Are You Sure You Want To Start Your Own Business? Part Two of a Series


Why, exactly, do you want to go into business for yourself?

  • Is it because you cannot stand the thought of working for an uptight, demanding, and perfectly dreadful boss?

  • Is it because you cannot bear the thought of going through another downsizing or restructuring, knowing that your job could be on the line?

  • Is it because you want to be your own boss, call your own shots, or see more up side in your earning potential, with the possibility of financial self-sufficiency?
These are all good reasons for wanting to go into business. In fact, studies have shown that many entrepreneurs get their start due to some life-altering experience such as losing a job or finally walking away from a dead-end job or a demoralizing work environment.

It is amazing how creative, resourceful, and innovative you can be when, finally, you reach the edge and find yourself in a survival situation professionally. In times like this, the entrepreneurial spirit comes alive and you figure out that you can simply do it on your own.

Does dissatisfaction alone in some area of your life constitute reason enough to venture into business and the life of entrepreneurship? Many potential entrepreneurs get to this bridge and never cross because they do not know how to discover and unleash the entrepreneur within himself or herself.

Many people resist giving credence to their entrepreneurial tendencies no matter what the circumstances, ignoring the potential for self-expression, independence and the fulfillment of their dreams. Herein resides the real tragedy. Many people experience paralysis from fear of the unknown and fear of failure. Consequently, they never pursue entrepreneurship and the potential freedom that it can bring to their lives.

Although entrepreneurship appears to offer many advantages for personal and professional growth and accomplishment, why is it that so many new entrepreneurs fail? In fact, studies have shown us that out of every 100 entrepreneurs who start their own businesses, 14 will succeed and a whopping 86 will fail in the first five years. The odds, so to speak, are stacked against you as a nascent entrepreneur. Therefore, if you are contemplating starting your own business you should take it very seriously.

The two biggest reasons people fail in a new business are:

  • they don't know what they are doing, and

  • their business is undercapitalized. When we say they don't know what they are doing, we mean they literally don't know what they are doing in terms of running a business day in and day out. It also makes perfect sense that a new business might be undercapitalized (not having enough working capital to run the business). In fact, many new entrepreneurs, who don't know what they are doing have a hard time finding either equity or debt capital for the reason that lending institutions and savvy investors typically do not like to give money to people who don't know what they are doing in business.

    In order to improve your chances of beating the odds, what is important is that you educate yourself about business development. There certainly is enough information out there on how to start and run a small business. For instance, if you go to Amazon.com and type in a search for books on 'Entrepreneurship'' alone, you will have over 21,000 book choices. Nevertheless, where does one start in deciding what to read, who to listen to, and what to implement?

    In the more than 55 years of combined experience in the world of business that my wife and I have had, and working with hundreds of hopeful entrepreneurs, we discovered four basic stages to business development that every entrepreneur must go through to enhance their chances for business success.

  • Reflect

  • Envision

  • Create

  • Build Most entrepreneurs, especially the 86 that fail, usually skip one or more of these essential stages of business development and find themselves in a heap of trouble before they know it. Typically, a new entrepreneur will get and idea (envision) and go straight to market (build). They simply unknowingly skip the 'reflect' and 'create' stages, and charge into business with an 'if-I-work-hard-enough' attitude everything will be all right.

    Well, statistically we know that not everything is all right and it does not work.

    About The Author

    Charles and Holly Egner are veteran entrepreneurs. They have trained, coached, and mentored hundreds of aspiring entrepreneurs. Their last entrepreneurial venture sold for just under $400 million in 1999. BuildOnYourDreams.com was founded to help promising entrepreneurs to build the business of their dreams. For their free Life Strategy Planning Teleseminar, visit http://www.BuildOnYourDreams.com today.


    MORE RESOURCES:

    Win tickets to arts and tech festival NXNE in Toronto
    New Scientist (blog)
    As you might expect of the festival that is a spin-off of Texas's famous SXSW festival, NXNE (North By Northeast) is awash with hip music and films, as well as talks on the intersection of creativity, technology and entrepreneurialism.

    and more »


    Intelius CEO Naveen Jain To Challenge The Value Of 'Experts' In Today's ...
    MarketWatch (press release)
    Jain is honored to share his unique vision for innovative entrepreneurialism at the US Chamber of Commerce's special annual event. Jain will join other successful entrepreneurs and leading pioneers in an exclusive live event series at 1:00 pm entitled ...

    and more »


    Microsoft Announces Worldwide Finalists for Imagine Cup 2012
    MarketWatch (press release)
    As the winners of regional, national and online Imagine Cup competitions, these students represent the future of technology innovation and entrepreneurialism. Student teams from 75 countries have advanced to the finals with projects that tackle ...

    and more »


    Leaders explore help for entrepreneurialism
    Bastrop Daily Enterprise
    Winrock International Managing Director Annett Pagan, left, met with local and surrounding town officials to discuss strategic planning for economic development. Left from Pagan: City of Bastrop Mayor Betty Alford-Olive and Northeast La.



    Forbes

    Move Over Entrepreneurs, Here Come The Intrapreneurs
    Forbes
    Add that to the fact that while entrepreneurialism seems to be enjoying a golden age of sorts, it isn't for everyone. Some individuals don't want to go off on their own and build something from scratch wearing every hat (or hoodie) under the sun in ...



    The predictability of politics II: Social mobility and political ...
    The Malaysian Insider
    MAY 2 — Remaining focused on the developments in Malaysia and the countries around us, let us go back to the topic of predictability in politics, and consider its relation to social mobility and political entrepreneurialism.

    and more »


    CIO Today

    America Expands Once Again -- Digitally, This Time
    CIO Today
    Look at what the digital space disseminates, he says: freedom of the press, of information and of assembly; knowledge and scientific advancement; free-market mechanisms and entrepreneurialism. "It's hard to think of a cluster of ideas and architectures ...

    and more »


    Making things can lead Michigan's recovery, group told
    Detroit Free Press
    Andre J. Jackson/Detroit Free Press By John Gallagher Environmental entrepreneurialism can play a key role in reinventing Michigan's economy, a state leader told the 2012 Detroit Free Press Michigan Green Leaders awards breakfast Friday.

    and more »


    CEA Applauds Introduction of the SMART and STAR Act
    MarketWatch (press release)
    Our Innovation Movement is closely following the movement of these bills, and our 200000 members will continue to seek Congressional support for innovation and entrepreneurialism in America." The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is the preeminent ...

    and more »


    Financial Times

    Private equity: Firms hope founders are willing to stand down
    Financial Times
    The hope is that the founders who built the first successful Polish companies in the burst of entrepreneurialism after the collapse of communism two decades ago are growing tired of running a business and are thinking of cashing out.


    Google News

  • Acne - Advertising - Aerobics & Cardio - Affiliate Revenue - Alternative - Attraction - Auction - Audio Streaming - Aviation - Babies & Toddlers - Beauty - Blogging & RSS - Book Marketing - Book Reviews - Branding - Breast Cancer - Broadband Internet - Muscle Building - Careers & Employment - Coaching - Coffee - College & University - Cooking Tips - Copywriting - Crafts & Hobbies - Creativity - Credit - Cruising & Sailing - Currency Trading - Customer Service - Data Recovery - Dating - Debt Consolidation - Debt Relief - Depression - Diabetes - Divorce - Domain Names - E-books - Ecommerce - Elder Care - Email Marketing - Entrepreneurialism - Ethics - Exercise - Ezine Marketing - Ezine Publishing - Fashion & Style - Fishing - Fitness Equipment - Forums - Games - Goal Setting - Golf - Grief Loss - Hair Loss - Happiness - Hardware - Holidays - Home Improvement - Home Security - Humanities - Humor - Innovation - Inspirational - Insurance - Interior Decorating - Internet Marketing - Investing - Landscaping & Gardening - Language - Leadership - Leases & Leasing - Loans - Lung, Mesothelioma & Asbestos - Management - Marketing - Marriage & Wedding - Meditation - Mobile & Cell Phone - Mortgage & Refinancing - Motivation - Motorcycles - Music - Negotiation - Network Marketing - Networking - Nutrition - Organizing - Outdoors - Parenting - Personal Finance - Personal Tech - Pets - Philosophy - Photography - Poetry - Politics - Positive Attitude - PPC Advertising - Press Release - Pregnancy - Presentation - Psychology - Public Speaking - Real Estate - Recipes - Relationships - Sales - Sales Management - Sales & Teleselling - Sales Training - Satellite TV - Science - Security - SEO - Site Promotion - Small Business - Software - Spam Blocker - Spirituality - Stocks & Mutual Funds - Strategic Planning - Stress Management - Structured Settlements - Success - Supplements - Taxes - Team Building - Time Management - Top7-Or-10-Tips - Traffic Building - Vacation Rentals - Video Conferencing - Video Streaming - VOIP - Wealth Building - Web Design - Web Development - Web Hosting - Weight Loss - Wine & Spirits - Writing - Writing Articles - Yoga

    Top
    Main Home Email Category Home