My advice if you think to be an Entrepreneur (from an entrepreneur)

If you are reading this blog post then it is very likely that you are either a college student or just graduated. Both of these times in your life are the most important and formative ones for you. When you are going to college, you are given time after time to think about what you really want. You have so much freedom to explore different fields of study and even if that doesn’t pan out, there will be other opportunities open to you because of your degree and experience at the university.

On the other hand when you graduate from college, many doors close for good behind them as well as some new possibilities might open up for you. You could go on to get further education and pursue a degree but more often than not, that does not lead to the most rewarding career, compared to be your own boss or an entrepreneur. Which is probably what you are thinking and why you are reading this.

Yes, because most people start their own businesses just after getting out of school because they know more about their particular field and can handle more responsibility at such an early age, they are more risk-taking, sometimes ambitious and surely with more options and freedom.

However, starting your own business is not as easy as it sounds especially if your friends or family don’t understand your passion for it. They may even discourage or try to talk sense into you which is why I am writing this blog post today.

Why you should start your own business

One of the best decisions you can make is to start your own business. This decision will impact every aspect of your life and career. You do not have to give up on your current job or field of study but this blog post is here to show you that starting a business is better than working for someone else. The benefits are so many:

• You keep more money in your pocket
• You have more freedom (in many ways)
• You have more control
• You meet people from all over the world
• You get hands-on experience
• You feel more satisfied

How to get started as an entrepreneur

Ok, let’s say you are sure about trying the entrepreneur path. How to get started? Well, one of the most important aspects of starting an entrepreneur is business planning. You need to know what you are going to do and how you are going to get there before you start investing in anything, or putting the hard-work.

Know your goals and how they relate to your business and then develop a plan for achieving them.

So now that you have a plan, what comes next? You need to identify potential opportunities for your business and make sure that those opportunities align with your plans for your business. If they don’t, then scrap them and start looking elsewhere because opportunities come up all the time, and leads, clients can be found anywhere and for any niche.

Once you find an opportunity worth pursuing, follow these steps:

1) Determine if you have the resources needed
2) Determine if there are any risks involved with this venture that could potentially hurt your future (but also remember, entrepreneur means taking risk too. You have to find the sweet spot)
3) Evaluate the feasibility of this opportunity – will it be successful?
4) Identify other resources that can help support the success of this venture
5) Research what others have done in similar situations (you can use online resources or even take it one step further by interviewing people who already went through this process).

The “bootstrapping” stage

Once you have decided to start your own business and convince friends and family, it is time for the “bootstrapping” stage. The bootstrapping stage consists of finding investors or other lenders of capital and forming a company. This is where those who are starting out find most of their challenges as well as struggles because they are responsible for raising the money in their business’s bank account.

It takes some people up to 3 years or longer to raise enough capital from friends, family members, loans, etc. to start their own businesses and when they finally get started they often have more than one thing going on at once trying to make ends meet with no real headway yet. So, quickly and effectively finding your investment funds is crucial.

Where do you find money to fund your startup?

When you are starting a business, the first thing you need to know is how you will fund it. Depending on where your business is based, whether it is in the U.S., or internationally, there are going to be different ways that you can find money.

One of them may be going to family and friends because they want to see your progress and support you; however, that’s not always around.

Nowadays, crowdfunding has become such a popular way for anyone with an idea to get help funding their project without even having to go out and ask for it from friends and family. Crowdfunding allows people who have ideas or projects that they would like help funding the opportunity to do so through a large number of small donations from people all over the world using any form of payment method.

If someone has a good idea that people like, then they can directly fund their project without first asking for help from friends and family which makes it easier for them as well as more stress-free for those who are contributing funds.

This is the route I suggest, but then there also angel investors. Meaning rich people that will invest in your company, but usually get a percentage of the share. So, you need to see how well you like the idea.

Lastly I usually do not suggest loans, unless you are extremely confident that your idea will pay off and you will make the required money to pay off the loan. If that’s not the case, getting money from private investors or crowdfunding is less risky, even though it means giving away a part of your future profits.

The most important thing: persistence!

The last but maybe most important advice I want to give you is to be persistent. If you go into your business with this attitude, it will allow you to overcome any obstacles that may come up within the first few weeks or months of starting your business.

Nowadays, people expect instant results and when they don’t receive them, they can get frustrated easily. They might assume that their idea is flawed or not good enough for the market which is why I would advise for new businesses going through their first months in operation to keep pushing, as surely issues will be come up, and to really focus on the product and service that they offer as well as customer service, since already in the beginning big changes will be required in the moment your service actually starts to get real feedbacks.

Because remember, you need to make sure that customers are satisfied with your product or service before they could become loyal customers and spread the word about your business in return. As some wise man said, “returning customers bring more money than new customers”.

Best of luck with your journey and, watch also the below YouTube channel for more!