7 Signs You’re Not Entrepreneur Material ................................................................................................. Many dont even fully understand what entrepreneur even means. Heres a definition of Entrepreneur by an online dictionary. Entrepreneur: Noun - A person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture. - A person who organizes and manages an enterprise, esp. a business, usu. with considerable initiative. - (Business / Professions) the owner or manager of a business enterprise who, by risk and initiative, attempts to make profits - (Business / Professions) a middleman or commercial intermediary - Someone who organizes a business venture and assumes the risk for it [from (old) French, from entreprendre to undertake; see enterprise] Now that weve covered that you can continue. ............................................................................................... 7 Signs You’re Not Entrepreneur Material Youve always dreamed about starting your own business. So youve read the books, listened to the cautionary tales, and worked through some checklists. Youve done your homework. You feel sure that owning your own business is right for you. Not so fast. If any of the following applies, think twice before taking the entrepreneurial plunge: 1.) Your workday must include a chunk of me time. The last thing youll have time for is managing your fantasy team when revenues and profits are a distant dream. The same is true for seeing whats up with your Facebook friends, tweeting your favorite inspirational quotes, or ranting on message boards. You can forget me time in a startup, because youll never have enough time to do the critical stuff. So start now. Quit your fantasy leagues, say goodbye to your Facebook friends (at least the ones who wont someday be customers), and focus on your thoughts, not those of your favorite bloggers. Start spending all your free time thinking about how youll make money. If thats too big of a sacrifice, stay where you are. 2.) You spend time personalizing your office. I know: You dreamed of a bigger office. Youre proud of your bigger office. You deserved that bigger office. Its only right that it reflects your personality and your personal brand. Now say you plan to open a restaurant; since customers will never see your office, the only thing it should reflect is cheap. Start-up funds should never be spent on anything that will not touch the customer. Besides, youll be too busy chasing customers to worry about whether your office aligns with your personal brand. 3.) You dont empty your own trash, even when youre headed that way. Someone takes care of housekeeping, you say? Someone moves your furniture, fixes your printer, and solves your network problems? Your job is to focus on more important tasks? Maybe so... but not anymore. Entrepreneurs, especially early on, dont wear several hats—they wear every hat. Besides, in a start-up efficiency is everything: No movement should be wasted, no time saving is too small, and no expense is too minor to eliminate. If doing whatever needs to be done—no matter how menial or relatively unskilled—isnt something that comes naturally to you, dont go out on your own. 4.)You feel you could be a lot more productive if you just had that new... Think about your last laptop, smartphone, tablet, or software purchase. Did it really make you more efficient? Can you quantify the gains? Or was it just fun to have? Ive never heard an entrepreneur say, Jeez, we were really struggling to make a profit until I bought the new iPad—then our revenues took off! In a start-up youll be lucky to get the must have stuff. Even if you have the funds, money spent on nice to have is always money wasted. 5.) Youre still mad your department got shorted during the last budget cycle. Unless your rich uncle funds your new venture, you wont really have a budget. The money you spend wont come from a vast corporate pot. It will come from your pocket. If you hate struggling with limited resources or seeing your cant-miss project plans unjustly compromised by budgetary concerns, youll also hate running your own business when you realize bootstrap is a verb. 6.) You discuss work-life balance issues with passion and intelligence. The concept of work-life balance is an artificial construct—there is no line between work and life—but lets pretend one does exist. If you think a lot about the conflict between work and life, and you feel work is winning the battle, wait until you start a business. Work will eat life for breakfast. 7.) Youve ever said, even once, Ive paid my dues. When you run your own business you pay your dues every day. (The same should be true if you work for someone else, because the only real measure of your value is the tangible contributions you make on a daily basis.) No customer cares about your vast experience or years of hard work... unless the fruit of that labor benefits them. You pay your dues when customers pay you. As a business owner, you earn the right today to stay in business tomorrow. That is your only due. by Jeff Haden Article link: inc/jeff-haden/7-signs-youre-not-entrepreneur-material.html
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 08:23:12 +0000
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