Many coaches, bloggers, YouTubers, TikTok creators, and affiliate marketers sell the idea of quitting the job you hate and working full-time for yourself as if it's an easy and quick way to get rich.

If you consider that 40% of businesses shut down before they reach the 3-year anniversary milestone, it’s safe to assume anyone who hasn’t made it past that is still learning their way around the business world.

The Autistic Innovator has been in business for over 3 years, and I’m still learning how to do new things every day. Progressing and moving your business forward never stops.

So, what is it actually like to become a full-time entrepreneur with an online business?

When you first make the transition from part-time side hustle to full-time entrepreneur, it’s both exhilarating and panic-inducing.

There’s a sense of pride when people ask what you do for a living, and you get to answer, “I work for myself.”

Freedom of setting your own routines

You get really used to your autonomy, and returning to being an employee becomes exhausting and suffocating. Deciding what you do every day, when you’ll do it, what tasks need to get done, and every aspect of your day becomes your normal. You set your own work schedule, too. There’s a lot of freedom in that.

Especially as an autistic and neurodivergent person, this enables you to create your own ideal rigid routine that is comforting and provides the structure you need to feel secure.

My work day starts after I wake up and end at 5:30pm every day. Sleep schedules can vary wildly from day to day. Sometimes I wake up at 1:30am, and some days 7:30am. As an autistic and neurodivergent person who gets overwhelmed and my energy drained a lot easier, being able to create your own sleep schedule helps a lot.

When I was an employee, my sleep schedule was dictated by the hours my job paid me to work, and I was often left severely sleep-deprived. I spent my days being told what to do without autonomy while being paid wages that kept me poor, and I’d never want to return to that life.

Lifetime Commitment

The other side of this is once you’ve been in business for over a year and want to keep running your business, good luck getting a job. Employers red flag entrepreneurs, and very few will hire us; if they do, they’ll make you shut down your business to work there.

Becoming an entrepreneur can become a lifetime commitment because of this, so make sure you really want to go for this path because the likelihood of returning to the employee life is much lower.

Yale study found that startup founders have a lower probability of even getting an interview for a job than a non-founder, and the odds are even lower if the founder was successful.

Balancing Romance and a Business

Entrepreneurship changes your romantic relationships. There are dozens of articles online about what it’s like to be in a relationship with an entrepreneur. I’ve never felt so seen as I did when reading this one article from Marriage.com. It’s an honest article that somewhat warns people before they get into a relationship with us, but everything they say is completely true, at least for me.

Your business becomes your main priority above all else. The people in your life get put in second place. Your partner can begin complaining that you don’t spend enough time with them. They can say you work for yourself, so why can’t you spend time with me? Why do you work so much? I feel neglected. It's all very common to hear.

You could also end up like me and push everything else out of your life so you can fully give yourself to your business. I choose not to date or pursue any romantic connections because I’m much happier with just my cats and my business. It’s hard to find someone who understands the entrepreneur's life and is okay with being secondary to the business. 

I like my very autistic entrepreneurial routine, and I don’t want to change it. My life is the way I want it.

Making the leap to full-time is panic-inducing

I’ve always been a believer in having multiple sources of income. I was working a full-time job, working as a contractor on the side, and running an online store for autistic adults that was barely making any money. I was only profiting $300 a month with my store when I became physically disabled and had to quit my retail job. My side income became my main source of income.

And in a twist of fate, the company I worked as a contractor for suddenly ran out of money and could no longer pay me.

I became completely reliant on my store and sort of put in a situation where I had to choose to become a full-time entrepreneur and rely 100% on myself, be subjected to good months and bad months, all the ups and downs, worry if I could pay my bills every month, or do I get a job and become an employee again for that guaranteed paycheck.

After surpassing the 3-year business milestone, the odds of me getting hired somewhere were slim because I’d been an entrepreneur for too long. All I know is e-commerce, and no e-commerce business wants to hire someone fully capable of competing with them one day. I’m a conflict of interest. Plus, I’m a born entrepreneur. I’ve wanted to be an entrepreneur since I was 12 years old.

These people who make money telling you that it's easy to quit your job and become a full-time entrepreneur don’t tell you how panic-inducing it is to become completely reliant on your own ability to hustle. You’ve got to want to succeed and love what you do more than anything else because if you don’t love what you’re doing, you’ll give up. Being an entrepreneur is very hard, grueling, and at times very stressful.

What happens when you become a public entrepreneur

As a one-person business, I became a public entrepreneur by default. My full name and face is on the about us page and homepage, all my store emails are signed with my name and written more as a personal letter than a store marketing email, and of course with social media and being so open and honest about myself and business there, The Autistic Innovator is not a nameless, faceless business.

There have been some who go out of their way to troll and bully me. I had to alter my focus towards all the people who have told me how much what they’ve bought from me has helped them. They matter the most.

Being public is usually a risk, and it brings the ‘haters’ out. Just remember they are your biggest fans and spread the word about your business the most.

Is being an entrepreneur worth it?

Absolutely, yes. As long as you go into it with realistic expectations and ready to go full force. It will challenge you like you’ve never been challenged before. You’ll accomplish things you never knew you could. You build something from the ground up, starting with an idea you go after relentlessly to make a reality, and once it’s a reality, you continuously fight to improve how your business runs.

For the first few years, it’s long hours, outworking everyone, grinding, hustling, and learning as much as you possibly can to help your business grow. You’ll fight for it and learn to work smart.

Especially as an autistic and neurodivergent person, there is great satisfaction in crafting your life and massively accommodating yourself exactly the way you want it.