5 TO DO’S BEFORE BECOMING AN ENTREPRENEUR
“An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew, hoping he will quickly learn how to chew it.”- Roy Ash
I have a question for you: do you want to be an entrepreneur or why do you want to be an entrepreneur?
I’ve heard people say I want to be an entrepreneur because I feel it’s fun. I don’t want anyone to boss me around. I can work at any time and for so many other funny reasons. But the truth is, entrepreneurship is HARD!
Yeah, you heard that right. I’m not going to sugarcoat anything; you need to know the truth.
If you’re going into entrepreneurship to be a boss on your own and not have to say yes sir/ma to anyone, then you should quit. To be an entrepreneur, you must have a solid reason, i.e., a strong “WHY” because if you don’t have one, you would quit when challenges come into place. Being an entrepreneur isn’t about building a startup or wanting to be seen as an independent person. It requires a strong mindset, discipline, and a lot of patience. You must be ready to face challenges and overcome any obstacle.
Starting or building a business is like planting a flower/starting a relationship it requires you to invest your time, money, and efforts for it to grow. You have to give it your all and be ready to commit.
What most people don’t know is that 90% of startups fail. Success doesn’t happen overnight. It might take a year or years for it to happen. However, when your start-up blossoms, it makes all the patience and hard work worthwhile.
Someone once said, “You have to see failure as the beginning and the middle, but never entertain it as an end”. So, before you start a business, you’ll need to do some soul-researching to decide if it’s the right time for you to become an entrepreneur, know what people want, and create a business around it.
In this article, I will share with you 5 things you must do before you be an entrepreneur.
- Educate yourself about finance: you need to learn about finance, and how to manage your finance. As an entrepreneur, you must separate your business account from your personal account. Learn how to create a financial plan for your business. For instance, if some investors are willing to invest in your business, one of the documents they need to go through is a financial plan. We need this to determine if they want to should invest or not. Watch videos, read books, and other educational articles on how to effectively manage your finance.
- Learn how to research: life is all about growth. You need to keep being better at what you do. As time goes on, the trends in the market keep changing and you don’t want to be left behind. Your marketing strategy, product, and everything else in your business need to be in line with the market trends. This means that you have to keep researching to know what’s new.
Also, research as much as possible on your industry to know the trends, what is working, and the things that aren’t. The information you get from your research would help you position your business in the right place.
- Learn how to take the risk: taking the bold step of being an entrepreneur is a big risk in itself. Just imagine someone leaving their highly paid job alongside other benefits that serve as their only source of income for a venture that is built under possibility. It’s a hard thing to do, right? However, this is the risk every determined entrepreneur takes. As an entrepreneur, you should be ready to embrace risks and face them head-on. Sometimes it might be worth it, sometimes it might not. Whichever one it is, just be ready.
- Network and build great relationships: your network is your net worth. This should always be on your mind.
“Know where you want to go and make sure the right people know about it,” – Meredith Mahoney.
Networking with other people increases your chances of exposing your business to the right audience. When it comes to investments and business development, who you know matters a lot. Start out by optimizing your LinkedIn profile, send invites to the people that are experienced in the same industry as you, and also engage their posts.
Besides building relationships online, attend business seminars and any business meetings. Interact with people don’t be shy to give out your business card if they ask for one or exchange contacts. If it’s a meeting where you have some special guests that are experienced in your field, you could make research on them and have a conversation with them after that meeting. They would be impressed and would love to connect with you.
- Learn how to sell: selling is an art that requires you to tell compelling stories about the solutions your product or service will have in the life of the consumer. It is an important skill you need to learn as an entrepreneur, as sales are the most important thing in a business. We all go into one business or the other to make money, hence you’ll need to learn how to put your product out there in such a way your target audience would be moved to take an action. Also, you need to be able to communicate clearly and effectively to whoever you’re dealing with.
Once you have these five things figured out, then you are ready to begin your journey as an entrepreneur.
Have a nice day.