3 life changes that will happen when you become a business owner

Many people think about starting their own business because of the benefits of being your own boss and reaping the financial rewards of your hard work. Once you’ve researched the market to see if your business would be viable and taken the decision to launch it, you will find your life changes in many different ways. It is an amazing learning curve as you discover new skills as well as new experiences in your professional life which have a beneficial knock-on effect on your personal life too.

Here are three life-changing experiences which may never have occurred to you.

Always Learning Something New
As an employee you may have just learnt to do your job but not been too involved in other departments. All this will change as a business owner. You will be researching other areas in order to control your business better. Suddenly it becomes important to know about the marketing, sales, finance and product development sides so that you can run your new venture more efficiently. This thirst for knowledge keeps you active and could spill over into your personal life, where you find you need to keep learning something new such as a language or sport.

You’ll Be Stronger
As German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said: “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” You’ll certainly find this is true in your new business life. You are going to make mistakes along the way, but you can learn from them. Find out why something went wrong and how you can make it right. You will come across some tough obstacles, and you’ll need to work out how to overcome each hurdle. The important thing to remember is to see each stumbling block as an opportunity. After a few months, you will feel stronger and more confident when you look back at what you have achieved and what you had to overcome to reach your goal.

Your Finances Become More Complicated
As an employee you will have received a monthly payslip with your tax and National Insurance already deducted. Now your tax returns will become much more complicated. You will need to keep profit and loss accounts to see where your money goes and what is coming in. You will also need to fill in tax returns, pay your own National Insurance, think about setting up a pension scheme and register for tax if your business VAT taxable turnover is more than £85,000. If you have employees, you will also have to pay their tax, National Insurance and pension contributions too. There are online tools to help with accounts, or you could use an accountant once your business grows sufficiently.

Advantages of Being a Business Owner
As you can see, starting a business will change your life for the better in more ways than one. You will grow as a person with more confidence and new skills that will stand you in good stead to build a profitable business.