Why do people choose to be independent business owners in the meetings and events industry? First, most successful business owners will tell you that they want to be their own bosses and enjoy tremendous freedom. They also will share from their experience that self-employment is less risky and more rewarding than working for others.

As shared in the book, ‘The Millionaire Next Door’:

A professor once asked a group of sixty MBA students who were executives of public corporations this question.

What is risk?

One student replied: being an entrepreneur.

His fellow students agreed. Then the professor answered his own question with a quote from an entrepreneur:

What is risk? Having only one source of income. Employees are at risk…they have a single source of income. What about the entrepreneur who sells janitorial services to your employers? He has hundreds and hundreds of customers…hundreds and hundreds of sources of income.

Actually, there is considerable financial risk in being a business owner. But business owners have a set of beliefs that helps them reduce their risk or at least their perceived risk:

• I’m in control of my destiny
• I can solve any problem
• The only way to become a CEO is to own the company
• There are no limits on the amount of income I can make
• I get stronger and wiser every day by facing risk and adversity

Being a business owner does mean you will need to assume some risk. But as was shared above, the risks can be managed and the rewards are greater than anticipated. From my own first-hand experience, it is great to be a small business owner in the meetings and events industry. Do I have any regrets? Only one…I should have pursued this path earlier in my hospitality career.