More stability, less stress

It's been eight years since I started my consulting business. Two of the things I love about having my own business are the stability and the reduced stress. This may sound like a joke, but I'm completely serious.

Having a business is ostensibly less stable and more stressful than having a salaried job, but at a deeper level it can be more stable and less stressful.

If you are an employee, you have one client. If you lose that client, you lose 100% of your income. If you have a business with a dozen clients, losing a client or two at the same time is disappointing, but it's not devastating.

As for stress, I prefer the stress of owning a business to the stresses of employment. My net stress level dropped when I went out on my own. My sleep, for example, improved immediately.

At first I never knew where the next project was coming from. But I found this less stressful than office politics, questioning the value of my work, a lack of correlation between my efforts and my rewards, etc.

If you're thinking of striking out on your own, I wish you well. Here is some advice I wrote a few years ago that you may find helpful.

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