Is entrepreneurship right for you?
Being the boss, telling others what to do, and being in charge – that’s the general dream of budding entrepreneurs.
As idyllic as it all sounds, slamming down a resignation notice on your boss’s desk and walking out to start your own business, you may want to hold off and first make sure that it’s for you.
Entrepreneurship drives the economy, whether it be creating a corner cafe or the next great mobile app. You may have a vision of wearing sneakers and t-shirts to work every day, but it’s also an incredibly difficult undertaking. Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur and there are a few things you’ll need to ask yourself.
Working long hours
Sure, the commute to work is a complete slog, regardless if you’re sitting in bumper to bumper traffic or taking the train. At the end of the day, usually at 5 pm or so, you can leave the office and go home, even though you’ll still be in traffic. If you’re running your own company, expect to work longer hours than that. After all, you’re in charge of an entire entity that has to generate a living wave for you and its employees as well.
While it may seem nifty to take vacations whenever you want and only go into work at a time that suits you, you’ll more than likely be working harder than any of your office-employed friends or employees. After all, being an entrepreneur requires a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and sleepless nights.
Networking
In order to be successful, most entrepreneurs require a lot of contacts. These won’t just be useful to have now, but in the future as well. If you don’t like mixing with others or attending events, then you may have a hard time.
For example, many startup organisations hold regular events where entrepreneurs can mingle and swap ideas. These are ideal for meeting long-lasting contacts, business partners, and potential employees. While your idea of mingling is sitting with a few people in the break room, it’ll need to expand if you want to become an entrepreneur.
Clear vision
There’s no use walking away from a stable job and income without a clear idea of what you want to do with your potential new company. Saying that you want to create specialised chocolates is significantly better than pitching the idea of doing “something with sweets.” After all, who is going to fund a vague idea?
Though you don’t need to have a three, five, or 10-year plan right away, you should at least know what you’ll be doing over the next year, how you’ll expand, and what needs to be done in order to succeed with your company. Knowing what machinery needs to be purchased, how much money you’ll need, and what basic office equipment you’ll use will at least go a long way in helping your vision.
Need to be open to compromise
Markets change all of the time. What is popular today may not be the talk of the town tomorrow. Knowing this, you and your business need to be adaptable to market trends and expectations from customers. This doesn’t mean completely shifting your focus from baking bread to selling PC parts, but allowing for some leeway for trends instead of being steadfast in your ideas.
This will include constantly bettering yourself. You’ll need to learn a bit about different departments, logistics, and should take up a few human resources and legal courses as to not run into any trouble.
Able to run the company
And, finally, do you have the ability to run a company? Can you lead a team of people and make your dream a success, or are you building castles in the sky? This may be the most important aspect in asking yourself if you can be an entrepreneur, of course, you may never know until you try.
Though it’s all about learning, you, as an entrepreneur, have to know when to enact specific changes, employ new staff members, how to scale the company, and generally ensure that it’s a success for everyone involved. That may be a lot of pressure for one person to take on, but you can also have a board of directors and confidants to help you.
As previous points have mentioned, if you’re not flexible, willing to put in the time, and be open to others, then there may be no point in becoming an entrepreneur. For everyone else, give it a go.