How to Know You're Ready to Start Your Own Business
We’ve heard the encouragement many times to start our own business instead of partaking in the rat race, settling with a modest income and spending 8 hours a day in front of our desk. While the routine and stability of 9 to 5 job is a welcoming prospect that’s sure to bring home the bacon, starting your own business venture has the potential to blow up your success exponentially.
Although we wish it was so, not everyone can start a business. And here at Entrepreneur Info, we like to think that leaders were in fact born, and not made. If you’re usually the person that colleagues look to in a sticky situation, or if you’ve been placed in management roles throughout your career, you may have the upper hand in getting started.
But the problem that aspiring entrepreneurs tend to neglect is that it’s not just the start up or spark of inspiration and motivation that leads to a successful business. It’s a lot like becoming a parent: not only to you have to be prepared financially and emotionally, but you’ve got to be able to nurture this baby for the long haul. Here are a list of traits that successful entrepreneurs around the world share – are you among their likes and fit to start up a business of your own?
You’re passionate about your product or service
It’s easy to become inspired by a creative idea that could land you success. But what separates dreamers from successful businessmen is not only the ability to put that idea into action, but to carry on with the daily grind long after the enthusiasm has faded. Staying up until late every night and balancing many tasks, you may question yourself on whether you made the right decision. But being passionate about your product or service is a giant advantage in keeping up the work ethics. It could also mean the difference in hooking your customers, landing deals and attracting investors because, let’s face it, most of the initial hard work and marketing will be carried out by yours truly.
There is a market for your product or service
There are two sides to this point. Firstly, if there isn’t already a market for your product or service, don’t automatically take that as a good thing. There may be a gap for a reason – that reason being that there are simply no prospective customers. Don’t be delusional or one-sided in your approach: you may be ecstatic about the product or service you’re providing, but that counts for nothing if nobody else is. Secondly, once you’ve done your research and determined that there is in fact a market and a wealth of customers to sell to, you have to be willing to perfect your product or service to beat your competition. Emphasise your strength and selling points to the masses, and ensure that you convince them to use you and not your competitors.
You have a tolerance for risks
Successful entrepreneurs are people who have gotten over the fear of failure. Of course, thoughtless and reckless decisions are never encouraged in the business sector. However, taking calculated risks could mean a large increase in your net profits. A good business person is aware of the fact that occasionally, taking risks doesn’t always land you the buck, but you’ll never know until you try. And so if you’re happy with a modest income and don’t have the intention of growing your business by risking a few things, that is ultimately your decision.
You’re good at making decisions
It is impossible to dodge the numerous decisions that you as a business owner will need to make on a day-to-day basis. And unfortunately, nobody else is going to make them for you. Of course, this can definitely be viewed as a plus since you’ll have complete control over the reins. And there are plenty of fundamental questions you will at some point need to consider. Are you going to hire employees? Are you going to lease office space or can you make working at home productive? How much are you willing to spend on advertising and marketing? These decisions and the choices you’ll have are ultimately going to get more complicated and some even more risky as your business grows. It’s important to have confidence in your decisions and also carry them out fully once you have decided.
You can keep motivating yourself
When you’re your own boss, there’s no authoritative figure keeping tabs on you and making sure that all your work is completed on a deadline. Successful business people need to be able to motivate themselves to get the job done, and your task will often include being able to motivate and set tasks for the employees working underneath you. Having a competitive streak can also work well in your favour with regards to keeping yourself motivated. When you have a notoriously strong need to be the best, typically you’re going to do everything in your power to both achieve and maintain that status. Successful entrepreneurs tend to be driven by the bigger picture and objective rather than focusing on the small tasks at hand. This provides a greater goal sense as well as encourages you to aim high. When you aim high instead of modestly taking on single tasks, you’re likely to achieve more.
You able to wear many hats
Working an average office job, it’s common that you’ll be responsible for one or two aspects of complete functionality of the business. Business owners on the other hand must be able to contribute and handle business objectives throughout each level or division. It’s imperative that you’re versatile and capable of juggling numerous roles – from making top level business decisions to conversing with clients in reception regarding sales as well as handling the accounting and admin and managing IT. As you go along and your business expands, you may find it easier to hire employees to carry out these tasks for you. But until you have the means to supply them with a salary, all tasks will land upon your shoulders.
Ultimately, the best means of reaching success in your business is by planning ahead. Don’t decide anything on a whim or spark of inspiration.
Image via: http://startups.co.uk/buying-a-business/
Although we wish it was so, not everyone can start a business. And here at Entrepreneur Info, we like to think that leaders were in fact born, and not made. If you’re usually the person that colleagues look to in a sticky situation, or if you’ve been placed in management roles throughout your career, you may have the upper hand in getting started.
But the problem that aspiring entrepreneurs tend to neglect is that it’s not just the start up or spark of inspiration and motivation that leads to a successful business. It’s a lot like becoming a parent: not only to you have to be prepared financially and emotionally, but you’ve got to be able to nurture this baby for the long haul. Here are a list of traits that successful entrepreneurs around the world share – are you among their likes and fit to start up a business of your own?
You’re passionate about your product or service
It’s easy to become inspired by a creative idea that could land you success. But what separates dreamers from successful businessmen is not only the ability to put that idea into action, but to carry on with the daily grind long after the enthusiasm has faded. Staying up until late every night and balancing many tasks, you may question yourself on whether you made the right decision. But being passionate about your product or service is a giant advantage in keeping up the work ethics. It could also mean the difference in hooking your customers, landing deals and attracting investors because, let’s face it, most of the initial hard work and marketing will be carried out by yours truly.
There is a market for your product or service
There are two sides to this point. Firstly, if there isn’t already a market for your product or service, don’t automatically take that as a good thing. There may be a gap for a reason – that reason being that there are simply no prospective customers. Don’t be delusional or one-sided in your approach: you may be ecstatic about the product or service you’re providing, but that counts for nothing if nobody else is. Secondly, once you’ve done your research and determined that there is in fact a market and a wealth of customers to sell to, you have to be willing to perfect your product or service to beat your competition. Emphasise your strength and selling points to the masses, and ensure that you convince them to use you and not your competitors.
You have a tolerance for risks
Successful entrepreneurs are people who have gotten over the fear of failure. Of course, thoughtless and reckless decisions are never encouraged in the business sector. However, taking calculated risks could mean a large increase in your net profits. A good business person is aware of the fact that occasionally, taking risks doesn’t always land you the buck, but you’ll never know until you try. And so if you’re happy with a modest income and don’t have the intention of growing your business by risking a few things, that is ultimately your decision.
You’re good at making decisions
It is impossible to dodge the numerous decisions that you as a business owner will need to make on a day-to-day basis. And unfortunately, nobody else is going to make them for you. Of course, this can definitely be viewed as a plus since you’ll have complete control over the reins. And there are plenty of fundamental questions you will at some point need to consider. Are you going to hire employees? Are you going to lease office space or can you make working at home productive? How much are you willing to spend on advertising and marketing? These decisions and the choices you’ll have are ultimately going to get more complicated and some even more risky as your business grows. It’s important to have confidence in your decisions and also carry them out fully once you have decided.
You can keep motivating yourself
When you’re your own boss, there’s no authoritative figure keeping tabs on you and making sure that all your work is completed on a deadline. Successful business people need to be able to motivate themselves to get the job done, and your task will often include being able to motivate and set tasks for the employees working underneath you. Having a competitive streak can also work well in your favour with regards to keeping yourself motivated. When you have a notoriously strong need to be the best, typically you’re going to do everything in your power to both achieve and maintain that status. Successful entrepreneurs tend to be driven by the bigger picture and objective rather than focusing on the small tasks at hand. This provides a greater goal sense as well as encourages you to aim high. When you aim high instead of modestly taking on single tasks, you’re likely to achieve more.
You able to wear many hats
Working an average office job, it’s common that you’ll be responsible for one or two aspects of complete functionality of the business. Business owners on the other hand must be able to contribute and handle business objectives throughout each level or division. It’s imperative that you’re versatile and capable of juggling numerous roles – from making top level business decisions to conversing with clients in reception regarding sales as well as handling the accounting and admin and managing IT. As you go along and your business expands, you may find it easier to hire employees to carry out these tasks for you. But until you have the means to supply them with a salary, all tasks will land upon your shoulders.
Ultimately, the best means of reaching success in your business is by planning ahead. Don’t decide anything on a whim or spark of inspiration.
Image via: http://startups.co.uk/buying-a-business/