Editor’s Note: Here at Dispatches, we are always looking for ways to help our readers do things. For some of our readers, that means helping navigate the working world, for others, it means assisting in the ever challenging question, “what’s for dinner?” For still others, it means figuring out how to balance family life with everything else. In an effort to aid in all of these endeavors, we have collaborated on this article written specifically for our readers.
Everyone’s been there at some point in their life, either seriously or for silly reasons: you’ve got an idea, you think no one else has this idea and you want to make the idea become a reality. You look into ways to fund your journey to making this idea come true and you contact people who’ve gone the route before to learn more about their experiences. While the initial process seems simple, it can be complex and daunting in practice.
Becoming an entrepreneur is sometimes considered one of the hardest things to do in the business world. You’re taking on corporate leadership, raising money and impressing customers and investors alike, all alone. The only thing you have propping up your efforts is your strong belief in the product or service you plan to offer and because you see a gap in the market for you and your business.
So if you feel like you’re stuck in a dead-end job, going nowhere with your career, and you’ve had a good run in the salary department to live off your own funds for a good while, it’s time to start innovating. Pluck up the courage to take your idea to the top with a bit of market research and a well-executed business plan. Small business owners dominate the industry after all, and you could be one of them.
You’re the One in Control
You’re finally running your own business and that means you run every aspect of your company. This can mean a huge amount of responsibility and you can only blame yourself when things go wrong. But at the same time, that makes you more vigilant and a lot more likely to succeed. It’s all up to you and you’ve done everything to get yourself into this position!
As an entrepreneur running your own company, selling a brand you believe in, you can create your own schedule, for example. You can sit down in the office and grind away for 10 hours on end, or you can try to minimize and produce some good content in a half hour and then call it quits.
When it comes to buying property, you’re the one who has the final say on the right shape for the office and whether the layout is an open or closed plan. Even just the little things can make a huge difference as to how you feel working in a business environment! You don’t even need to have a regional office at the end of the day when you have the freedom to run a business from wherever you are in the world. It also means you’re never going to be late for that team meeting and the commute is no longer going to cut out valuable business hours that could be put to better use.
You Keep Your Money
When you’re an entrepreneur, one of the best parts of the job model is that you know where your money goes. Either into your bank account or out to pay the supplies cost.
Of course, the IRS is always going to require a cut of it and your insurance isn’t going to pay itself to look after you. But at the end of the working day, as an entrepreneur, you can rest assured that all the money you make refining your sales tactics and securing a new customer is going to stay in your pocket. It’s this element of job security, one of the most important factors there are, that means you’re going to stay in business for a lot longer.
You’re Finally Living the Dream!
Running your own company means you’ve made it, especially in society’s eyes. You’re not just an employee trying to put food on the table after a 9 to 5, or a 7 to 4, or a 4 to 2 (because the 9 to 5 is a herald of a world gone by when nowadays ‘productivity’ demands everything out of you!). Similarly, you’re not just a manager, getting all your ducks in a row day by day, and having to take the fall when something goes wrong. You’re personally invested, and that’s what makes your customers believe in you.
When it’s evident in every product description, every marketing campaign, and every statement you make about what you offer, you’re going to notice a pick me up in the number of profits you make each month. It’s exciting to see your dream come alive in every sense of the word and to watch it change the lives of the people who bought it off you.
But What about the Risks?
There’s going to be risks to every venture in life, and when it comes to entrepreneurship the risks mainly lie in your chance of missing the true gap in the market and overspending when you’re first starting up. This can usually be wiped away when you’ve got a good business plan and plenty of advice on hand, which makes the idea entirely worth doing.
But at the same time, you yourself are one of the biggest risks. You’re going to need the motivation to keep yourself going at all times, constantly innovating and working as hard as you can. Freedom is a double-edged sword after all, and you need to use it wisely.
Becoming an entrepreneur is going to take time and a lot of money. However, it’s a business model we need more of in the world. Entrepreneurs are the ones who see the gaps in the market that most need filling, and in our current economic crisis, we need the talent who are going to make it cheaper (and more fun) to keep living the way we need to. Take a leaf out of the book of the most creative people in the world and live your dream today.