Entrepreneurship and Time

Flexo from Consumerism Commentary asked a good question today: Can you be an entrepreneur in your spare time?

There are strong arguments for maintaining a relatively secure job while laying the groundwork for your own business. With a stable income, you can fund your endeavors. With benefits from your day job, you don't have to worry about making enough money from your side work to support you if you encounter medical emergencies.

On the other hand, there are some reasons why you can't be a successful entrepreneur if all you can devote to the business is your spare time. The more aggressive your goals, the more risk you must be willing to take.

Hah! I am averse to risk myself. I like the idea of me being a risk-taker and reap benefits of the challenges I take. But in reality, I like the consistent and the familiars. I guess that's the reason I am not an entrepreneur myself.

Flexo then continues to argue that while trying to launch a successful business, don't expect to have more time with your family.

One of the main reasons people say they would like to become an "entrepreneur" is that it would allow them to spend more time with family. That may be fine if your intent is to sell products made by someone else on eBay but if you are trying to build a unique business that provides an original product or service or if you are trying to be the best at what you do, you will have less time for friends and family than you had when all you had to worry about was your day job.

This last bit of information seems to be counter-intuitive. If you work for yourself, won't you have control over your work time? After all, you are answerable only to yourself.

But then again, when I see Chris, I can sort of understand it. He is thinking of our family when he works all those crazy hours. So in a way, he works longer hours because he is answerable to himself.

Are there any entrepreneur out there that can share their start-up experience?