Owning a Small business is not what it is made to be. You listen to “motivation Monday” podcasts and some whipper snapper under 30 made a Billion Dollars and you think, man! This is the stuff! I want my slice of that pie. Hold your horses their pilgrim. There are things I need you to know about this thing called small business that are not that great.

That does not mean you should not start a business, nope, go ahead, but at least now you will go into it with a little more clarity, a little more reality. And that my friend, goes a looong way in business. Trust me. I have been an entrepreneur for more than 18 years.

#1. It is lonely

When you start you are the business, owning a small business is you and your idea. There is nobody else. The success and failure rests on your shoulders and your shoulders alone. You might have coaches, mentors, a spouse and even kids. They are not in the trenches with you every day. I have had many days when I burst out in tears under pressure. I had situations where I had $10 in my company account on the 31st. of the month and 10 minutes before close of business. I was alone, only I could fix that problem.

Hang out with other entrepreneurs. It helps a lot. If you can, hang out with entrepreneurs that are a bit more successful than you, then at least they can help you grow and navigate the loneliness a bit better.

#2. It is hard

Owning a small business is not easy. I know many people try to sell you the whole laptop on a beach idea, but I am sorry to say, behind the scenes they worked their kahuna’s off to get it going at first. Remember, if it is worth it, then it will take hard work to make it work. If it was easy then everyone would be doing it.

#3. You learn things about yourself you never wanted to discover

Owning a small business you quickly learn what your imperfections are.You are a procrastinator, you are a bad communicator sometimes, you get angry, you feel helpless. Trust me, all that you thought you were not you will discover in your life in some form. That is good. It shows you where you need to grow so that you can run a better small business.

#4. People will try to break down what you are trying to build

Owning a small business means you are building something of worth. You look at your product or service and you think, wow, this is amazing. I am adding so much value to the world. Then you discover somewhere someone else thinks it is crap and they bad mouth you wherever you go. That is also a good thing. It means you are changing something in the market. If you get NO resistance then it means you are simply working to maintain the status quo. Do not confuse resistance with a bad idea. Unfortunately it takes practice and failure to make that distinction more accurately.

Now that you know what is coming your way when owning a small business, at least you will run your business from a perspective of reality, making you a better entrepreneur.