Some Real Facts About Being An Entrepreneur
When you set out to become an entrepreneur, you can sometimes feel as if you are jumping off a cliff. You might be the most orderly, anal-retentive organizer or logistician and may have a clear picture in your head about how you are going to achieve independence and satisfaction. Do you know how to make God laugh? Tell him you have a plan and in this case tell him that you are going to be a successful entrepreneur! You undoubtedly have a lot of adventure ahead of you as many of your predecessors will testify. Your plan is nothing more than a constant work in progress and you will certainly end up putting more time, effort, emotional and physical work into your own business than you would working for anyone else.
Whatever idea you have for a business, think really long and hard. If you think that you can just expand your hobby and make some money from it, without really thinking if you are creating a solution to a real problem, you might be in trouble. Your business must be able to solve a real problem, have a well-thought-out and different approach, or you’re likely to be crushed by the competition. You really, really need a USP.
In today’s environment you need to be very creative and understand that you will likely have to give more than you get, especially in the early days. Social proof dictates that people will only want to do business with an organization that they really understand and trust. Understand that customers should be treated like the gold that they are when they finally come along and you should solicit feedback as often as possible. Be prepared to go way beyond the line when providing value.
When you start out you are going to have to take on every conceivable role within your business, unless you have a considerable amount of money to back you up. Outsourcing will only be a dreamland, and you will find that your time is really stretched thinly. There are certainly not enough hours in an entrepreneur’s day, so be prepared to work at a minimum 60 hours a week. Are you ready to work seven days a week? You will quickly find that time is worth more than money, which can be very frustrating when you’re devoting much more of that time to operations rather than development.
Your business model must be realistic and once you get going you should be able to document its potential according to the amount of time that you are spending, the value per hour of work that you are currently achieving and the potential based on a very realistic and reasonable projection. You need to be brutally honest with yourself and don’t underestimate the issues and problems that take up valuable time and eat into your productivity ratios.
Anchor yourself well and remember that there are always ups and downs in the business. Don’t lose faith however, as everyone would be doing it, if it were easy!
Adam Toren, Co-Founder of Young Entrepreneur, specializes in improving the profitability of under-performing businesses with a unique and ‘bottom line’ program. Adam, along with his brother, have started, bought and sold several companies over the past years. They currently own and operate a successful publishing company and several online companies.