自己创业当老板的苦与甜

    SideHustleNation.com首席兼职机会寻找官尼克•罗培的回答是：

    自己当老板最大的好处在于，这是你所从事过的最具挑战性、回报最丰厚、压力最大的事情。与从别人那里领取稳定的薪酬相比，这是一场完全不同的比赛。

    你曾经为拿到100%的佣金而工作过吗？对于所有的小企业主们来说答案是肯定的，而且每一天都是如此。如果东西卖不出去，那么他们一分钱也挣不到。恐惧与兴奋并存。

    任何工作能挣的钱是有限的，换句话说就是存在工资“天花板”。如果自己当老板，只要做对了生意，你就可以打破这个天花板。

    当然，相反情况就是，连“地板”都会亏进去。

    我喜欢按照自己意愿自由规划自己的时间，尝试新的理念，而不用向老板汇报。这意味着你可以周二给自己放假去滑雪，多么美好的事情。然而另一方面，这往往也意味着加班到深夜，周末还要处理重要的工作或客户。

    对于我来说，自己当老板最糟糕的部分在于缺乏指导。也就是说，没有人告诉你到底该做什么，也没有人告诉你应高优先做什么。什么都得自己拿主意，压力很大。

    解决这个问题的办法在于组建一支你信任的团队，要么是公司内部团队或公司外部团队——最好是兼而有之。最近一个由志同道合的企业家组成的智囊团帮了我一个大忙，这个团队经常相互交流观点和看法，同时还相互承担责任。

    企业家/咨询师理查德•波利斯的回答是：

    好处：最终，任何事都自己解决。

    坏处：最终，任何事都得自己解决。

    企业家肯•格林的回答是：

    你所雇佣的员工。你会发现，你所雇佣的员工将成为自己当老板最大的乐趣和痛苦。过去20年中，我曾与无数的企业家和高管讨论过这个问题。而且我们都认为，聘用好员工是迄今为止自己当老板或管理企业最具挑战性的一个环节，而且这个问题与公司的大小无关。

    好员工很难找，而且雇员确实能对公司产生实质性影响。因此，请务必多花点时间来评估你要聘用的人。同时还要制定一个流程，迅速地识别这些人是否能胜任工作。如果无法胜任工作，尽快把他们打发走。效率低下的员工会浪费你的时间、资源和宝贵的金钱。

    一旦找到好员工，你就会真正明白好员工的价值，而且这种价值是千金难买的。他们会让其他的问题和麻烦都变得微不足道，甚至时常会让这些问题和麻烦统统消失。而且最大的好处莫过于，你可以委任和分派责任，而你自己就可以有时间去把握大方向。对我而言这就是最大的好处。

    SCORE小企咨询服务全国成就奖（SCORE National Achievement Award in Small Business Counseling）得主肯•拉森的回答是：

    我之前就是做独立承包商工作的，因此我自己出来单干也是属于意料之中的事情，而且过渡十分顺畅。

    我必须迅速掌握的一些事包括运营企业所需的业务策划、营销和竞争分析，而并不是讨论个人努力的问题。行业组队、让他人为你工作以及让公司团结一致而不至于各行其是都是很有挑战性的工作。

    从公司的角度来进行调整、开发客户群，然后发展、盈利，这个过程差不多花了我两年的时间。

    这一问题源自于Quora：自己当老板最大的好处和坏处是什么？（财富中文网）

    译者：翔

    Answer by Nick Loper, chief side hustler at SideHustleNation.com

    The best part of running your business is that it’s one of the most challenging, rewarding and stressful things you’ll ever do. It’s a completely different ball game from relying on someone else for a steady paycheck.

    Have you ever worked for 100% commission? That’s what ALL small business owners do, every single day. If they don’t sell anything, they won’t earn anything. It’s scary and exhilarating at the same time.

    At any job, there’s a limit to how much you can earn — a salary “ceiling,” if you will. With your own business, you can smash through that ceiling if you make the right moves.

    The downside of course is you lose the floor, too.

    I love having the freedom to schedule my days how I see fit, to try out new ideas, and not have a boss to answer to. If that means taking off on a Tuesday to go skiing, awesome. On the flip side, it often means working late into the night and on weekends to take care of an important job or client.

    For me, the worst part of running a business is a lack of direction. By that I mean there’s no one else telling you what to work on or what tasks to prioritize. Every decision has to be made by you, and it’s stressful.

    The way around that is to build a team of people you trust, either within your company or outside it — preferably both. One thing that’s really helped me recently is a mastermind group of like-minded entrepreneurs, a group to bounce ideas off of and hold each other accountable.

    Answer by Richard I. Polis, entrepreneur/consultant

    Best: Ultimately, everything depends on you.

    Worst: Ultimately, everything depends on you.

    Answer by Ken W. Green, entrepreneur

    The people you hire. You’ll discover who you hire encompasses the best and worst parts of running a business. I’ve discussed this with numerous owners and executives over the past 20 years and we can all agree, finding good people is by far the most challenging aspect of running and/or managing a business, regardless of size.

    Good people are hard to find and your employees really do make a difference, so spend extra time evaluating an applicant before you hire, and create a procedure to quickly identify if they will succeed in their position. If not, let them go as quickly as possible. Unproductive employees will drain you of time, resources and much needed money.

    Once you hire a good one, you’ll truly know the value of a great employee, and nothing can quite match that. They make all the other pains and hassles seem much smaller too, often times making them disappear altogether. And the best part, you’re able to delegate and assign responsibility, which allows you to focus on the big picture, which I believe is the best part.

    Answer by Ken Larson, recipient of SCORE National Achievement Award in Small Business Counseling

    Starting my enterprise was a logical extension of the work I had been doing as an individual contractor, so the transition seemed easy enough.

    What I had to learn very quickly was the business planning, marketing and competitive analysis aspects of operating an enterprise, as opposed to negotiating single person efforts. Industry teaming, having others work for me and dealing as a company instead of a person were all challenges.

    It took roughly two years to adjust, develop a client base as a company, and progress to profitability.

    This question originally appeared on Quora: What are the best and worst parts of starting your own business?