A study has claimed that not everyone has what it takes to be an entrepreneur. So before diving in, shouldn’t you find out if you’re made for this thing?
Here are the 5 things you’ll need to overcome to be an entrepreneur.
1. You Can’t Raise Money
Let’s get this straight.
Entrepreneurs change the world with their ideas. There’s no arguing that, but they need money to defray the expenses they’d incur on starting.
If you’re going to be one, you’ll need to have that knack for “money-hunting”. So, how the heck can you raise money?
Ways To Raise Money For Your Startup
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding refers to the financial model where the “crowd” (or public) funds your startup.
You’ll need to have a killer idea for your startup and a plan on how you intend making the startup flourish for this to work.
People aren’t going to invest in just another potential, but they’ll have no problem investing in one that needs that kick in the pants.
Family and Friends
Family is everything, and some friends are closer than brothers, right? When seeking for help from this group, it’s better to not shoot for the sky as you won’t want to lose a business and a relationship.
Make it clear that it is what it is, a startup! If you go all out with this method, you may even get friends of friends who are willing to invest in your startup.
Partner
When using this model, you’ll need to choose a partner whose goals are in tune with yours.
Since you will both be providing funding, your partner will have a stake in the company. This means terms will be agreed and documents signed.
You should be tactful in doing this so you don’t shortchange yourself.
2. You Have No Relationships With Other Entrepreneurs
Great minds think alike. If you’re not making friends with other entrepreneurs, maybe this thing is just not for you. What do you stand to gain? You strengthen your weaknesses, get recommendations and sometimes, funding. How then do you get those entrepreneurs on your radar?
How To Develop Relationships With Other Entrepreneurs?
Have A Plan
If you don’t aim for something, you’d most likely shoot for anything. You’ll not be needing any relationship with all those who are so up there in your industry so it’s best you remain selective when doing this.
Concentrate on your weaknesses and reach out for those who have them as strengths. You’re not likely to get the top dogs from the word go so it’s okay to start small.
Make A Connection By Helping
The first question people ask themselves before making a connection, a deal, parting with their money or getting into a business is, “what’s in this for me?”
Before you approach anyone, take time out to discover defects in them you can correct. This will take the relationship from a parasitic ME-ME thing to one where everyone will be happy.
You should make this subtle as coming off with a “you need me more than I do” attitude would hurt your chances.
Nurture The Connection
If you’ve gotten past the “build it” phase, nurturing it should be no problem. You can exploit social media to keep the relationship alive.
3. You Can’t Train New Staff
Your startup won’t be needing many hands in its early days. For what it’s worth, you could even get interns or others who just want to help and get some experience under their belt. As you grow in leaps and workload, anyway, you’ll need to staff your startup.
If you’re thinking, well, I could hire fresh college graduates with distinctions and go to rest, Eremedia has proven that paper qualification doesn’t cut it again these days. Then, what’s the way to go?
What To Do To Produce An Effective Team?
Let The Team Have A Say In The Plan
Before staff-training in your company, you’ll need a plan. It makes no sense drafting it yourself and including consequences for non-complying employees.
Instead, let the team have a say. You’d find it easier if you speak to them one-on-one before addressing them as a team.
Where employee recommendations will hurt the progress of the project, you’d have to reasonably explain why you can’t follow through on their recommendations and what the most effective route is. When all is said and done, you’d have a very flexible plan that everyone is committed to because of their initial involvement.
Train Your Employees To Be Creative
What’s the point spending time and energy assembling a set of robots? You need to give your employees space to think freely. It should be clear they set the limits. If you’re going to have a team that gets results, then it’s best they’re trained to have a mind of their own.
Insist On Consistency And Measure Progress
Practice makes perfect, and there’s no explaining that. Once your team has learned a bit of what’s needed, introduce tests to discover those who’ve learned from the classes. Don’t expect anything “wow” at first try, but as they consistently practice what they’ve learned, you should see progress.
If you don’t, it may be time to tweak a little for each employee.
4. You Don’t Know How To Satisfy Your Boss
No, that’s not a typo. Yes, I’m still sane. You mean you never knew you still had a boss? Well, now you know, and interestingly, this boss can’t fire you. He’s got no power to do that, but neglecting him means you’re out of business.
Care to know who this is? Your customer! If you can’t please your customers, you’d never succeed as an entrepreneur.
No worries, I’ll show you how it’s done.
How To Keep Your Customers Happy?
Improve On The Services You Provide
While it’s good your startup is up and running, what are the chances someone with a heavier budget can kick you out of business? If they’re high, holding strong is one way to make improvements.
This is easy, actually, all you need do is look out for complaints you’re getting time after time, take measures to minimize those complaints and you’re good to go.
Start A Customer Service Business
Yes, start one. Actually, what you have now is support, a contact form (if you even do) and that’s so 1990 customer service.
What’s the goal of every business? To provide value and maximize profits, right? That’s what your customer service business should aim to achieve.
Value, in this sense, will mean providing a quick and top-notch response to queries, and profits will mean creating brand advocates.
5. You’re Clueless On How To Buy
Tell me, what’s the point in getting a “sophisticated” dust buster, that costs a $100 to maintain when you can pay the guy across the street to do it weekly for $10?
Before you make that buying decision, you should check if you can get the same product or service at a cheaper rate without compromising on quality.
So, when do you buy?
What To Check Before Buying Something For Your Startup?
What Extra Expenses Are Involved?
Before buying, you need to check out for other expenses like duties, taxes and commissions. You should ensure you have a recurring stream of income to offset these recurrent costs. It’s best not to be taken by surprise.
How Do You Pay?
You should make sure this is clear before you buy. If you intend taking a loan, you should check if the interests and other fees can be catered for, and if you’re withdrawing from the business’s purse, calculate how it will affect the business in the short, medium and long terms.
Does It Appreciate Or Depreciate In Value
A commodity either appreciates or depreciates in value over time. Check to see which group yours falls into before buying.
Okay, so can you be an entrepreneur? Yes, now you know.
