How to Become an Entrepreneur
Being an entrepreneur is one of the most coveted roles in modern society. These are the people who have the insight and belief that what they do daily helps shape our lives, from the kind of vacuum cleaners we use to the cars we drive. Entrepreneurs are held in such high esteem these days that what they do has become aspirational in the same way that being an astronaut would have been forty years ago. The most famous entrepreneurs are known world-wide and earn vast fortunes from their businesses, regardless of the country, industry, or niche they happen to work within. If you’re wondering what it takes to be an entrepreneur and whether you have the necessary attributes, you might be surprised to find out how positive your prospects are.
Entrepreneurs – born or grown?
The first question you might be asking yourself is whether it’s possible to become an entrepreneur; after all, you need to be born with the talent to be a successful business person, don’t you? This is actually a myth, and if you examine the stories of famous entrepreneurs, you’ll see they have come from a wide variety of social backgrounds and cultures. Many have poor academic achievement records and often left school without much in the way of formal qualifications. Considerable numbers of entrepreneurs have had a difficult start in life, so having a wealthy background and a college degree are certainly not pre-requisites for a career as an entrepreneur.
What does make a good entrepreneur?
It’s usually a combination of several key factors:
You should now be reassured that you don’t need some kind of special gift to be a successful entrepreneur, just common sense and intelligence that can be developed and honed over time. You would do well to build up your knowledge and understanding of the business world because the more you know about subjects such as marketing, operations, logistics, purchasing, staff relations, and legal requirements, the more solid a foundation you’ll have on which to build your business. You might want to take an MBA to make sure you’ve covered all the business basics, but you certainly don’t have to. If you’re prepared to study the best available information for all the subject areas, you’ll soon get the hang of how businesses operate and what makes them profitable.
Choosing your niche
One of the most important decisions you’ll make is which industry you’re going to base your business in. Generally, it’s preferable to go into something that you have extensive knowledge about: for example, if you’ve been managing a retail store and shown good profits for the past few years, then you’ll have plenty of knowledge and insight into the retail world. Therefore, opening your own store would be an ideal way to go. Having experience in a certain industry or a passion for a specific market will always give you an advantage over opting for an entirely new specialism.
Ideas for entrepreneurs
What happens if you don’t have a transferable skill set? Or perhaps you’ve spotted a gap in the market, or foreseen a new fashion trend. The advice to stick with what you know still holds true, but rather than being based on your business knowledge, it could be something that holds a personal interest. For example, you enjoy the experience of vaping and have an interest in the subject. This could form the basis of a business idea, whereby you use your knowledge and personal experience to operate a vaping store. You’ll have an advantage over anyone who doesn’t vape themselves by seeing the potential for a vaping store. You’ll be familiar with the products and the culture, plus you’ll have that all-important empathy that helps you connect with other vapers. If this is the kind of enterprise that appeals (and vaping is an expanding market with a bright future!), then you can find more info on how to turn your interest in vaping into a business.
Starting small
If the initial investment is proving to be your stumbling block, you can always consider tempering your initial ambitions, such as operating a website for your product or service and selling online rather than opening a physical store. You can apply this principle to most business ideas, starting small and using your profits to expand your business at a manageable rate. You can even start with a side hustle, running a small business in your free time while retaining the security of your regular job.
The only thing preventing you from enjoying a future as a successful entrepreneur is yourself. Believe you can do it, gather information, be positive and determined, and learn everything you can about your chosen industry or niche, and you should see your entrepreneurial dreams come true.
The first question you might be asking yourself is whether it’s possible to become an entrepreneur; after all, you need to be born with the talent to be a successful business person, don’t you? This is actually a myth, and if you examine the stories of famous entrepreneurs, you’ll see they have come from a wide variety of social backgrounds and cultures. Many have poor academic achievement records and often left school without much in the way of formal qualifications. Considerable numbers of entrepreneurs have had a difficult start in life, so having a wealthy background and a college degree are certainly not pre-requisites for a career as an entrepreneur.
What does make a good entrepreneur?
It’s usually a combination of several key factors:
- A sharp and inquiring mind: You don’t need to have qualifications to be an entrepreneur, but you do need to be bright enough to learn about your chosen industry and the way business works. The best leaders and managers will say they never stop learning, and even when they are at the top of the tree will consult with all branches of staff to learn from their ideas and experiences.
- Grit and determination: You need to have self-belief and be persistent in the pursuit of your goals, no matter what life throws at you. If you go back to the lives of the world’s leading entrepreneurs, you’ll find that many of them have faced considerable obstacles to their progress, and may have experienced more than one large-scale failure on their road to success.
- Business sense: You could argue that this is the least quantifiable attribute because it relies on gut feeling or instinct in decision making. It’s easy to assume that successful entrepreneurs have gained their position by having some mystical foreknowledge of how markets will turn, or what will be the hot trends a few months down the line. In fact, these decisions are based on evidence supplied by extensive knowledge gathering, and an understanding of all the factors that influence the population’s purchasing choices.
You should now be reassured that you don’t need some kind of special gift to be a successful entrepreneur, just common sense and intelligence that can be developed and honed over time. You would do well to build up your knowledge and understanding of the business world because the more you know about subjects such as marketing, operations, logistics, purchasing, staff relations, and legal requirements, the more solid a foundation you’ll have on which to build your business. You might want to take an MBA to make sure you’ve covered all the business basics, but you certainly don’t have to. If you’re prepared to study the best available information for all the subject areas, you’ll soon get the hang of how businesses operate and what makes them profitable.
Choosing your niche
One of the most important decisions you’ll make is which industry you’re going to base your business in. Generally, it’s preferable to go into something that you have extensive knowledge about: for example, if you’ve been managing a retail store and shown good profits for the past few years, then you’ll have plenty of knowledge and insight into the retail world. Therefore, opening your own store would be an ideal way to go. Having experience in a certain industry or a passion for a specific market will always give you an advantage over opting for an entirely new specialism.
Ideas for entrepreneurs
What happens if you don’t have a transferable skill set? Or perhaps you’ve spotted a gap in the market, or foreseen a new fashion trend. The advice to stick with what you know still holds true, but rather than being based on your business knowledge, it could be something that holds a personal interest. For example, you enjoy the experience of vaping and have an interest in the subject. This could form the basis of a business idea, whereby you use your knowledge and personal experience to operate a vaping store. You’ll have an advantage over anyone who doesn’t vape themselves by seeing the potential for a vaping store. You’ll be familiar with the products and the culture, plus you’ll have that all-important empathy that helps you connect with other vapers. If this is the kind of enterprise that appeals (and vaping is an expanding market with a bright future!), then you can find more info on how to turn your interest in vaping into a business.
Starting small
If the initial investment is proving to be your stumbling block, you can always consider tempering your initial ambitions, such as operating a website for your product or service and selling online rather than opening a physical store. You can apply this principle to most business ideas, starting small and using your profits to expand your business at a manageable rate. You can even start with a side hustle, running a small business in your free time while retaining the security of your regular job.
The only thing preventing you from enjoying a future as a successful entrepreneur is yourself. Believe you can do it, gather information, be positive and determined, and learn everything you can about your chosen industry or niche, and you should see your entrepreneurial dreams come true.
