Have you ever looked at a person in a beach shack, sipping on a drink, with a laptop sitting on his or her lap, and felt jealous about how easy their work life looked? However, instead of actually enjoying the view of the beach and letting the breeze blow across their face, the person is likely stressing about work and meeting deadlines.
There is no doubt about the fact that the internet has made entrepreneurship more accessible for people. Who wouldn’t want to be relieved of the daily grind commuting to work and working under someone, then come home exhausted and not being able to enjoy their personal life.
Starting your own online business sounds like an impressive alternative. Being your own boss and working when you want, traveling, and earning a good amount of money are enough incentive to make a person quit their day job to become an online entrepreneur. However, if you ask anyone who has entered the world of online entrepreneurship, they will tell you that all of these incentives are just blatant myths.
The downsides of online entrepreneurship are mostly the same as any offline job, and one should think carefully before making a major career jump. Since it is very important to examine all pluses and negatives, talking about the problems of online entrepreneurship is very important. The idea here is not to discourage you in any way, but to give you a complete view of the online picture so you’ll be prepared.
Online brands take time to build
One common misconception about hanging up the boots and working from home is that the business is going to become substantial in a very short time.
The truth is, building up a business online takes as much time and effort as any offline business would. There’s no magic potion or shortcuts to take. If your estimate to set up a normal business through an offline approach is 5 years, it is going to be the same online.
Yes, through the online approach, your connectivity and outreach are more extensive, but there are very few shortcuts. Once the business starts, you have to dedicate enough time to expand and convert it into a profitable venture.
The tricky part is to get proper funding and having a good team to collaborate with. Surveys have proven that most businesses fail due to the lack of funding we must have an alternate, or contacts to the banks most likely to providing finance.
People who are involved in online entrepreneurship spend up to 40 hours a week working, contrary to the 30 hours a week job schedule that normal day job people have. This is not necessarily a bad thing. You have to work hard in order to achieve something and get ahead of others.
The point is, there’s no easy way out. You have to be as diligent and dedicated to your work as you would be if involved in any other business through any other platform. So, if you see someone sitting in a cafe with a laptop, chances are they are focusing more on their laptop than the surrounding ambience or the coffee they are drinking.
You’re never too far away from crisis
Online entrepreneurship mean your laptop or computer is your main asset and all the records stored are in a virtual software space, with no hardware backup most of the time. Though this is convenient from a storage point of view, there are some disastrous risks associated with it. If your laptop gets stolen and you don’t have a cloud backup, then everything you have been working on is lost. It is equivalent to losing a building in an offline retail business.
Moreover, nowadays ransomware and viruses are a common occurrence, with sites getting hacked and hackers demanding money to receive a decoding key. The internet is full of perils and your business is prone to attacks at any time. What needs to be done is you should use applications that have good cloud backup, and also keep upgrading your cloud space periodically. This will help you in managing the situation if any of the unfortunate incidents befall you.
The chances of health issues are magnified
The stress levels are pretty high both mentally and physically. Some people say that when they had their day job, they used to commute to the office and inadvertently used to get some exercise in the form of walking or standing. The work from home scenario brings in the couch mentality and people spend most of the time staring at a computer screen. This eventually leads to serious health implications.
There is an increased intake of sugar and fattening food. Some even complain of stress-eating during crunch time. Online entrepreneurs have a high risk of developing cardiovascular and ophthalmology-related diseases.
This is just the physical aspect of it. The mental stress is even more critical. It generally stems from the fact that people expect that they will have a much more relaxed life after quitting their 9-5 job and are sometimes incapable of dealing with the harsh realities, especially when the expectations are not met. This tends to bog down a lot of people and some spiral towards depression as well.
This article does not try to imply that everyone who has ever taken up online entrepreneurship has gone through similar downfalls in life. Yes, it is an amazing feeling to have your own personal venture and not have anyone to answer to and on top of that, have a steady financial inflow. What’s important is to be aware of where things could go wrong so that you can take the necessary steps to avoid them.