This is That One Dark Side of Running Your Own 1-Person Business No One Talks About

It’s unsexy. It’s real.

What do you think of when running your own 1-person business crosses your mind?

Let me go first.

I bet you think about,

• Freedom — I manage my own time. Yay!
• Big money — Clients keep sending me money. Yeah!
• Control — Finally! I can get rid of having stupid bosses breathing down my neck! Hell yeah!

These are all true. Except…

They are bright blue sky, puffy white clouds thinking.

Everyone I know thinks about the good stuff of entrepreneurship. All those young men who made it into millionaire status in their early 30s.

But no one talks about the millions of young guys who failed, burned all their cash savings, and then returned to a job they hate.

Sounds fair?

But hey.

Let’s not go there. Not yet.

Let’s talk about something slightly closer to home, shall we?

39 Degree Celsius

That was my temperature this morning.

To be clear, this is my body temperature.

Yes, I am running a fever. And yes, I am still working.

The big question is why. I can afford to take a rest day or two, right? Yes, I can. That is if I want to. I choose not to.

This is because,

• I have 2 face-to-face client pitches this afternoon.
• I have to prepare for a product demonstration tomorrow.
• I must attend to whining customers. Mind you, they flee when they are unhappy for too long.

Does this sound like a dream life to you?

Haha, well. Impress me.

Responsibility Before Freedom

We come across millions and millions of such online articles.

Or online articles using an image of a guy sipping a martini by the beach and suggesting that entrepreneurship looks like this.

I hate to break this to you, but…

No, this is not true.

Running our own show is tough. It requires all-rounder thinking. We must sell. We must promote.

In short,

• We need products and services to sell.
• We need clients to buy our stuff and more.
• We need repeat customers to continue buying our stuff.
• We need partners to support us in areas of our weaknesses (I cannot do back-office work).
• We need to keep our costs low to maintain higher margins.
• We need a stage to share why people need our stuff.
• We need to expand business partnerships.

And you earn your first $10 after doing all that. We can make it a $100. No matter.

There is a barrage of work waiting for us daily. From that perspective, sales is not simply about selling.

It is about bringing our best ideas into the market, converting them into products and services, and getting willing customers to buy.

And you do this daily.

Taking a Pause

I am not saying we cannot.

Yes, we can.

We own our time and schedule, after all. But taking a pause for a day or two does mean that the barrage of work comes to a standstill. It will not go away miraculously. It stays. It piles.

Just like dirt on the table.

It becomes thick and visible when we stop wiping for days. And when we are finally back…

You get the idea.

One of those downsides of entrepreneurship I learned to accept is daily work. There are no official downtimes. Or weekends free of work.

• If you have a team — Maybe.
• If you are operating a 1-person business — Not happening.

What are those pieces of work I will handle when I’m down?

They tend to require less cerebral power, such as,

• Analyzing customer complaints.
• Replying to supplier emails.
• Paying bills.

I try to avoid customer-facing work unless appointments are already inked into my calendar. Some customers are like soul sappers and can be mentally draining.

I may also take time to think about freebies.

Yes, freebies.

I deprioritize them because I hate working for free. Why should I? Why should you? Think about it.

Everyone wants to be paid.

Unless you choose to be a volunteer.

And so I may spend my afternoon lying in bed thinking about the possible range of freebies I can offer to entice and bring customers on board without feeling the pinch of doing free work.

It’s like littering breadcrumbs to bring the birds in.

It can be,

• Self-produced content,
• Limiting time-based software free trials,
• Paid market research papers for free distribution,
• Post-sale free Y consultation hours if they buy X,
• Case studies from long-time clients.

Yes, my mind is constantly spinning… even when I am horizontal.

The Close

Too many of us worship the positive aspects of entrepreneurship…

… Without considering the dark side.

Yes, running our own business is a great feeling. I won’t hide that. Having people to pay for what I service and produce? Hell yeah!

There are downsides, too.

• Like, when you are sick.
• Like, when your parents are in hospital.
• Like, when your dog needs a trip to the vet.

Do take the above into consideration.

After all, running our own business is the same as having a job.

We cannot walk away after throwing the medical leave sheet on the table.

It just doesn’t work that way.

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