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Surviving the Three Pitfalls of Business Ownership
The morning sun sheds its brilliance and warmth on your sleeping face. 10:00 a.m. 10:15 a.m. 10:30 a.m. Finally, after half an hour of lying in bed, you decide to get up and start your morning routines. Your work day officially starts fifteen minutes later as you stumble to your computer, still wearing what you woke up in, coffee in hand. And so goes the life of the entrepreneur. You get to decide when, how long, who with, where and what you work on. No boss. No politics.
While this idyllic life might be the reality for some entrepreneurs, it certainly isn't guaranteed. In reality, every entrepreneur has a unique experience depending on their decisions and plain, old luck. And while good luck may be hard to control, making good decisions isn't.
To maximize your decisions, you have to understand that entrepreneurship has its shadows-unforeseen challenges you may not learn about until you're deep in the trenches of operating your own business. The good news is that by becoming aware of these shadows as early as possible, you can structure your business for success. Let me then shine some light on the major challenges entrepreneurs face so that you can confront and effectively navigate them. "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." As Thomas Edison found, if there's one thing certain about entrepreneurship, it's that things never go as planned. No matter how much market research or planning you do, or how certain an outcome seems, you can never eliminate uncertainty. This means that if you choose to start a business, thinking that it would be a good source of funds, you could very well make less money than your friend who works a minimum wage job.
Think of your business as an experiment where the outcome is uncertain, but where you'll be sure to gain valuable experience no matter the results. Beware of betting the farm when you don't have to. In entrepreneurship, you create a hypothesis (that is, a product), and you test it by marketing it to a potential market. As you continue to experiment with different business strategies, you'll be able to create better products and a better business.
Once you're in, you can't get out. When the clock strikes 5:00 p.m., most entrepreneurs, unlike their peers with a 9-to-5 job, have trouble forgetting about what happened during the past eight hours. In other words, an entrepreneur's business becomes a core part of their life, not just a time segment in it. This is because entrepreneurs aren't paid by the amount of time they work, but by the results they create. And with the large amount of uncertainty that comes with the territory, you may not know when or even if you're going to get paid.
Since it's going to become such a huge part of your life, be sure to choose a business idea your passionate about, one that gives you a lot of enjoyment, one that you might even do for free, given the opportunity. Think about partnering with good friends. Pick an industry and business structure that fits with your desired lifestyle. If you're doing something you don't enjoy or that's terribly stressful, you may end up thinking of it as a chore, especially when times get tough.
If half the journey involves taking the first step, the other half entails persistently following your chosen venture through its ups and downs. Your parents and friends want you to succeed-there's no doubt about that. However, to them, success often doesn't mean taking the risk of starting a business. What it really means is getting good grades, going to a great school, getting a job, and then working your way up the proverbial ladder of success. In addition to the internal challenges you might face as an entrepreneur, you'll also face pressure from your family, who may think of entrepreneurship as a distraction and discourage you from attempting it. Your friends may wonder why you're not hanging out with them as much and get angry at you.
Without the support of your friends and family, it will be that much easier for you to throw in the towel if the going gets tough. To help you find the resolve to continue, be sure to set realistic expectations and be prepared and committed to continuing on your entrepreneurial journey, no matter what.
Reprinted with permission from Entrepreneur.com. Copyright © 2005. Michael Simmons is the author of the best-selling book, The Student Success Manifesto: How to Create a Life of Passion, Purpose and Prosperity and an award-winning entrepreneur. He is also one of America's top youth motivational speakers for college campuses. Read his online journal at young entrepreneur journey or click on the following link to download his free success ebook.
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08/17/2018 12:22 PM
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Starting a Pet Sitting Business? Here Are Some Effective Tips to Run a Successful One
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Victim Of Downsizing? Me Too, Maybe It's Time For This
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How to Start a Business With $1000
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All New Entrepreneurs Should Avoid These Mistakes
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04/17/2018 09:41 AM
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Learn the Business Before You Go in Business
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If you seek to go into business for yourself you should do your research first. To go into business its best to know a little about what it entails to be a Entrepreneur.
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04/14/2018 03:13 PM
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Ditch the Business Plan, Embrace the Business Model
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The main problem with the business model is that it usually represents an ideal much explored PRIOR to taking action. Reality sinks in and we are stuck in a pre-pivoting mode until something happens. The time comes were the bud can no longer keep the petals hidden, the cloud can't contain the water, the ideas can't be shut down. The main issue becomes then how to move that energy forward, how to channel those thoughts, how to build a solid yet flexible base for a business. And this is where business models work better. 1-2-3-4 Steps to help you and your team navigate through the commercial puzzle and create or transform your business so you are energized, inspired, and ready to take appropriate action.
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04/13/2018 01:28 PM
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I Want To Quit
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What's the difference between wannabe entrepreneurs and real ones? It's in what they want to quit.
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04/06/2018 08:05 AM
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Why Entrepreneurs Starting at 50+ Have a High Success Rate
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It may seem like starting young is the best way to build a successful business, today more than ever. After all, when you're young you have nothing to lose and a lot of energy to spend, and since your whole life is ahead of you, you can afford to make mistakes and learn from them. But starting older isn't bad either.
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04/06/2018 08:03 AM
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How to Get Started With Social Media for the 50-60-Something Entrepreneur
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When you see the title of this article, some of you may be saying, 'what do you mean, how do I get started with social media, like it's some big secret?' To some, it might sound like a silly question as most people just dive into a platform and begin making posts. Now imagine if you will, that you're a 50 or 60-something new entrepreneur.
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