So far we have covered the perception that self-employed people have to work for long hours, self-employment is riskier than traditional employment, you need lots of money to start a new business and self-employment is stressful. We continue with our series, 10 myths about self-employment, our focus today being: Self-employment is too complicated.

As steve Pavlina, an American self-help author, motivational speaker and entrepreneur, puts it, self-employment can seem complicated at first. There’s a lot to learn in the beginning. From accounting to taxes, payroll, legal issues, insurance, business registration, marketing, the list is endless.

Reminds me of when we started our family business. We had a family friend who promised would help us register our company but ended up sealing our money. December last year thugs broke into our office and stole close to KES 200,000. Such experiences can make one fill as though running a business of your own is a very complicated affair and can actually discourage you all together but as Pavlina puts it, “Don’t let the initial learning get you down.”

You only need to learn this once… and only for your first business. if you start a second business later, you’ll be up and running much more quickly.

Jillian Eve from Little Green Room states that the secret to dealing with the complexities of starting a business is not to get ahead of yourself when setting everything up. Start out small if you are not ready to deal with complicated issues. Don’t rush for those huge corporate clients if you can’t handle them. A slight mishap with a huge client or inability to deliver as expected can ruin your business reputation.

Startup small and set things up right. Learn from your mistakes and don’t easily get discouraged. The ongoing maintenance of a business doesn’t have to be a nightmare.

Key words here, start up small and grow gradually and learn from your mistakes. Don't let the initial learning get you down, running your own business won't always be a complicated affair.