The following is a guest post from Bogey at Back Nine Finance about a couple of things that may cause a future entrepreneur to pause before leaping out of a day job.

I’ve been blessed through my very brief 4 year stint in the real world. Or, perhaps cursed, depending on how you look at it.

I’ve worked hard to grow my career and had some good luck along the way. At age 26, I’m in a position that a lot of people would be more than happy to be in. I have a job that includes a lot of responsibility, tons of interaction with the top executives of my company as well as a great portfolio of customers, and I’m paid very well. Don’t get me wrong – I am very thankful and I feel very blessed to be in such a good situation.

The difficult part is this:  I am not particularly thrilled to get up each morning and go to work for someone else. I’d like to focus all my efforts, and spend all my time creating value for a company that I own.

I have an entrepreneurial spirit.

My Inner Entrepreneur

I just began investing in rental properties in early 2010, and while the return from that investment is very small so far, there is something very liberating about having revenue coming into your own business. It doesn’t even have to be a large amount of income for it to create an awesome feeling.

I find myself spending inordinate amounts of time researching various business opportunities, dreaming up creative ways to get these opportunities financed, thinking about possible partners, etc. I’ve done an extensive amount of homework, planning, etc. In fact, I’ve done everything except actually pull the trigger on becoming a full time entrepreneur. Why?

Why I Deny My Inner Entrepreneur

I’ve become attached to a quickly growing salary and the comfort of having a large amount of cash in the bank.

If the very first salary I received out of college ($40,000) had never grown a bit, becoming self-employed wouldn’t seem like such a hurdle. There are plenty of things I could do that would get me close to earning that kind of money on my own. I might have to work a lot harder than I do at my office job (think physical labor), but I am pretty sure I could get it accomplished.

What seems more daunting is when I start thinking about replacing multiples of that original salary, now that my career has had a bit of time to flourish.

Entrepreneur Enemy #1 – The Rising Salary

It’s my personal opinion that most people don’t think so much about what their absolute income level is, rather, they think in terms of income growth over time. If you get a 2% raise at year end, you might not be so happy, but if you get a 10%, you may be elated. Unless you are already earning a huge salary, neither of these raises will create much of a difference in your monthly paychecks. Yet, the more income growth you have, the better you feel.

A lot of the entrepreneurs I have talked to were in a situation where they were unhappy with the pace at which their income was accelerating. Their motivation was created by a belief that they could grow their income more quickly if they were to strike out on their own.

Being in a situation where my salary is currently 2-3 times what it was when I entered the working world 4 years ago makes it very difficult to think about leaving my job to go out on my own. As much as I would love to be working for myself someday soon, I also enjoy living in a nice house, having money to go on vacations, and being able to participate in enjoyable recreational activities, etc. There is certainly no guarantee that I can replace the income from my day job, as well as the potential it creates for even more income growth.

Entrepreneur Enemy #2 – The Love for Cash in the Bank

My wife and I currently have enough cash in the bank to cover about 14 months worth of living expenses, assuming our total household income were to drop to $0. It’s very comforting to have that type of cushion.

I love to have cash in the bank.

It’s very tough to picture a situation where I would jump into am entrepreneurial opportunity without having to dip into this cash cushion up front (for example, if I were to purchase an existing company) or over several months while I got a new company up and running. It’s actually quite terrifying to me to consider putting myself in a situation where I had little to no cash in the bank and a self-employment situation with no guarantee of income each month.

Summary

Perhaps, as many people are, I am just too risk averse to ever be self employed even though I have a very strong desire to get out of the rat race and begin creating something on my own. Or, perhaps my financial conservatism will lead me to a place where I would finally feel comfortable taking the plunge within another 3 to 5 years.

I have a strong feeling that having the confidence to make the jump to self employment will also be heavily reliant on my finding the correct opportunity that I feel gives me a solid opportunity for success. I certainly have not found that type of opportunity yet, but that doesn’t mean I’ll ever stop looking.

For those of you who want to be self-employed, what are the main things holding you back?

For those of you who are self-employed, what were the biggest obstacles and fears that you had to overcome?

Crystal’s Comments:  I personally will be happy as heck to leave my current day job behind, but I don’t get big raises or make a lot, so that is not too hard to pass up.  I also don’t think we’d need to dip into our emergency fund cushion since I won’t blog full time until it is making enough to consistently cover what it needs to at home.  BUT, I will miss having full benefits.  I will have the same cruddy benefits my husband gets as a school librarian and will have to pay $200 more a month for the privilege.  But that is worth it to me never to have to work for my current company again.