So You Want to Be Your Own Boss? Four Ways to Determine If You're Up to the Task

The economic downturn has gotten more people thinking about venturing into the world of self-employment. But these individuals have no real way to even begin to surmise where to begin aside from their mistaken notion that the grass seems so much greener in the garden of entrepreneurship. Here are a few quick questions that these individuals can ask themselves to see if they should attempt such a venture.

1. Are you a self-starter? Are you the type of person that has the ability to develop a concept and do whatever necessary without direction and motivation from outside forces? This is one of the most important and necessary characteristics; the very definition of an entrepreneur. If you lack these key characteristics then this type of lifestyle is not for you. That's correct. The word lifestyle was used, not the word job. There is a vast difference between the two.

2. Do you accept defeat easily? Anyone who has been self-employed with any degree of success will tell you that while they may have made it look easy to the outside world that was only because they were so busy projecting an image of success that they didn't volunteer all of the times they stumbled along the way to earn that success. No matter what set-backs they faced or how many extremely costly mistakes they made, they kept their heads high, their smiles wide and their optimism (to the outside world) brimming.

3. Can you work in an unstructured environment? Being your own boss means that you have to set your own hours. For someone who has punched a time-clock their entire working lives this may seem a blessing. But unless a person has the discipline to work without someone defining the hours they must be working that person will most certainly fail. Most people who are self-employed work nearly 24-7 especially when they are launching their business and that is because a day only affords them twenty-four hours, every week has only seven days.

4. Are you going to be happy and be able to function without benefits or having to work for little or no pay in the beginning? Most companies remain in the red for the first five years.

If you answered, "No" or even hesitated for a moment contemplating the answer to any one of these four questions then you should polish your resume and consider going back to school to either make yourself more of an asset in your current field or change fields altogether. The entrepreneurial garden can only be cultivated successfully by individuals who embrace and live the characteristics set forth in this article.