Business or Job: Which is Better in Nigeria?

Image credit @Legis Meridian

Like I would always say, going for business instead of jobs or careers instead of business has benefits and disappointments. In other words, if you choose to start a business instead of looking for jobs, you will win some and lose some. And if your choice is jobs or business after school, you have something to gain and lose either way.

It’s now up to you; which one you prefer. What can you sacrifice?  The beauty of owning your own business or a company job? The pain of starting, running, and managing a project or the pain that comes with the insecurity of working with government or private establishments?

Let’s get the picture of your life if you must run a business. I’m here to open your mind to a list of benefits and losses you should expect as a business owner. If you know you won't be fine with these, kindly subscribe to looking for and securing a job instead.

But before then, let’s get something straight.

Talking about business, I want to assume you’re just a fresh or old graduate who needs to make a first-time decision as to whether to go job searching or plan to put up a business. Or you’re already working but want to consider changing your life and moving towards self-employment or entrepreneurship.

I’m as well not talking about a large-scale business here. I want to assume you’re just starting up. And unless you’re a rich graduate, you wouldn’t be starting a mega business at this stage of your life.

Benefits that Await You if You Start a Business Instead of Searching for Jobs

1. Starting Your Own Business Helps You Create Values

In fact, any successful business owner will tell you, they get here today because they create values for others. If you want to be rich, enrich others! The beauty of starting your own business is that you’re going to touch more lives and it’s going to be your designs and doings. And when the glory comes, it’s all yours. That enough makes you feel fulfilled.

Hundreds of people in the next graveyards died with ideas. These could be their mistakes of chasing jobs instead of their personal projects. If you have got a dream you want to bring to light, you may be an awaiting business owner. All you need is to start it now and stick to it until it works.

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2. You Experience Full Engagement If you Own a Business

The business world is not for you if you’re lazy. If you’d wanted to do more anywhere you’d been assigned, this is your world. 

See, a majority of people won’t be satisfied with a few responsibilities. If you search for jobs, you’re assigned certain responsibilities on strict terms, of course. You can’t get out of that scope.

Do you feel like offering more? Then, you should be a business owner. This will help you stretch yourself to the best limit.

Millions of people would retire before realizing they could do more with their lives. By then, it’s already late.

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3. Start a Business to be Your Own Boss

You must have read this everywhere. Most people start businesses because they don’t want to be under the leadership of anybody. And that’s what they define as being your own boss. That’s not my own definition.

By nature, you should know if you’re the type that can perform well under people monitoring or if you prefer doing things on your own terms. Most people perform well while being controlled all through their lives. Nothing is practically wrong with that. They’re just the jobs/career types.

However, if you find yourself crossing the limit set by a boss, researching beyond what a lecturer has taught you in class and putting that down in exams instead, never wanted to be told the type of clothes to put on or where to be at a time, you can be a business type by nature.

This is what you must check very well while making the final decision of going for a business or a job. Living your life in the wrong place can make you money but you’re unfulfilled at 80.

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4. Being a Business Owner Makes You a Role Model

While working for a company, a few people will see you and take you as their role model. They want the kind of life you have and they want to take all steps to be like you. This undoubtedly is not as common; as people who want the lives of business moguls and self-employees.

Even though the road to the two is never smooth, people believe they have more control over being the next Bill Gates, Aliko Dangote, etc if they should follow exactly these leaders' paths. Enjoying telling the stories of your journeys to that end is going to be more memorable and appealing.

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5. You Can Be More Sure of Lifetime Security with Your Own Business

We all know what it is like working for companies around. You can anytime be laid off with certain excuses. Worst still, in most countries, workers are not well protected from the cruel decisions of employers.

I’ve witnessed a case of staff being asked to reapply for jobs they had been in for 9 years. Do you know why? They didn’t want them to clock the pensionable age so they wouldn’t be the company’s burdens in their old age. Economic decisions/events such as amalgamation, recession, merging, changing of management, etc have sent hundreds of workers out of their jobs.

Even working with the government has never been this challenging. People are tied to a certain pension scheme with which they have no control and when it’s time to cash out, certain economic policies may change your story forever.

With your own business, you’re in charge of your “now” and “later”. Your future and that of the future of your family is entirely in your hands.

The economy will fit and beat, yet you must stay strong. You’ll change decisions as it may favor you and your business. And if you’re afraid of the future (which is truly worth it), you should consider early savings, fixed deposits, and insurance policies to support your after-work-life.

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The Losses to Look Out For If You Consider Business Instead of Job.

Of course, there are disadvantages to owning and running a business all through your active and working life. Below are a few challenges to expect.

Owning a business is demanding really

1. Running a Business Forces you to Continual Learning

It’s challenging that when you start a business based on a given idea, it doesn’t end there. You have to be continually acquiring new and supportive knowledge if you must excel for long. The first mistake any business owner will make is believing things will remain the way they are now in the next decade. It’s not going to be. It’s never!

You must keep learning and tailoring your new experiences towards developing your project or starting new or related ones. This is the only way you will be fit for any possible government or economic policies, and wrong business decisions that may hurt your business.

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2. You May Be Trapped into Over Engagement

It may be tempting to be fully engaged. This makes you complete as a man though, yet a reasonable person should work out ways to avoid being a slave to his business for his time at work. This can be truly challenging for the self-employed (that is, people who rarely employ staff for any part of their work). Yet, using outsourced services and disciplining yourself to take time off (vacations) will help you out of this trap.

Setting work hours that your clients will get used to in the long run will secure you from losing the attention needed for your family, social and religious lives.

Though this may not be easy at the beginning, you must work towards it from the very start and make sure it’s achievable before your fifth year in operations.

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3. You are Prone to the Risk of Losing it All

Discipline is the key not to losing it all. Businesses may not be your take if you can’t avoid gambling. The game of chance is not for everybody, most especially business people. Business people don’t spend all. The mentality in the job world is that, if you spend all now, next month you’re paid another salary (if you’re yet to be sacked).

In the business world, you pay yourself and save the rest. You make more in sales this month, and the next is full of losses or debts. This is what you should learn to handle well if you must drive this path. With my 10 years of experience in this world, I learned to always save 10% of my monthly profit no matter what. And in a month of shortage (due to a sales drop), I saved more the next to make up for the last deficiency.

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Conclusion

Starting a business may be a way to go as soon as you’re done with the university or college. Having the right business ideas is one of the important ingredients here. You will need to provide values in order to succeed. While you should fulfill some qualities as detailed above, you shouldn’t close your eyes to the possible challenges of being in business which you may not worry about if you’re being paid salaries as a worker.

Going for a job is the direct opposite of the business world. If you think it’s hard for you to handle a business owner/self-employed life, then you’d better stay where you can do well.

Success is guaranteed in either choice knowing what you can do well. It will be a great loss acting as a business person while you’d better done well getting a job. In the same vein, you may bury your dream alive if you’re inwardly a business person but ends up signing some documents for A-Z Plc.

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