• sales
• networking

If you have some confidence in what you are doing then you will be also less nervous under pressure. This can be helpful when tough customer confrontations occur.

An employee at a company will need to be fairly sociable. They will be spending lots of time around colleagues and managers both during work and on breaks.

If you can get people on side on a personal level then your job will be a lot easier. In my case, I’ve never been very good at small talk so I’ve always found this hard as a new employee. Although, you may have more luck.

105. Knowing When to Shut Up

Being someone who speaks without a filter can land you in a lot of trouble if you are in regular employment. Entering into self-employment might be more up your street if this applies to you. This is relevant if you always feel like you are saying the wrong thing and committing social faux pas.

It can feel less like you are (conversationally) stepping on eggshells this way. You don’t have to worry about offending anyone around you (except maybe customers).

An employee will have to make a mental note not to be impulsive with their emotions at work. They will just have to put a lid on it. Workers have to repress themselves if they feel like being sassy and arguing back with their customers or superiors.

If your job is very customer-centric then you will need to have a friendly and confident manner. Do this or at least just pretend to act like it even if you don’t have any of those qualities.

106. Courage

When it comes to entrepreneurship, just jump in and go for it. Even if you do fail in business then at least you can say that you tried and it didn’t work out in the end. You will also learn a lot when things go wrong.

Failure is not the last straw either. Entrepreneurs can always pick themselves up and try again as many times as they want. People only truly fail when they decide to give up.

You don’t want to be stuck in a dreary job years from now wishing you had taken a different path. This is just another leap of faith when you compare it to the predictability and conformity of conventional employment. It’s a different life, but you may find that it’s a better life for you.

107. Being someone you’re not

You don’t have to change who you are as a person in order to look normal in the office … not when your self-employed anyway. Entrepreneurs with wacky personalities don’t have to suppress themselves when they are alone.

You’re free to be the “real” you, not the “fake” one. You have no one to impress and nothing to prove to anyone except yourself and your customers.

Marlon Brando made an interesting observation about working for someone else in an interview. It was with American talk show host Dick Cavett in the 1970s. He talked about how most workers are forced to “act” everyday in one way or another.

Employees have to put on somewhat of a facade when they are in the workplace. You might not like your boss or co-workers. At the same time, you have to pretend to be civil and try to get along with them anyway. This is true even if it means telling a white lie or two.

Reserved people sometimes have to be more outgoing when it comes to talking to co-workers. Whereas loud people might need to turn it down a few notches. Everybody’s playing a disingenuous role in some form.

If you do choose to be yourself then that’s fine. Sometimes people will like you more if they realize you are being the real you rather than being phony.

However, co-workers might unfairly marginalize you for personal characteristics. Other people may not be comfortable with these traits. They might not see it as “normal“.

108. Anger Management

If you are a person who is quick to anger then you will need to learn to develop some self-control. This is particularly true if your job involves talking to customers. These are the people who are thinking about giving their money to you so be careful with your words.

Remember, you are there to serve them so stay cool and collected if you encounter any difficult confrontations. You kind of just have to take whatever they have to throw at you (within reason), good and bad.

Don’t take things personally if tempers ever get heated. Customers are sometimes upset with a product or service but never with the employee themselves (even if it might seem this way). Keep this in mind.

You should try not to snap at your colleagues either, no matter how abrasive they are with you. Burning bridges with your co-workers will help no one in the long run.

Entrepreneurs can also experience anger whenever they run into setbacks within their business. If this ever happens to you then don’t panic. Take a breather, rethink and then approach the problem from a different angle.

109. Charisma

Maybe you’re not the most sociable or outgoing person in the world (I’m projecting a little here, I admit). If you are working for a company then it’s fair to say that you will be working with a large group of other people.

For this reason, you will be forced to go outside your comfort zone. Put forth an effort to make small talk with your colleagues when you are new in order to break the ice. If you get to know them well enough then it will feel less like work. Communication is key in a business.

It helps to be charismatic as an entrepreneur if you want to reach out to others through networking. This might seem intimidating at first but it is worth the effort expended.

Try to approach people in a polite and friendly manner in a way that will benefit both parties. It gets easier the more often that you do it.

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