– Introduction: Who is an Entrepreneur? An Entrepreneur can have many definitions but in summary, it all means one thing, an Entrepreneur is someone who started or runs businesses not necessarily specified from any particular niche or angle but as someone who has or creates businesses in most cases it might just be their first business.
Many of us have these types of people around us or we might as well be one ourselves or perhaps we have a plan of becoming one day as part of our dream and all in all it’s a great thing to venture into when you know and understand what it means and are willing to take it up full time or just get started.
One of the major problems I see people make is waiting too long to get started or simply rushing into it without proper guidance or preparation as the case may be, then arises the question of what is the right time to get started as an Entrepreneur the simple answers is to get started now and here is how you get started.
Phases of being an Entrepreneur
1. The Learning Phase:
Trust me no successful business was started based on assumption, hoping and praying that it ends up working out, the Entrepreneur in question must have been part of the industry for a long enough time that he or she now has a fair share of understanding how the industry in which they have interest in works that he can now see through the problems that are there waiting to be solved unlike other people who are outside who doesn’t even understand the industry yet.
2. The testing or starting Phase:
This is the time that Entrepreneurs get to test and implement the solution to the potential problem that their customers may have or the industry in general, this is where the main work is done and if you cannot keep up with it then it means that you have not had enough training or enough knowledge about the industry per se.
That’s what always raises the question
Are entrepreneurs born or made?
I believe everyone will have their answer and most of the time it’s all based on an emotional judgment of an individual, As we all know people usually get very emotional when it comes to a topic they love and have serious interests in that it can many at-times cloud there judgment on what reality is all about.
But the reality is that most people are born while the rest are made Entrepreneur, like in the old times people used to send their kids to go and become an apprentice for a boss as early as 11yrs old or more although that is no more applicable today in the western world although it is still applicable in some African countries like Nigeria.
Most parents did that then and some still do base on different factors some being that the child simply doesn’t have any interest in formal education while the rest might be due to lack of funds to train their kids to school and the child ends up learning the business from the master and becoming one themselves..
The second group is the born child Entrepreneur who starts by selling their services in their school, or class or simply by offering some form of the item for sale that they no longer use or have more of it, as for me I started by giving out loan to other kids during the weekend because I knew that on the weekend most people will need to spend some extra to make it up in the weekend. I simply took double of what I gave to my friends by Monday call it what you want but I call it business and it saved me then because I knew I had to double my money to get some textbooks.
So that begs the question of
How important is Education in Entrepreneurship?
Formal education as we all know perhaps is not necessarily the solution or direction to the problems that come with education the real problems that come with being an Entrepreneur is mostly solved by not-so-complex calculations unless your business now expands to a certain trench-hold or value.
Let us take a typical business that generates a few thousand dollars in a month whereby a single person can handle any of the problems that come with it, I believe that the worst thing that you might do as is to go for a Ph.D. for a basic business with minimum cash flow.
Those years spent learning and upgrading your portfolio should be used in running and starting your business, it should also be taken into account that if you can get your Ph.D. before you’re let us say 30 then perhaps you can go for it.
The reason why you have to start early in business is to have enough time in your learning curve to improve and expand way more than you ever intended to and course it is a learning process mistakes are going to be made and you will be the one person standing in the worst times.
What and what is needed to get started
Basically what is needed in Entrepreneurship is speed and time that’s why you have to master a lot of other things apart from starting a business you need to master the art of time management I will write on that later. It’s quite essential as stated before that you need to start on time not just on the business but also on a daily basis and tasks.
That’s the reason why they say that time is money the more time you spend on your business as an Entrepreneur the more you tend to make at least in the early startup days of your business, which helps scale your business to the point of your satisfaction.
So time mastery and management as the very most essential in the growth and expansion of your business, those tasks that need to be postponed should be postponed those that need to be delegated or outsourced should be delegated or outsourced in other to gain more time advantage to focus on important tasks.
How to Start Your Journey
Let’s say you are a born Entrepreneur a great example of born billionaire Entrepreneurs are Elon Musk and Mark Cuban both men whom I have so much admiration and respect for and have taken my time to study both of whom I believe somehow have something special about them on the journey of being an Entrepreneur.
So to get started first of all make it a study to know and learn more from the people who started before you on the journey I will recommend the following books to get started Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hills, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Kiyosaki and others which has helped me in many ways as an Entrepreneur.
You might also be curious and wondering in the form of questions what are the success factors.
Success Factors
There is this saying that what you don’t know can kill you, so what is it that you don’t know about the business and you’re being persistent on moving on while still ignoring them, is it the product, is it the market itself or is it the marketing Aspect?
Although you can learn along the way on your journey its recommend that you have at-least on a bear minimum the knowledge of what a good one is or what the perfect solution will look like for you to move ahead of your competition.
Note that you can always outsource or seek help from people who are experts in that particular field in question, these partners or mentors as the case may be will help you navigate through the problem that may come up during your time as an Entrepreneur.
Once that aspect is perfected you might also have this question as to how to increase your speed in business.
What are the Speed factors?
When it comes to speed like I said before it’s all about your time management skills one of the ways that Entrepreneurs keep up with time is by waking up early and going to your business on time.
I can never over-emphasize how important it is for you to be an expert in your own time management without which you will find yourself in a pit-hole of debt without a way of recovery or coming out of the situation that you have found yourself.
This same problem is the reason why some 70% or more of businesses fail without a way of getting back on their feet, the worst thing an Entrepreneur will ever do is leave a problem to chance which is absolutely wrong.
Let’s take for example that you run a shop and your neighbor who sells a totally different product runs a shop as well but opens up by 8 am while you being a relaxed Entrepreneur open up by 11 am although you guys don’t sell the same product and you continue to do same for a whole year.
Guess what happens when someone who has the intention of coming to your shop comes around by 9 am or so before you’re open and they are told that you open up by 11 am unless you’re still harboring some patents on that industry solely by yourself, they will not be impressed by you and will need to get the item somewhere else which might even be cheaper.
Remember you have a neighbor that sells a different product altogether your customers will now go to your neighbor in bitterness and lay there complaining and when the other shop gets such complaints more often then what it means is that a new product is born for your neighbor all thanks to you they will then start trying to replicate or fill-up those request in their shelf in other to fulfill their customers needs which you have failed to fulfill.
What that means is that you now have a brand new competitor without possibly knowing it and sooner or later you will be out of business leaving all your customers to your competitor and guess what you lost both the time, the energy and every dollar spent on marketing and on the shop just like that and all thanks to you your competitors are the ones smiling to the bank to cash-out in the form of cash what you labored for.
What are the Pitfalls and challenges to being an Entrepreneur
Every single business and startup has its challenges and pitfalls that it must pass through in no particular other but the worst of them all will be that you are the one who is the pitfall as stated in the time factor aspect.
Another main problem might be the problem or lack of enough capital although many can argue with it in the case of a business or startup that needs huge financing one of the solutions to that will have to be to get a good angel investor that has good plans for your business or crowd-funded platform where you get to negotiate with people who are interested in your business and are down with there own cash to support you.
If finance and proper business and time management are not your problems then you should set your eyes on the product or service that you offer if it is a product-based problem then ensure that you have a good product that is ready to solve your customer’s problem in the right way rather than just having a product that looks good without offering a real-life solution.
If it is a service-based business then you should know your niche very well the same goes with products you can always grow and expand but a mastery of a particular niche or product can pave the way for countless other products and services, the first product or service must not be the very perfect or absolute best but at-least should be good enough to be accepted by your customers without you losing your client.
A good example of that would be that of the first Microsoft software (Windows) which had bugs in it, the first Apple phone looked good and had other factors working for it although not comparable with what we have today due to updates.
You should understand that mastery of a particular aspect of your business paves the way for other improvements and upgrades which is essential for business growth and expansion.
What should be my daily Motivation?
So one of the main problems that most Entrepreneurs fail to solve is self-motivation you should understand that no one will leave their business to come and motivate you, that’s the reality of you being the boss and the one spare heading the business.
You should understand by now that you should be at least the motivating factor behind your business and for your employees before some external body then steps in to add more value to your business, a simple way to motivate your employees is simply by offering praises when you see something good done by your employee you praise them it must not always be the other way round.
Being too proud to understand and build with your team is one of the major pitfalls that comes into play by the failing Entrepreneur and sooner or later it unveils itself like a secret bride in the dark, and you might not like the outcome of what it compound to become so do listen and work with your team.
Now you made it
Let us say you successfully implemented all the above-stated things and you now have a working business that generates enough money to buy whatever you want depending on what you consider a success that works for you then congrats on your sweet victory and what is the next move from here for you.
You can scale and then sell your business depending on what your interests are some will continue with the business and still expand it but that might mean a lifelong commitment to what you would love to do in the future.
If the business is simply the type that you feel like you cannot continue with the burden then of course you can sell it and start a new one or turn and become an investor yourself while making the right picks and chill all the way you want.
Trust means the goal of every Entrepreneur is to have a well-organized life in the long run but the decision can be made at your own pace and time and anyone who wants to en-devour into the entrepreneur world must be fully ready and willing to accept the outcome.
Summary
When most people think of being an entrepreneur they tend to think that it is all about the lifestyle and fun that is portrayed on TV or the beautiful toys (cars, mansions) that come with it without first of all doing their homework and understanding the fact that being an entrepreneur is a long hard walk that sometimes makes you will feel like breaking down which can be both physically and mentally.
But the success at the end of the tunnel is what makes being an entrepreneur fun and being able to survive those hard turbulence is what brings the aftermath joy for the entrepreneur that’s the reason why most excited billionaires go for a yacht after a long and dedicated years of doing business successfully.
This is not to discourage you but it should be equally noted that this is a course not for the faint at heart, if it is what you can take then hop in on the journey if not then of course you can become an Intrepreneur and be part of a company as an employee and still be a success, everyone must not have the same path in life.
All the same, I wish you luck.
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