Things to Consider Before Being Lured into Entrepreneurship

The idea of starting your own business can be quite powerful. Consider all the positives: setting your own schedule, doing something you love, making money for you, taking vacation whenever you want. And, as one business expert put it, "You want to build wealth, not earn a salary."

Did he say wealth? That sounds nice, too.

All in all, the positives make it sound like being a business owner is a deal you can't pass up. Who wouldn't want to do this? After meeting with a so-called business expert, my husband and I thought we could certainly pull off the entrepreneur life. And we have, but not without many heartaches and headaches.

Here are some things you may want to seriously consider before being lured into entrepreneurship.

Paperwork, paperwork, and oh yeah, more paperwork.
Back in the day, my parents owned a business, several in fact, and I was used to seeing them pull out the large check ledger and produce piles of receipts from their many file cabinets. Foolish me, I thought that since most purchases are keyed into a computer today, that there would be no need for all that paperwork. Wrong! At the end of every day, my husband returns home from work and places all of the day's receipts into a folder. Someone, that person being me, must then key all of those purchases into the laptop. I still hold down a full-time job, but entering all of our business receipts into the computer is really like a second job for me. Don't be fooled, it is time consuming.

Learning QuickBooks.
Now I do admit that while QuickBooks has been a lifesaver, it was challenging and a little intimidating to learn. Our first business consultant advised us to purchase the software, but was not willing to walk us through the initial setup. So, with fingers crossed, we plunged in and just hoped that the IRS would not need to look at our books, ever!