Becoming an entrepreneur seems pretty cool these days, right? All of those Instagram photos of entrepreneurs living the work from wherever lifestyle at fancy dinners and nice hotels. But, becoming an entrepreneur so you can take pictures like these is probably not the best reason to start your own business. See this post if you need more examples of reasons not to start your own business.

The truth is, becoming an entrepreneur is NOT for everyone. There are some things you want to be aware of before you make the leap.

5 Great Reasons To Start Your Own Business

1. You have developed enough experience in an industry and you think you can go out on your own.

You have tested and tried everything you can in your day job. You have put yourself out there, learned as much as you can and are now ready to do it yourself. You’ve become one of the top people in your company and there really is nowhere else to go. I’ve been there too and it was one of the most motivating factors for me to become my own boss. I didn’t see myself growing in the company any longer and felt like I had done all that I could and gotten all the experience I could including my MBA. So, it was time to break free and use everything I have learned to do it myself.

I am grateful for my eight years of experience and my MBA. It taught me a lot.

2. You have identified the problem your potential customers have and you think (or know) they will pay you for solving it.

Don’t just start a business because you think you have a good idea.  Starting your own business is really about helping people. If you want to help people, you need a problem that you can solve with your business! And you need to have done your market research so you know what your ideal customers are looking and how your business plan helps solve their problems.

[RELATED: 5 Steps to Create a Business Plan]

3. You have leadership experience and you want to be in charge.

This is something I really wanted. I wanted to be in charge and have people under me. I wanted to practice the leadership that I had learned so much in my MBA. I wanted to delegate and replace myself to grow a company. Today, I want to be a CEO and scale my business to be something even bigger than me. You have to have a vision as an entrepreneur so you can lead your company to your goal.

4. You want the challenge.

Starting a business is such a great self-development tool. It is such a challenge. It’s exciting. It’s tough. You will never be the same person. You grow daily and learn daily. You have to become the CEO that needs to run your company 12 months from now. Which means you need to do personal growth work to become that CEO right this very second.

5. You are willing to put in the hours.

It’s a lot of work. You put in a lot of hours but hopefully you are really excited and passionate about it so it doesn’t really feel like work. For me, my work doesn’t really feel like work because I love what I do and I am definitely willing to put in the hours.