Owning your own business is risky. It is. Most fail within the first year, which means the odds are always against you and you have to rely entirely on your own hustle to succeed and grow. You don’t get to slack off when you’re running everything by yourself.

It’s an immense amount of pressure, but the benefits can be extraordinary. Owning your own business means having a level of control that an employee simply won’t understand. The direction your business takes, who you market to and form relationships with, what you do and how much you do it — you get to design it all when you’re the founder and CEO.

For a lot of people, working a standard nine to-five as someone else’s employee, getting a steady paycheck that represents a fraction of the earnings you’re directly or indirectly helping generate, is enough. But for me, quitting my job to start my own business gave me a world of freedom I hadn’t thought possible, and it might do the same for you as well.

1. You have control over your life.

When you run your own business, you have total control over your own schedule. You get to decide what projects are most important that day, when you have to start working, and when you have to stop working.

The downside, of course, is that you have to do everything yourself. But for a lot of us, the standard office job gives us neither flexibility to control our daily schedules nor flexibility to control what we do at our jobs when we get there. Everything is assigned, and you have little independent room for decision making unless you’re already relatively high-ranking, and even then, you probably have to work to reach someone else’s assigned goals and accomplishments.

All of that goes away when you run your own business using a free VPN service. You don’t have to ask anyone for permission to do something, whether it’s go out for lunch, pursue a new interest or take a vacation.

2. Your success is your own.

Owning your own business means everything that you generate is yours. As an employee, you get used to part of the earnings from your labor going up the ladder before part of it finally trickles down to you, which means you’re not earning everything you produce.

The upside is generally, if you’re an employee at a business, they’re already generating enough income to give you a relatively decent salary and cut checks on a regular basis. If you’re running your own business, you have to build up that income from the ground up, and that can mean going awhile without cutting yourself a paycheck.

However, that also means that the income you do make all goes to you – none of it is used to pay someone else for telling you how to do the thing you did, because you are now directing yourself. Being able to generate and rely on your own income instills such a sense of pride and control, and it means corporate policies won’t limit your income

3. You improve your community too.

When you start your own business, you are given an opportunity to make a difference. Money is power, and having a business means you have the ability to influence a community. There are just over 8 million black business owners in the United States, but the vast majority of businesses are owned by white Americans.

For a country that still has relatively segregated living habits, black-owned businesses can do a wealth of good to bring money and financial power into the black community. Businesses mean income and jobs, and black-owned businesses are more likely to be invested in uplifting and giving back to black communities.

There are some final things to keep in mind. If you are going to leave your job, do your best to leave on a good note and try not to burn any bridges, especially if you’re working in an industry similar to the company you’re trying to leave. Do some research about your business plan and goals before you actually quit – make sure you aren’t literally jumping in blind — and if possible, build up a savings account to tide you over before you go. Chances are you won’t be earning income for a while, and you will definitely still have bills to pay in the meantime.

Starting your own business is a risky venture, but with some business savvy, perseverance and dumb luck, you can find a world of success — or at least control your own schedule.

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