Balancing Work and Personal Life
If you think the benefit of working for yourself is that you get more free time, think again. Running a successful consulting business usually means putting in some very long hours — at least while you're getting started. Ideally, all this hard work will pay off as you refine your processes, set your boundaries, and learn when to just say "no."
As an independent, you have full responsibility for your lifestyle. You choose when to work, when to spend time with family and friends, and when to take time for yourself. It's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day pressures of running a business and forget to take time for your personal life. But if you can balance your priorities, you will find that owning a small business is the only way to go!
Physical and Emotional Health
If you get sick you can't work. If you can't work, you can't pay the bills. Don't let this happen to you! Take time for yourself — exercise, eat right, and take "mental health days" when you need them. Even just a few hours off on a mid-week afternoon can make up for a stressful week of 12 hour days.
It's important to keep this in mind when you're working those inevitable long hours. If something happens to you, be it mental or physical, and you can't come through on your contractual obligations, your reputation suffers. You owe it to your clients to take care of yourself — they're depending on you.
If you work at home, you will probably be sick much less often than if you work in an office. You'll be much less likely to catch that "bug" that's traveling around your client's office (unless, of course, you have children). Keep the health of your client in mind when deciding whether to show up for a meeting. Maybe "I can't afford to get sick right now so I'd like to skip that meeting" is the best answer if the entire project team has been fighting the flu.
A common trap for independents is to base everything around work, to put work first. Early on in your independent career, you'll probably live through the sleepless night syndrome, wondering where the next job is going to come from. With luck you get that next job, but you may tend to also acquire a "work first" attitude. It is important to keep in mind that you are working for yourself in order to achieve more freedom. Be pretty emphatic about using that freedom for something other than work once in a while.
Focus
If you work at a client site, you have all the distractions associated with working in an office — politics, meetings, hallway conversations, etc. If you work from home, you can spend your work time focusing on the project at hand. It's much more rare for a neighbor to drop by to chat, although it has been known to happen.
Lack of Ability to "Dance" (Flexibility)
You're a one-person shop. What happens if you're in the middle of a crunch with a client project and a new prospect calls to request a proposal? What if your client adds scope to the project but doesn't extend the deadline? Do you say "no," or stress yourself out getting the work done?
Your days aren't any longer now that you're self-employed, but sometimes you need them to be. Because you're on your own, your resources may be more limited than if you worked for a large corporation. You have a lot less flexibility because of this. You want to stay busy but not overworked. It's important to communicate with your clients when you're getting close to "full." Let them know that deadlines are tight. If you can't bargain for more time, consider getting outside help — a subcontractor or collaborator (more on this later).
Irritability
You have a successful business — the phone is ringing and you have a project deadline, but your computer just crashed. The dog wants attention. Don't kick the dog! Let the phone ring over to voice mail, step back and take a deep breath, maybe several. If necessary, take a walk around the block, with the dog. Try to remember why you went into business for yourself, and appreciate the fact that you can spend this quality time with Rover, in the middle of a crisis. Then go back to work, check your messages, reboot your computer, and get that deadline out of the way.