Why I Would Still Start a Business Today (Even With AI, Tax Changes and Economic Uncertainty)

Over the last few weeks, I've had a surprising number of people ask me the same question.

"With all the tax changes, AI taking jobs and the economy the way it is, is now really a good time to start a business?"

It's a fair question. If you've spent any time reading the news lately, you could be forgiven for thinking the world is ending. Every second headline seems to be warning us about economic uncertainty, government legislation, rising costs, artificial intelligence replacing workers, or some other looming disaster. Even the proposed capital gains tax changes have caused a lot of panic amongst business owners and investors.

Now, I'm not an accountant and I'm certainly not a tax lawyer, but from what I've read, a lot of the fear seems misplaced. Most of the people I work with are starting consulting businesses, service businesses or side hustles. They're not building billion-dollar companies. They're trying to create more flexibility, more freedom and more options for themselves and their families. For many of those people, the things making headlines aren't actually the things that will determine whether their business succeeds or fails.

What I've learned after spending 15 years in corporate and another 15 years running my own business is that people rarely start businesses because they want to get rich. That might be what they tell themselves at the beginning, but it's usually not the real reason. The people who survive the difficult years, the uncertainty and the inevitable setbacks are normally chasing something else entirely.

They're chasing freedom.

Not freedom in the Instagram sense where you're sitting on a beach drinking cocktails while your business magically runs itself. I mean the freedom to choose how your life works. The freedom to choose where you work, who you work with and how you spend your time.

One of the biggest changes I noticed when I started my own business wasn't financial. It was the ability to make decisions that suited me instead of constantly fitting my life around someone else's business. When I moved my office to Collingwood, I chose that location because it worked for me. It sat between my house and the city. It was on my train line. It made getting home easier. It made family life easier. Those might seem like small things, but after years of working in large organisations where those decisions are made for you, they become incredibly valuable.

The same thing applies to clients. A few weeks ago, I made the decision to stop working with a client because our values no longer aligned. Financially, it wasn't necessarily the easiest decision, but it was the right one. Running your own business gives you the ability to make those choices. It doesn't mean every choice is easy, but it does mean they're yours to make.

Ironically, I don't actually think running a business is easier today than it was when I started Social Star. In many ways, it's harder. There is more competition. More noise. More content. It's harder to get attention and harder to get people to engage. If you asked me whether marketing a business is easier today than it was 15 years ago, I'd probably say no.

What is easier, however, is almost everything else.

When I started, creating content was expensive and time-consuming. Research took hours. Producing professional marketing assets often required specialists, agencies and significant budgets. Today I can use AI to help research ideas, organise information, create images, generate content and automate tasks that used to take days. The tools available to small businesses today would have seemed like science fiction when I first started.

That's why I find it interesting when people talk about AI as though it's purely a threat.

For some jobs, it probably is.

For experts, consultants and specialists, I think it's largely an opportunity.

One of the strange realities of corporate life is that experience often starts working against you. The older you get, the more expensive you become. Companies can hire younger employees, outsource overseas or use technology to reduce costs. I've seen it happen countless times.

But the exact thing that can become a disadvantage in corporate becomes an advantage when you work for yourself.

Those grey hairs become credibility. Those years of experience become your competitive advantage. The stories, lessons and mistakes you've accumulated over decades suddenly become valuable assets.

AI can generate information, but it can't tell a client about a situation you navigated ten years ago. It can't sit across the table from someone and understand what they're really worried about. It can't build trust the way people can. That's why I believe expertise is becoming more valuable, not less.

One thing I definitely wouldn't do today is quit my job and immediately throw everything into a new business idea. In fact, I almost never recommend that approach.

When I left corporate, it wasn't part of some perfectly executed master plan. It happened much faster than I expected. I had a disagreement with my boss, walked away and suddenly had a very short period of time to replace a full-time income. The pressure was enormous.

The only reason I was able to make that transition was because I'd already been building something on the side. I'd spent years developing a network, learning new skills and experimenting with ideas. Without realising it, I'd already laid the foundations.

That's why I'm such a big believer in side hustles. You don't need to quit your job tomorrow or bet everything on a business idea. You can start by learning, building relationships, creating content, testing ideas and exploring possibilities. The people I see succeed most often are the ones who give themselves time to build momentum before they need it.

I also think we're living through a cultural shift that doesn't get talked about enough.

When I was growing up, the pathway seemed fairly obvious. Study hard. Get a good job. Work your way up. Stay loyal to one employer and eventually retire. That model worked well for a long time. Today, people are questioning it.

They're building consulting businesses, personal brands, podcasts, online communities and side hustles. They're exploring opportunities that simply weren't available to previous generations. Most importantly, they're giving themselves permission to try something different.

And that's probably the biggest reason I would still start a business today.

Not because the economy is perfect and AI isn't a potential threat. It’s because the safest option isn't always as safe as it once seemed. Jobs disappear. Industries change. Technology evolves. The world keeps moving whether we're ready or not.

For me, building a business was never really about making more money. It was about creating more choice. More flexibility and control over my future.

Those things matter just as much today as they did when I started.

Maybe even more.