Five Pros and Cons of Starting Your Business

As a GenZ entrepreneur, starting your own business is a daunting idea. It’s a giant leap into what – a steaming pile of manure or a swimming pool filled with money? 

You’re going to be pulled by so many contradictory emotions, sometimes at the same time: greed, fear, hope, despair, euphoria and a terror to name just a few. 

So here’s the top 5 pros and cons of running your own business, chosen specially for those at the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey. Think about these 5 and then maybe it will all make a bit more sense, seem a bit more under control. Then go do it anyway. 

1.    You Can Make A Difference

Everyone knows that GenZers have a sense of mission, a desire to do things that make the world a better place. That’s quite hard to do when you’re a junior assistant in a big corporation. But that’s exactly what you’re aiming to do with your own business. It’s what it’s for, it’s what it was brought into existence to do. And it can work. And it can make a difference. 

2.    Success Is Great

You know it, everyone knows it. When you start to win it feels fantastic. It’s addictive, and it pushes you on to more success, or at least an attempt at it. Other people notice and you feel them noticing. But you see it in yourself and that’s way more important. You’re a winner, you’re not the miserable pathetic failure who’s just been kidding themselves, as you’ve thought on so many nights at 3am. 

3.    You Can Choose Your Team

You choose your friends but not your family. You choose your friends but not your co-workers. They’re just there and you have to try to work with them. Like joining a football team composed of whackos and losers, not much you can do about it. But when it’s your business you get to choose who’s on your team. Big big difference. Big big improvement to the chances of success too. Dream team time.

4.    Financial Risk

You cannot have sunshine without shadows and you cannot build a successful business without taking some risks. And one of those is of course financial. No, most small businesses don’t start with ten million dollars of VC money. Nearly every business starts by the founders putting in their own money. Your money, you could lose it all. You could work hard for a year and earn nothing, not a cent, not a penny. 
So run a risk-reward scenario. What is the worst that could happen? How likely is that? What if it happened? What if something better than worst-case happened? What possible financial benefit could that provide? Usually it’s worth the risk, but if you want to avoid any risk we’d suggest you go work for someone else. 

5.    Stress and Health Issues

Quite rightly, there’s a lot of information and discussion about our mental health. We have to keep this show on the road. There’s no point in making a successful business if you’re broken by the effort, physically or mentally. And the effort and pressure can be immense. Can you handle that?

Or could you learn to handle that? Yoga, meditation, philosophy (we recommend the Stoics) – some system that helps you deal with it all. And of course physical fitness really does help mind and body. Get outside every day, walk, run, cycle, do weights. Find ways to counter the pressure and the stress and you’ll get through it. And you’ll discover how resilient you really can be.