There is, and has been, a huge movement of people into entrepreneurship. Employees sometimes think that they know more than their employers do and, sometimes, they do. They also tire of reporting to someone else and having little control over their lives. Sometimes, good employees lose their jobs and have trouble finding a comparable position in a down job market.
There are many reasons to consider starting your own business, however, entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone.
To be successful as an entrepreneur, you need to have a number of talents or enough money to hire people who can do the things that you either don’t know how to do or don’t want to learn how to do. If you don’t have enough money to support yourself for a few years until your business becomes profitable, entrepreneurship isn’t for you, unless you have a partner who can support you financially. If you have a great idea that you can “sell” to venture capitalists, you might be able to get funding for your business, however, it’s not that easy to come up with a great original idea for a product or service.
You have to be determined to make a success of your business and you need to be confident and persistent and have tremendous mental, emotional and even physical endurance. You, also, have to be willing to work night and day and on weekends, at least until your business gets off the ground. You have to be flexible enough to switch gears if what you’re doing isn’t working. You have to network, market, participate in social media and blogging and you have to do administrative work if you can’t afford to hire an assistant.
If you’re the kind of person who excels at only one thing and is uncomfortable being responsible for a wide range of tasks, entrepreneurship might not be for you, unless you have the money to hire others to fill in the gaps.
Most of all, you have to be a leader and you need to have the confidence to rely on your own judgment since the buck stops with you. You need to be able to ride out the hard times, and if people work for you, you need to be able to inspire them and treat them nicely and respectfully. You, obviously, need to know how to bring in and keep clients and how to get paid, in full, for your work, as some clients will attempt to short you.
Entrepreneurship isn’t easy and, as I stated, previously, it’s not for everyone. If it’s not for you, it doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with you. It’s good to know one’s strengths and weaknesses and it’s important to play to one’s strengths.
If entrepreneurship is for you, it can be, by turns, exciting, frustrating, overwhelming, and very emotionally rewarding. It is, however, not for the faint of heart.
Laura Lieff
Accentuating Service