We have a great many small businesses as clients here at Sareen and Associates, and almost all of the owners of those small companies had a “regular” job working for someone else before they started their own firm. Very, very few of our clients got out of high school or college or graduate school and starting working for themselves right away. It just doesn’t happen like that, generally.

Most of those people had a job, or jobs, that they liked. The only reason they started their own company was because they thought they could do something better, or in a unique fashion, or because they thought they could make a great deal of money. And, sometimes, it’s a combination of all of those reasons.

But, some of our clients have another reason added to the universe of reasons they started their own business, and that is, they hated the job they had. In fact, some of them had two or three jobs in a row that they hated.

So, they started their own business, employing the logic that:

• Whatever happens, it can’t be worse than the torture of this job
• At least I’ll get along with my boss
• If the business fails, then at least I tried to do something else, and then I’ll know that I’m not cut out for running my own business as opposed to always wondering if I could make it on my own

Starting your own business is not something to be done lightly; you should think long and hard before taking that step, no matter what your reasons. But, if one of the reasons is that you hate your job, and you also hated the three or four or five jobs before this one, then maybe you’re one of those people that needs to be on their own. Maybe you’re going to hate every job except the one where you’re the boss.

Not sure if you hate your job? Here are some good indicators:

You complain about your job all the time – whether it’s to your significant other, your friends, your family, the guy in front of you at the coffee shop, you are constantly venting about your job. Everyone is tired of hearing about it, and it makes you look like a whiner.

Your job consumes your life – you have no time to exercise, no time for your friends, you’re too tired to do anything, etc.

They’re underpaying you – if everything else is wrong with your job, but this part is right, it makes up for a lot. When this part is wrong, too, it really kills your spirit.

There is zero growth – you’re not learning anything new and everything’s the same every single day.

You fantasize about yelling at your co-workers or your supervisor all the time – This isn’t good, and the next step, fantasizing about hitting someone at work, or pushing your boss in front of a bus, is even worse.

There are only two emotions you have about work; either anger or depression – if you start getting really depressed on Sunday afternoons because you’re already thinking about having to go back to work on Monday morning, that’s a problem. If you’re getting so angry at work that you feel like you’re going to explode, that’s a problem.

You just don’t care about the rules anymore – whether it’s cleaning up after yourself in the break room, observing the dress code, showing up for meetings, leaving 3 hours early on Fridays, or something else, you’ve stopped caring about being a team player, and you’re almost daring your company to fire you.

You’ve stopped doing actual work – you push off work to other departments, or to your subordinates, and, some of it you just don’t do at all. You let all calls go to voicemail, you don’t respond to texts or emails, and you don’t accept meeting invitations. Your calendar’s pretty clear, and you’re spending a lot of time every day on Facebook or Pininterest or the news sites.

You loathe spending time with your boss – whether it’s in his or her office, a 45-minute car trip to see a client, or even an elevator car ride, you don’t want any kind of interaction with the person you report to, even for a minute. You avoid it like the plague, and will do anything to prevent yourself from having to talk to your boss.

You have made yourself sick – you have high blood pressure, you’re grinding your teeth, you have colitis, you’re abusing drugs or alcohol, you have shingles, and on and on, the anger and the depression could do a lot of things to you. The stress of working at a job you hate has made you sick. Perhaps it’s made you very sick.

The decision: Should I go in a different direction with my professional life?

If some or all of the above list is happening to you, you should get another job. If some or all of the above is happening to you at every job you have, then you probably need to change the dynamics of how you make a living, and consider working for yourself.

Sareen and Associates can help with that; the business case, the financial part of it, etc. And we’ll also give you unvarnished advice on whether you should do it at all. Because, it’s not for everyone, you know. No matter how unhappy you are in your current job, there are certain people that won’t be successful managing their own business. If we think you’re one of them, we’ll tell you. And conversely, if we think you could be successful as a business owner, we’ll do everything possible to help you realize that goal. That’s a promise.