By Kira Vermond, a Canadian freelance writer.

You can't take it anymore. Your boss is a capital-C creep. Your workload gets heavier every day. And your brilliant ideas? They'll never see the light of day.

No wonder you're ready to quit your job to become your own boss. 

And why not? You'd hardly be standing by the virtual water cooler alone. Between October 2008 and 2009, 285,000 people became self-employed, according to Statistics Canada.

Now, obviously that number is higher than usual because of the economic downturn. If you can't find a job, why not make one instead? But even before so many of us got the old heave-ho at work, 2.6 million Canadians had gone the self-employed route.

Ready to be one of them now?

To figure out if you're making the right decision, you'll want to ask yourself a few questions first.

For instance, "Will my business be successful quickly or will it take some time?" A lot of new entrepreneurs think their brilliant idea will immediately catch on and in no time flat the purchase orders will start flowing in.

Now, some people are that lucky. But chances are they've already done months or years of networking. Or, in the case of service industries, they're just downright talented. Word gets around and suddenly they're swamped with clients and work.

But for most people, a solo career doesn't work like that. It can take a few years to turn a profit. So, you have to ask yourself: Do you have enough money set aside to carry you through the ramp-up phase?

In some cases, you don't need much for the actual launch. Just enough to pay for an internet connection, a phone line, and a couple hundred bucks to print off a stack of business cards and create a simple website. But other businesses require a lot more start-up cash for buying supplies, shipping and paying for marketing and machinery.

So sit down and draw up a list of everything you'll need money for - and then double the amount. That' s probably closer to the seed cash you'll actually require.

Finally, don't forget the culture shift. If you come from the corporate world where there's a crew of people there to take care of your every accounting and administrative need, you're in for a big shake-up when you leave that world behind.

But hey, maybe you'll discover you actually like drafting your own contracts and doing your own bookkeeping. You never know. Maybe they're your true calling.