So you’ve finally decided to quit your 9-to-5 job, follow your dreams, and go out on your own – be an entrepreneur. Probably you want to start that dream business, a restaurant, store, or maybe launching a product you’ve always been passionate about. That’s something to be proud of and it’s definitely a “10” for a career. But before you make that jump, there’s more to running your own business than what you see on social media or TV.

At dahil we are rooting for everyone who will choose the path to entrepreneurship, we’ll give you a heads up. Here’s a “real-talk” breakdown of what it’s like to be your own boss!

Freedom? That’s not necessarily true

Nowadays, social media is flooded with self-made entrepreneurs and influencers who look like the most successful people in the world. Usually, they only portray the fun and exciting side of it and make it look so glamorous and easy because they’re free!

Truth is, being an entrepreneur doesn’t give you complete freedom, independence, and autonomy. You’ll end up working more than you do in a 9-5 job! If you’re just starting, you need to put in the hard work and perform all the roles that your business needs you to be. 

Being an entrepreneur means wearing different hats, performing different roles, working longer hours, getting less sleep, and taking on more pressure. 

Roles you need to fill

If you’re starting as a solo business owner, most likely you’ll be hands-on with your business just to establish some stable process and foundation. so, be ready to do all of these things yourself!

Accountant

What’s a business without revenue? Of course, you’ll handle all money matters concerning your business yourself! 

As your accountant, you’ll need to be hands-on with the financial records of your own business. To keep track of your income, expenses, quarterly taxes, and payroll, you might need to learn a few accounting tools. You can outsource your accounting work a few times a year but you’ll still be involved in the whole process.

No matter what kind of business you have, money is what will keep it going. No matter how good your product is or how much your target market likes it, if you don’t manage your income and expenses well, your business will fail.

Human Resources

Who else will be in charge of hiring people but yourself? Get ready to spend months training them and figuring out their pay and benefits – and that’s barely scratching the surface.

You also need to think about health insurance, coming up with a plan for your retirement, and filing your taxes instead of splitting them with your employer. As your head of human resources, it’s up to you to keep yourself going even though your income isn’t steady.

On top of that, you’ll need to find the right people to work for you. Many successful business owners say that they did well because they had the smartest and most talented people on their team. But these aren’t enough most of the time. To keep your business afloat, you’ll have to keep your employees happy and motivated too.

Marketing

Your next job will be a huge one: you’ll have to be in your marketing department. Marketing is a complicated subject with many moving parts. It has a lot to do with customer psychology, determining your target market, and some designing skills, among other things. Getting your potential customer’s attention is no easy feat and more difficult than it seems!

Marketing is an important job because it’s always about being on top of the latest trends or becoming a trendsetter yourself. No matter how popular your products or services are, you’ll always have to keep telling people about them. You’ll always need to be relevant to your target audience so that they’ll always choose you in a market that’s full of competitors.

How to do all these? Well, you only need to run a website and social media accounts, create and test advertising campaigns, and put together marketing materials. No sweat, right? (Of course, we’re being sarcastic)

You can hire a marketing expert if you have the money to do so. But many new businesses may find it best to figure it out on their own first before letting someone else decide on their marketing plans.

Sales

So your marketing has been successful and you have a lot of customers…what’s next? It’s time for your head of sales to talk to your customers, figure out what’s going on, and close the deal. A quick reminder: that’s still you, at least in the early stages of your business.

All the work you’ve done so far is to get to the point where you can close a sale. But marketing and sales go together. If marketing is how people see you, then sales are how you get to know your customers on a personal level.

And no, you don’t just know how to be a salesperson. It comes from having the right experience and getting better at the skills you need to sell your product. This means you need to be able to listen and talk well so you can network with a lot of strangers who could be potential business partners or customers.

You’ll also need to plan out steps to get customers interested from beginning to end. As your salesperson, you’ll also need to learn how to move on after getting turned down, without taking it personally.

It’s okay that not everyone likes it.

Other frontline roles

But wait, there’s more! You have a few more hats to wear that deal with other aspects of your business, like customer service, logistics, and legal issues, to name a few.

In reality, being your own boss doesn’t mean that you’ll have complete freedom, a lot of free time, and won’t have to do the hard tasks you used to do at work. Social media can be full of posts that only show the result, not the years of hard work, failures, and sleepless nights that went into getting there.

It’s not for everyone and that’s okay

If you don’t want to do any of these roles, that’s fine, being your own boss is not the only sign of success. Having a regular job that you like does not make you less than those so-called entrepreneurs on social media flaunting their next holiday getaway or nomadic adventures.

Having said all that, being your boss isn’t for everyone, but it can be for you if this is what ignites that fire in you. With enough time, experience, grit, and patience, all of these hats will make sense when worn together. And if you’re determined and persistent enough to succeed, all of these roles shouldn’t stop you. The right entrepreneurs will always be ready to face obstacles, no matter how big or scary they seem.

If you choose to go this way, we wish you the best of luck and hope that the universe conspires to help you succeed. And if you don’t, as long as you’re happy and satisfied with your 9-to-5 job, you should be fine and no one should tell you otherwise.

There’s no easy way around starting your own business, but you can make it less difficult with the right resources and tools like a StoreHub POS. Manage your inventory, sales, staff, and even customers in a single platform and be more efficient in doing what you do!

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