Entrepreneurship is one of the most talked about topic everyday. A global research states that 4 in 9 people desire to be entrepreneurs. In Africa, from 2014 till date; workshop seminars, conferences and meetings are organized everyday to teach and motivate people into being entrepreneurs.
Talk about the high spirit and the crave to be an owner of a business! At the long run, most fall when they encounter the realities.
Not to be mistaken, entrepreneurship is wonderful. Infact, it is one unique field that accommodates the world. Humans can not run short of ideas. Thus, ideas translate to business, opportunities and financial freedom.
Entrepreneurship is brewing ideas with tenacity and passion turning to Success.
Don’t start if you are not ready to do this things.
Be ready to work round the Clock.
Entrepreneurship is not the routine office hours of 9-5pm, 40 hours a week or the Monday- Friday hustle. It requires working anytime at anywhere; anyhow it may be. You may need to travel, deliver errands yourself, stay up late at night or start up very early at the break of dawn. You get to do this because you are the Jack of all responsibility. Although there may be manpower, but you do need to be a vanguard.
Be ready to be bitten
Sometimes, individuals or organizations don’t easily identify with new start-up businesses/ ideas/ entrepreneurs. They don’t feel comfortable you can handle the job or capable to deliver.
I heard a renowned interior decorator share her story of when she started her business. She submitted a proposal to refurbish a firm and she was denied the job because, according to the management, “she has not done a major job and lacked the experience to handle theirs”.
Boom, that was a Shocker! her story has changed anyway.
Not everyone will accept and run with your ideas, not everyone will understand your passion; you just need to be resilient and keep up. You may be lucky; one big opportunity, and Baam!!! you are established.
Be ready either way. Businesses come with threat and challenges.
So brace yourself, because you will be bitten at one time. If not now, maybe later.
Work under Pressure
Entrepreneurs are synchronizers and game-changers. Now, you are the CEO, it is time to set and run the race. As the CEO, you will be involved in multiple roles. It is time to create, strategize, analyze, imagine, brainstorm, be accountable. Establishing your business comes with insurmountable pressure, juggling personal or target deadlines, business tasks etc.
The key is to plan and organize because you can be handling too much activities at the same time.
If you can not stay composed, focused and effective under pressure, then Entrepreneurship is not for you.
Accepting and Evaluating feedback
As an entrepreneur that wants to grow and succeed, you would need to accept feedback. Not all feedback may be right. Some may even be spiteful, but you need them to help you improve and grow. This is where mental and emotional intelligence comes to light. You should have the capacity to accept whatever feedback, evaluate and refine it unto Success.
Feedback is for improvement and as an entrepreneur you would need all the information you can get.
I remember when I started baking cakes in university (I had a little challenge of too sugar in the cake).
When an order to bake a cake is placed, I would make excess; pouring it into two pans (one for the customer and the remaining in a smaller pan). Before embellishing the customer’s cake, I would ask my roommates to taste and share their opinion of the little cake. They always gave a positive response and sometimes exaggerated how excellent my cakes were.
Then it happened! A student who was a customer called to complain of the sugar quantity in her cake and she also made me understand that was not the first time she observed it. I was glad about the feedback and apologized. I shared the customer’s observation to my roommates; then they broke the news to me. They knew sugar was always much but they couldn’t bring themselves to telling me. I was surprised about their revelation. I tried to make them understand that they will only be helping me if they are being honest to me.
Now, there are two context of feedback in this illustration: A customer who wanted to give me a chance to improve and felt I needed to know she was unsatisfied with her cake and my roommates who kept mute all along for fear that they will hurt my feelings and will not accept their candid opinion.
Take and evaluate all feedback from different perspectives. It helps to keep you in check. You may need to ask yourself;
What value can i add to my business everyday?
How can I excite and attract the market?
Which strategy can I exercise to get honest feedback? etc
Entrepreneurship is wonderful, but you need the right attitude, resilience, a well defined goal and the deep seated passion to impact and create wealth.
Like Uncle Ben Parker said in Spiderman said: “…with great power, comes great responsibility…”
To an entrepreneur who has ideas, much will be required and expected…and to an entrepreneur who is willing to commit much, of you they will ask the more.