12:00a.m. 1st October 2008

Ian Perkins has opened a convenience store at Buddina. Photo: Barry Leddicoat/ 178534b

Freedom, or to make money ... which of those is the reason people go into business?

The result of a recent Suncorp survey of more than 600 small business owners across Queensland and Western Australia showed it wasn’t about the money.

The owners said while they did not always earn the level of income they wanted, but many agreed that having freedom and control of their business outweighed concerns over having less cash coming in.

More than a quarter of those surveyed (27%), said they would definitely earn more money as an employee, while a further 42% said they would more than likely earn more.

Just 25% said they earned more as a business owner than they would as an employee.

Despite that, two out of three owners said they wanted to be their own boss, and the freedom of owning their own business was the main driver behind their decision.

Ian Perkins said he would be in the 42% category of business owners who thought they would “more than likely” earn more money working as an employee.

The owner of Foodworks Moffat Beach – he has recently also set up the Buddina Convenience Store – Mr Perkins said he could probably work for someone else if he had to.

But despite working between 12 and 14 hours a day, sometimes seven days of the week, he said being your own boss was one of the key attractions of owning a business.

“I’ve owned the Moffat Beach store for five years, but it feels like 20 ... I’m pretty exhausted,” he said.

“I’ve never worked so hard in my life. I haven’t had a week off since I bought the business.”

Having said that, he admitted he wouldn’t swap his situation.

“I used to own an engineering business in Zimbabwe that employed 100 people,” he said.

“Because of the political situation we had to basically just walk away from that.

“So because we had to start again and build up enough wealth for retirement, I didn’t really have a choice but to go into business.

“I never realised how much work was involved in retail. But basically it’s a case of what you put in is what you get out.”

The Suncorp survey also found 67% of small business owners in Queensland said they found it difficult to balance their family and social lives.