As some of you know, I run my own book touring business as well as my blog. My business is run entirely online, by me only and I get to work closely with lots of incredible authors and arrange what will hopefully be a great tour for them to help them gain extra exposure and reviews for their books. I started Neverland Blog Tours in 2014 and it has grown more than I ever expected it will but… There are pros and cons to everything – work included and today I wanted to talk about some of them.
The Pros
- Buiilding something from scratch that’s entirely yours: This is an incredible feeling, having something that’s yours and yours alone. Something you created with your stamp on it and nobody can take that away from you.
- Responsibility: Responsibility can be hard but it also gives me a lot of pride knowing that I’m responsible for my business and therefore it motivates me to try and make it better all the time.
- Earning from your own services: Earning is good all the time – obviously – but as someone who’s had a bunch of retail jobs, earning from my business is so much more satisfying!
- Seeing your business grow: I honestly didn’t know whether my touring business was going to go anywhere. But… It did. And in the space of less than 2 years, it’s grown more than I ever hoped it would!
- Positive feedback and being recommended: I’ve had authors say to me that they’ve recommended me to others for my blog tours and thankfully, I’ve never had any bad feedback for the tours I run and it is an incredible feeling to know you run a business and a service that people like, appreciate and most importantly, want.
The Cons
- Staying on top of self-assessment forms and tax: Being self-employed is great but all the stuff that comes with it can be a bit of a pain in the arse! Having to note down every single transaction that comes and goes in your business, worrying if you’ve completed your self-assessment form in time, having to pay your own national insurance… ugh.
- Responsibility: As you can see, this point comes under both the good and the bad. Responsibility is great but it can be frightening and stressful when you realise that nobody is going to help you and everything is down to you to do, otherwise you’ll let people down.
- Having to stay on top of things when you’re going through a rough time: Sometimes, the motivation just goes and for a whole bunch of reasons this might happen. If I’m having a rough time in my personal life, I find it extremely difficult to stay on top of things but when you run a business, you have no choice.
- Inconsistent wage: I can set my own prices and services but obviously, being paid one tour at a time, the wages are pretty inconsistent. I’m grateful I’ve been able to make money by starting my own business but this can be a pain, especially when you particularly need cash!
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This is a great post. I can imagine the self responsibility of running your own business has to be hard and making sure you are over organized.
Good luck with your book tour business Jenny I hope you have much success with it. 🙂
Thank you – it’s going very well since it started (:
What an inspiring post! I don’t run a business, but I’m more and more believing in following your heart. Congratulations on making it and hope the bad times don’t outweigh the good!
Thank you very much! It’s only small but I’m pleased with how far I’ve come!
Awesome post! 🙂
I love the idea of starting my own business (so far, I have just opened a small Etsy shop, so I’m not sure if I’d count that!), so it was definitely interesting reading your pros and cons.
I would count that! Everyone has to start somewhere right? And it’s something that you have to maintain and manage yourself and something you’re generating income – however small from!
There are definitely pros and cons and I agree with all of your points.
I would also add working hours as a pro – It is fantastic being able to do the hours to suit yourself and also take holiday whenever you need it. Obviously you get no pay but it allows you to be much for flexible.
And pleasure – taking the time to sit back and look at the success and thing “I did this all on my own” is just an amazing feeling.
The cons I would add personally would include overheads (obviously not loads for everybody) but I didn’t think of all the small overheads that come into running a shop. Not only the cost of rent and stock, but electricity, maintenance, decorating, wifi (if it is needed), credit card machine etc.
Also time – yes it’s great to work your own hours. But it takes alot of time to first get up and running and work seems to come home with you on your days off because its constantly on your mind of things you need to do etc.
And like you said, declaring yourself as self-employed and having to sort out your tax-return can be a right pain in the bum sometimes 😛
Starting your own business is amazing but very hard work. Sometimes it feels as though you are constantly spending out and taking in nothing in return, but once you are on your feet and get established it is all worth it in the end 🙂
Oh I bet running a shop is lovely – can I ask what kind of shop and what sort of things you sell? (:
I will have been self-employed for 8 years at the end of his month and I agree completely with your pros and cons, though I would add at least one more con to your list: trust. When starting any business, regardless of what it is you need to get people to trust you otherwise they won’t pay for your service and the business won’t take off. Once you have a few contacts that changes but the initial trust issue is a definite con for me, though I completely understand it.
I would also add another pro: working hours. Being self employed you can set your own hours, make time for appointments or start late one day if the business allows without you having to consult anyone else. Being your own boss is brilliant, the lack of restrictions over when you work and take breaks, etc is so freeing but with that comes the responsibilites that you’ve already mentioned.
I am completely jealous by the way, I would love to have a business doing what you do or anything else book related that I got paid for.
Oh God yes I totally agree with your point on trust. When I started my book touring business, I did loads of research so I knew what I was doing but until I had to do my first tour, I didn’t REALLY know what I was getting myself in for or whether I’d be any good. I did a good number of things for free when I first started, to build up a base of testimonials etc. I think that’s mostly what got people talking and what got people booking things with me.