Out of the workforce for awhile or tired of your current job, then you may already be seriously considering delving into the world of entrepreneurship, with its perceived joy and perils.
If so, then get ready to embark on an exciting, rarely dull, often nerve-wracking journey.
To call entrepreneurship “perilous” may be a bit of a stretch, since perilous could be defined as dangerous.
However, peril means exposure to risk or harm, and launching your first entrepreneurial venture can be both risky and challenging.
Since often writing down challenges often seems to decrease the climb, let’s look at obstacles you’re about to face and address the stages of an entrepreneurial venture you will encounter in following your dream path.
Time mismanagement
This is one of those issues that create problems for many of us, myself included, who start new business ventures.
Either we spend all our time working, or we can’t quite keep ourselves on a given schedule.
Many new ventures seem to fail in the first year because the owner couldn’t get and keep a handle on worktime vs rest-of-life time.
Rule Number One—truly you can’t spend every waking minute on your venture. You can and do have a life.
Organizational skills
If you’ve got these skills, then you’ve passed a major hurdle.
Being disorganized not only means wasting time as you dig around trying to find something, but also makes your focus difficult.
Focus (or lack of )
Most of the time, if we take ourselves out of a familiar environment, we stumble without the structure to rely on.
For example, working at home may seem like a part-time job.
Instead of being at your desk every morning, one might find other distractions to do.
Lunch hours may turn into non-productive venues for a day.
Fear of failure
Failure and entrepreneurship go hand in hand.
If you’re not fully aware that your venture could fail or terrified of failure, then go work for someone else. You need to recognize that risks sometimes may be required.
Risk means stretching, taking chances, trying new tactics, making mistakes, and then learning how to work through them.
Lack of marketing
Most new entrepreneurial ventures, particularly small ones, simply don’t have large adequate marketing budgets.
No excuse for marketing, I would add, because if you’re not getting your name and purpose out there to the world, someone else will.
There are a host of inexpensive marketing tools in our world.
One of my favourites is email marketing. Check it out and Google it big time. Worth your time.
Stay current
Technology has radically changed the way we do business the past several years.
Information is shared immediately via the Internet. You need to be able to make decisions quickly.
The same technology that makes our lives easier also requires us to work harder.
So, please stay current on what’s going on in your industry, find industry leaders and study their newsletters and books.
Don’t forget to have fun
Not fooling here, folks. As an entrepreneur, you do control your destiny.
You’re not at the mercy of a company downsizing and eliminating positions.
And should you lose account here and there, you can go out and replace that loss.
You can truly be as busy as you choose to be..
So, please enjoy what you are doing, get up in the morning in this beautiful Okanagan world we live in, knowing that you’re doing what makes you happy—and have fun doing it.
Now let’s attack the perils of entrepreneurial bliss looking at the six stages of its introduction into our personal lives.
The first stage, we are told, is conviction—no matter the stage of the new entrepreneurial venture when an individual begins their venture journey, every entrepreneur must address their conviction to become an entrepreneur.
This may sound seemingly trivial to you now, but I believe it’s the most important step in this entrepreneurial process.
Many entrepreneurs, unfortunately wait to the venture stage, which may lead to grave problems.
The second stage is the idea stage, some calling it the easiest.
Everyone has an idea for a venture when they put their mind to it, looking at the world and seeing solutions instead of problems. This is also the fun stage because the cost is zero and the excitement level high.
The idea stage, however, is the core basis for every other stage of the venture process .
The idea is more than the concept since the latter has more structure and warrants different concerns and decisions.
The third stage is the concept and is characterized by structure. At this point, you will take your idea and employ intellectual rigour including extensive market research, development of the business model, concept of the required team to execute the core venture idea and engagement of formal and informal advisors
Next up is stage four, the Venture itself.
This stage is usually characterized by significant investment typically in two forms—money and time.
The venture’s launch comes up at stage five, the business stage is where all entrepreneurs strive to be.
This is the stage where you might have revenues that are commensurate with you expenses.
Yes, there will be unprofitable months or years ahead, but in general, your venture may support itself with little external capital.
This, of course, is the stage where you are most likely to find investors who will be able to see your efforts.
And finally comes stage six, arrival at a sustainable venture point.
Yes, there are unique challenges to creating a sustaining venture, one of the most significant being to outlast the involvement of its founders.
