An Entrepreneur is an individual who starts a new business, someone who uses resources to implement innovative ideas for new ventures. They identify a business opportunity and assume the risk of creating and running a company. Accepting this commitment isn’t an easy task, entrepreneurs must be confident that they can manage stress, commitment, and hardships in order to succeed.
There are 3 main characteristics of any entrepreneurial activity:
- Innovation: They offer a new product, develop a new technology or open a new market.
- Running a Business: Setting up a business to make a profit, producing goods or services.
- Risk Taking: the outcome of an entrepreneurial venture is unknown. There is always a certain degree of uncertainty.
There are certain items a person should consider before having your own business:
- Business Idea.
- Building something new from scratch, buying an established business or buying a franchise.
- Business Plan.
- Funding.
- Strategies to increase our chance of success.
Following the Small Business Administration (SBA) suggestion:
“You need to ask yourself if you are a self-starter, someone who develops and follows through their own ideas, have strong communication skills, good at making decisions under pressure, have physical and emotional stamina, plan, organize and is capable of sacrifice family time.”
Advantages
You are your own boss, making decisions that are crucial to your business success, being able to accommodate a desired lifestyle, deciding when and where you want to work (free time, extra vacation, working from home are some examples). Business owners achieve financial independence, a beautiful euphemism that means you are likely to become rich, or at least middle class with money flexibility.
Our environment allows us to have numerous learning opportunities as we are involved in all aspects of a business. We use our skills and knowledge every day, gaining a thorough understanding of how things work and how we can improve them. Finally, we enjoy the freedom and satisfaction of working in a field we enjoy; our job is one of our passions.
Disadvantages
Money is going to be the major handicap when you are opening a new business. Without cash, you cannot go very far in your venture. It is important to line up initial financing and planning how to raise money in the early stages. Business owners lack of security is another disadvantage. Most people don’t want to sacrifice a steady income. Working part-time when you’re starting or finding someone (co-founder) that helps you can solve this problem.
As an entrepreneur with an innovative idea, you need to come up with a strategy that positions yourself in a better place than your competition. If you don’t know how to distinguish your idea from similar ones, your days as a business owner won’t last long. You should figure out how to do something cheaper, faster or better. Lack of ideas will result in bad strategy and waste of time. If you don’t know what business you want to get into, I recommend finding successful trends, turning a hobby into a business or franchising (if you have the capital to do so). Remember, a good business idea finds a solution to something that annoys you, known as pain-point, it fulfills customer needs.
