I have owned a business on the side for the last 15 years. Every year, I become more and more thankful that I do. In fact, I think EVERYONE ought to own their own business. There are so many awesome benefits and such little downside that if you don't yet own a business, you should seriously consider starting one. Here are some of the benefits I have experienced.
10 Reasons You Should Own a Business
#1 Extra Income
The main reason most people start a business on the side is simply to get some additional income. I certainly have enjoyed that extra money. It allows us to give more, save more, and spend more. What's not to like? Oh yes, it has also allowed me to pay more in taxes. Oh well, 3 out of 4 isn't bad.
#2 Extra Retirement Accounts
Many employees are stuck with crappy retirement accounts, and they can only put a small percentage of the amount they need to save for retirement into tax-protected accounts. They have to wait until they leave their job to roll that money into an investment account with good options. When you're the boss, however, you get to choose the retirement plan. My side business allows me to have an individual 401(k). If I can make enough income, that's another $72,000 a year [2026 — visit our annual numbers page to get the most up-to-date figures] that I can protect from the tax man and any future creditors.
#3 Entrepreneurial Mindset
Perhaps the greatest benefit of owning my own business is that it has caused me to look at the world in a different way. Your mindset changes from a scarcity mentality (where you want to get a bigger percentage of the pie) to an abundance mentality (where you realize you can make the pie bigger). You realize that YOU can create jobs for other people. You also realize, at least if you're in a business that scales, that there is no cap on your income or on the value of that business.
All of a sudden, you see business ideas all around you all the time. It is a rare day that goes by that I don't think of or see a business that can be started. Obviously, I don't have the time to start them all, but you only need to get rich once.
More information here:
#4 Escape from Medicine
Many doctors become disenchanted with medicine relatively early in their careers—some before they even get out of residency. Whatever passion they once had for medicine has been beaten out of them by a messed-up system, an evil administrator, a malignant residency, or unappreciative patients. A side business may allow them to eventually transition out of medicine. Medicine can pay the bills while you grow it, and when it gets successful enough, you can punch out of medicine in your 30s, 40s, or 50s and follow your new passion. I don't know that I will ever leave medicine, but it's nice to know I could.
#5 Appreciation for Your Main Job
One of the benefits I never expected from my side job was how much more I enjoy practicing medicine now. Perhaps it is simply because I don't have to practice it. But I think it is because I have learned that you have to work really hard to make “doctor money” doing anything else in life! Sometimes it feels like a break to just go into the ED, wrestle a few cocaine addicts, bust a few Percocet-seekers, empathize with the truly ill and injured, and maybe even save a few lives. My two jobs have a symbiotic, synergistic relationship. Each one makes the other one better.
#6 Tax Deductions
It is really hard to deduct much as an employee. You're stuck dealing with the limitations of Schedule A. Schedule C is so much easier to use. Just doing a little moonlighting on the side for your “side business” may give you all kinds of deductions an employee wouldn't have. Scrubs, white coats, cell phones, computers, home office, business mileage, licensing fees, DEA fees, CME costs, etc., may all now be deductible when they weren't before. Everybody paid on a W-2 ought to figure out a way to have at least a little 1099 income each year.
More information here:
7 Tax Deductions Doctors Miss Out On
Tax Deductions for a Home Office
#7 Better Understanding of Business, Finance, and Taxes
I get better at business each year. Business is really an enterprise that consists of adding value to the lives of others. The better you can do that, the more you are rewarded for it. I have learned a ton about marketing, sales, accounting, and information systems that I never would have known without starting a business. My understanding of finance and taxes has also increased with the additional complexity the business adds to my life.
#8 Less Need for Disability and Life Insurance
Before I started the business, I owned plenty of disability and term life insurance. But you know what? The business would probably have been worth as much or more to my wife in the event of my death. This website would change a bit, but its income certainly wouldn't go away any time soon if I keeled over. I gave up my disability insurance in 2022, but it was nice to know my family wasn't completely reliant financially on my ability to practice medicine.
#9 Building Something of Value
I mentioned above about the joy of a business adding value to the lives of others. That can be very fulfilling. But practically speaking, I am also building something of value to me. This website has an ongoing income. That's worth something, especially if I ever actually sell it to somebody else.
#10 Having Fun
I often wake up in the morning excited to write something that I have been thinking about. Or to implement a new way to monetize the site. The best job in the world is the one where someone pays you well to do something you would do for free. Maybe your side business will do that for you.
More information here:
What My Finances Would Look Like Without WCI
What Kind of Business?
What kind of business should you start? I have no idea. It might be a website. It might be writing a book. It might be a T-shirt business. It might be an investment property. Perhaps it is manufacturing a device you can use in your practice. Perhaps it is selling a craft you make. Perhaps it is teaching, consulting, or reviewing charts for insurance companies or attorneys. Or perhaps it is just practicing medicine for yourself, rather than for someone else.
Whatever it is, go for it. The benefits seriously outweigh the risks. Too many of us are becoming employees without sufficient knowledge, skills, or desire to make it in the business world. And that's a shame.
What do you think? Do you own a business? What do you like the most about it?
[This updated post was originally published in 2015.]