Top 10 Reasons to Work for Yourself

Entrepreneurship is an alluring and attractive way of life that involves pursuing your own business dreams, fighting for a piece of the market, and generating wealth and prosper without hunkering beneath a corporate umbrella. While entrepreneurship is incredibly freeing, many people hesitate to take the leap because they fear failure or don’t know how to make their dreams into realities.

Katrina McClinchie is a member of the Empower Network, a multi-level marketing network that has experienced incredible growth in the past few years. Her blog and personal website are dedicated to, naturally, empowering others to find the same measure of success that she has achieved. Her recent article explores some of the top reasons to work for yourself, and it provides a unique view into the life and business of an entrepreneur.

Even though entrepreneurship can be frightening and intimidating, the benefits offered by this business lifestyle are incredibly numerous. Here are just a few reasons why working for yourself offers more than working for a company ever can.

Create Your Own Schedule

First and foremost, when you work for yourself you are in charge, completely, of making your own schedule. This is often one of the reasons people give for not pursuing their entrepreneurial dreams. “If I didn’t have a boss, I’d never get anything done!” Have you ever heard someone say that? The truth, though, is that when you work for yourself you’ll probably surprise yourself by finding focus and determination in places you didn’t even know exist. Many entrepreneurs end up working harder and longer at their own endeavors than they ever did in a corporate setting. You’ll be able to take off for a weekend whenever you want, work late into the night if you want to get a head start on a big project, or spend time with friends and family when you need to.

Work from Wherever You Want

You can also work from wherever you choose when you work for yourself. If you don’t feel like waking up at the crack of dawn and heading into the city to work at a cramped cubicle, you can run your business from a spacious and comfortable home office. Also, if a spouse, family member, or good friend needs to transplant to another location for work, you’ll have the freedom to pick up and move on when you work for yourself. Choose any location in the world from which to work; the choice is yours.

Do What You Love, and Get Paid to Do It

Stop slaving away at a desk working for a company that you don’t even care about. When you work for yourself, you get to pursue your own passions. You can do what you love to do, and you can get paid to do it. This is the most common reason why individuals leave their corporate jobs to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors.

Lower your Expenses and Increase Your Profits

Big business is incredibly expensive. When you have a team of a hundred employees, a marketing budget in the hundreds of thousands, and offices or facilities around the world, your overhead costs are going to be staggeringly high. When you work for yourself, you can keep costs to a minimum. That means more of what you sell is going to go straight into your pockets as profit.

Stay Active and Healthy

Numerous studies have shown that individuals who work for themselves are healthier and happier. This may be because a work-from-home individual is free to move about during the day rather than stay parked behind a desk for eight hours at a time. You’ll eat better, sleep longer, and live a healthier, more productive life!

Stay True to Your Values and Moral Standards

Working for a corporation or big business may require you to sacrifice some of your standards or act against your personal values at one time or another. When you work for yourself, on the other hand, you set the values and moral standards to which you will adhere. No one can force you to act in a way that doesn’t correspond to your personal beliefs. This is a benefit of working for yourself that simply has no substitute.

Choose Your Co-Workers

Have you ever been forced to work with someone, over someone, or even for someone that you just simply couldn’t respect or get along with? When you work for yourself, that’s no longer a problem. You can choose your own co-workers and hire staff members that match your personality.

Experience the Freedom of Self-Direction

There is no replacement for the freedom of self-direction. You can dictate when you will work, how you will work, from where you will work, and what you’ll work at accomplishing. Only working for yourself provides this incredible and versatile freedom.

Use Your Creativity

Working for yourself also gives you the chance to be as creative and inspiring as you want to be. There will never be someone standing over your shoulder, reining in your creativity, and asking you to put a lid on what you can accomplish. You can use your creativity to accomplish bigger and better things.

Take Control of Your Own Future

Finally, working for yourself puts the control of your future into your own hands. Your actions and attitudes will dictate your success. You will no longer be at the mercy of another person's whims or hasty decisions. You can control how much you accomplish and the rate at which you accomplish it. If you want to escape the rat race, you can. If you want to jump on the fast track, you’re free to do just that.

Working for yourself offers countless benefits including freedom to make your own schedule, use your creativity, and take control of your future. If you work for a company for the rest of your life, you cannot guarantee these freedoms.

What reasons do you give for being an entrepreneur? What other benefits have you discovered? Add your comments below, or share this article with your network. Thanks, so much, for all of your incredible support!