Are You Canny Or Crazy Enough To Be An Entrepreneur?
Starting your own business was, for many years, considered to be an odd occupation: one reserved for the canny or the crazy. How times have changed as entrepreneurship is now the preferred career choice of millions of people young and old.
Being your own boss
Being your own boss and working for yourself is in vogue, as many people choose to create their own job rather than assume someone else will provide them with one.
Entrepreneurship strengthens the economy as the number of people in work increases, even as austerity remains the preferred choice of governments and policy makers alike.
The idea of looking for a steady job with a pension has given way to the reality of a frail and fragmented jobs market and the need to take personal responsibility.
The time to start a business, however, has rarely been better as advice on how to get into business and how to meet and learn from other similar souls is plentiful.
The costs of starting a business have fallen and opportunities have increased with the advent of the internet; access to finance too is easier than in previous years and a network of enterprise support has evolved.
Many people who think about starting a business, however, never find the right time or opportunity and rightly resist stepping into the unknown and the unnerving.
Overcoming the barriers
For others, barriers abound too but they are blessed with the ability and, perhaps, the stubbornness needed to go around or simply plough through them.
Finance, of course, can be a barrier but for those with the right idea money is always available when their story resonates and is genuinely told and sold.
Traditional banks and financial institutions complement government backed funding, soft loans, venture capital and even business angels in a genuine effort to engage entrepreneurs.
Generating sufficient money to live in the early stages poses another barrier, as entrepreneurs must manage meanly during the initial years of scarcity and struggle.
But for those driven beyond reason and who discount the voices of caution it is a price worth paying, as they bring themselves and their business to life.
Finding the right idea is often difficult as many would-be entrepreneurs wait for the perfect product or offering that will make everything work wonderfully well.
Reality, however, is often simple as the best ideas are the ones that use the skills you have to make products or provide services for customers willing to pay.
Fear of failure is, of course, a commonly cruel barrier as it is understandably easy to worry about the endless things that can go wrong, and therefore never begin.
But entrepreneurs will always advise that they learned most from the early strife of starting a business, as they had to plan and persevere to reach success.
SO, if you want to be an entrepreneur, remember there is never a right time or a wrong time to make it happen. But it may help if you’re a little canny or crazy.
