self employed. made great money working for someone else. make even better money having others work for me.

Hey V Power. I'm going on 24-years in business. I started in the basement of my home with $3,000. Business grew fast, however it was manageable and only because I kept the reins in for the first few years. The biz is successful because I let God run it as I am too stupid to run a company of this size - rofl. It's a good insurance policy for me too. Oh, and I do not borrow money from the flipping bankers - they can all bend over and kiss my ass! And they typically do when I walk in the lobby.

Back to your gig; I never discourage a smart person from taking the step in opening their own business. Get your stuff all lined up and go for it. Once you get money rolling in I found that stashing money away has saved my butt a few times over the years. If you enjoy a good challange then it's certainly worth it. Best to work for the dude in the mirror than some butt-head. I was working for a bunch of butt-heads, then I became their biggest competitor. All the advise to you from our Eroidian Brothers is terrific so the only thing I can add is additional encouragement.

Self empoyed for 8 + years !!! Sometimes work is slow but for the most part I stay busy .. Being your own boss is way better than work for the man!!!

Pros- You get to build or fail on your own decision making so have to wonder the problem is to find and fix it. Greater ability for advancement and perks then being employed by another. Cons- More responsibility and liability of all things related, in other words like Truman said "The buck stops here". There is a longer list on both sides but one has to ask themselves and be honest am I cut out for it. If you are the type of person that can't handle personal failures with the ability to adapt and fix with out a long self pity period then I would say don't open your own business. If you have the attitude like Edison when inventing the light then you will be fine. He was once ask, "don't you realize that you have failed at least one thousand times to make this work?" His response was "that is one thousand failures I won't make again."

I've been self employed for 15+ years now and have loved almost every minute of it! That being said, I will also point out it is not for everyone... the hours can suck, pay can be sketchy at times, and if you are doing it right, you will work for the biggest asshole you have ever worked for... as I used to try and explain to people... when its a nice day and you want to play hooky, you can stand at the bathroom sink, call in and cough and say "hey boss, I aint feeling too good today", but when you own your own, that bastard in the mirror looks back at you and says "You lying sack of shit.. get to work!!"... that being said, at the end of the day, when you look back and realize YOU made your business what it is, its worth all the sweat, long days and nights, and hard work!!

I agree pros and cons to each but hands down being your own boss

There are definitely positives and negatives on both sides of the street as FZ160 says. One of the great things about owning your own business is that you really don't have to put up with shit the way the company wants you to, and if you don't like something you can change it yourself. The only issue is that you have to do everything yourself, meaning you have to be the one who runs shit. You have to know which bills to pay for what, which company to go with for your products, how to ship certain products, you have to have good customer service, and so on and so forth. It is extremely stressful to start up and even just own a business but in the end I definitely think it is 100% worth it.