Having your own business may not be synonymous with freedom

"I want to be my own boss because it will give me more freedom": WRONG!

Yes, one of the advantages of entrepreneurship is flexibility: by being your own boss you can organise your time in the most convenient way. However, this flexibility in terms of workload does not necessarily mean that you will have more free time.

Joining the business world means you commit to being available any time of the day and any day of the week to solve unforeseen problems and ensure that the business objectives are on track. This availability is crucial especially in the early years of your business. Unfortunately, anyone who knows successful businesses knows that the early years (sometimes the first decade!) require a phenomenal amount of attention and detail that causes entrepreneurs to have little free time. So often, being your own boss can mean you'll never truly be disconnected from your profession.

Remember: Moving forward for the wrong reasons can doom the project from day one, ruining the motivation of the founder and all his followers. To avoid mistakes that so many others have made, we looked not for a success story, but for the sceptical voice of experience of Professor Nadim Habib.