Many people work at a certain job they hate and think “if only I had my own business things would be different”. However, being the owner of a company is not what most people think. You might be wondering which one is the best, but the answer is: it depends. There are advantages and disadvantages to both situations.

Working For A Boss

When you are being told what to do, you generally have to show up to your job at a certain time, stay there for four to eight hours depending on whether you work full time or part-time, and you have to do the job you were hired for.

When you are not the person in charge, you get paid even if the company isn’t making a profit. If your paycheck is wrong or doesn’t clear then you can go to your boss or someone at a higher rank in the company.

If you get paid time off during the year, that is decided by your employer. When it is tax season, you will get money back in taxes. Taxes are also a lot easier to prepare. If you go somewhere like H&R Block to prepare your taxes, you won’t be charged as much as the owner of a company would be unless you have other things impacting your taxes like stocks.

Working For Yourself

Many people who work a regular job do not realize there’s a risk of working for themselves. There are still things that have to be done when you work for yourself and when you start small, you might be able to handle everything yourself depending on the type of business you open. 

You can work when you choose, which can be good or bad. It will require discipline and responsibility to be productive since you won’t have someone to tell you what to do. But you can also take the day off to run errands whenever you like, or even take a vacation.

You can stay at the work location as long as you want. It would be best to hire a manager and give that manager authority if you plan to be away for days or weeks at a time. 

Instead of having to do tasks that are tedious or boring, you can hire employees to do those tasks but even if employees are experienced, you are still responsible for training them.

If you don’t want to train employees yourself, you could have your best employees show the new employees what to do. When you are the boss, money comes in if business is good. 

If business isn’t good, you have to turn the business around and you have a responsibility to pay your employees in full on time regardless of how good or bad business is. 

If the employee notes that there is a disparity in pay, you have the responsibility of making it right. Many entrepreneurs will owe money when tax season rolls around. 

Taxes will be more complicated to prepare and could cost more to prepare than if you were working for somebody.

Benefits Of Working For A Boss

• Your pay is guaranteed based on the agreement you made when you were hired.
• If your paycheck is short, the company has to pay you the money you are owed.
• You get paid time off if you are working a full-time job.
• You receive money when you file taxes as long as nothing else is impacting your taxes.
• Your taxes will be cheaper and easier to prepare.

Drawbacks Of Working For A Boss

• The boss decides your schedule but you get to agree when you first take the job.
• Can’t leave work early unless there is a problem.
• Have to do boring and tedious tasks.

Benefits of Working For Yourself

• Can hire employees to take care of boring and tedious tasks.
• Decide when you want to work.
• Leave work when you want.

Drawbacks Of Working For Yourself

• Responsible for training new employees unless you have workers that can train new employees.
• If business is bad, you might not bring home a profit.
• Even if business is bad, you are still responsible for making sure your employees get paid.
• You are responsible for handling disparities in the paychecks of employees.
• You will owe money on taxes.
• Taxes will be more complicated to prepare than the taxes of a normal employee.

Conclusion 

Some people are attracted to the security of working for a company that they don’t own, others like the freedom of being their own boss and the potential of earning more money. It’s crucial to evaluate the pros and cons of each one before deciding which path you want to take.