Conventional thinking:  If I have my own business, I can be my own boss.  That means no one will give me orders, I will set my own hours, and I will finally be free.  Really?  Wait until you hear this story.

A good friend of mine always dreamt of owning his own business.  He did not like the idea of working for someone else.  He wanted the freedom to make his own decisions and loved the potential of unlimited income.  He saved diligently while working for someone else and was able to save enough money to put towards starting a business.  The only problem is he didn’t know where to start since he did not have any business experience.

One day the opportunity presented itself.  He finally had the opportunity to realize his life-long dream of owning his own business.  He took his hard earned money and invested in a Dunkin Donuts franchise.  The location was fabulous, in a very busy shopping mall.  The franchiser taught him everything he needed to know to run the business, alleviating one of his biggest concerns - the lack of business experience.

In the beginning everything was going great.  He was making good money and loved the fact that he finally realized his dream of being his own boss.  It was a lot of work, but he knew this going in and didn’t mind putting in the extra hours required. 

A year went by and I asked him how the business was going.  To which he responded: “It is going well, I am making good money”.  I sensed a lack of enthusiasm in his response and thought maybe things weren’t going so well.  But maybe I had read him wrong.

A year later when I talked to him again, he spilled his guts.  “I am a slave to this business.  I have to spend my weekends in the store.  I never get any vacation.  It is hard to find good employees.  The good ones don’t last long.  As soon as they get a better pay someplace else they leave, and I have to start all over again training someone else.  When I am short-handed, which is most of the time, I have to do a lot of the work myself.  I can’t leave the store alone.  I can’t call in sick.  I can’t close the doors and take a break.  The pressure is killing me.  The money is OK, but quite frankly I would rather have my freedom back.”

That year he put the store on the market for sale.  The problem is he couldn’t find any takers.  He either had to put up with being a slave to his business or shut it down and incur a major financial blow.   He was stuck.  There was no way out.   

He suffered through this malaise through several more years.  No vacations.  No weekends.  No takers.  Eventually he found a sucker, I mean a buyer, who bought the store from him.  But not at the price he originally paid for.  The day he sold the store he took a significant loss on his original investment.  This was the happiest day of his life.

Contrarian thought:  Don’t assume that you will find freedom by owning your own business.  Just the opposite may happen.

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