THREE THINGS NO ONE TELLS YOU ABOUT BEING THE BOSS

Being the owner of a small business sounds like a dream. Making your own rules, your own hours, not working for “the man” – in essence, it’s paradise.

But the conversation you rarely hear is the sleepless nights, stressful daily conversations, blood, sweat, and tears stories that go into building a business.

Here are three things no one tells you about being the boss before you dive into entrepreneurship.

Lazy Sundays are never guilt-free

While growing the business you likely feel that a weekend off is a pipedream. And honestly, as a growing business, you may be at a point where that time off is not realistic just yet. But before you brush off the idea, there is a secret sauce to deliberately disconnecting from the business at least one day a week.

The caveat being you have to really, really work at them to be guilt free and understand there is never a point where this comes naturally. You must learn to force yourself to take the time to plan ahead and give yourself time off because this won’t happen accidentally!

Planning for a guilt-free weekend is a very deliberate effort. But, when you dedicate the time it is very refreshing.

You need an answer to every question

As the business owner, you are seemingly “all-knowing.” From your first employee to your 50th, you will always be the content resource for your employees as you grow. They lead by your direction and make decisions based on your knowledge and experience. That means being mentally prepared and equipped to answer a question or guide a struggling employee whenever they need it.

This holds true not only in the workplace, but at home as well. Good, bad, or indifferent, once you get into the habit of making decisions in the workplace that behavior tends to melt into your personal life, making you the decision maker for your family as well. – Think something as simple as what you want for dinner, to when your family can afford that new home.

Reality check: Making decisions is exhausting.

Tough conversations are your new norm

Critical conversations are the conversations where stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong. These are likely the circumstances for majority of your business conversations –negotiating pricing with a client, tackling delivery expectations with a vendor, or talking compensation with an employee.

Entrepreneurs are forced to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. The good news, is that these conversations get easier as you go. And even with those untold norms, a passionate entrepreneur wouldn’t think of changing any of it for a second

Tell us – what’s something you were surprised to experience as you were growing your business?