Entrepreneurs Live Like Most Will not, So They Can Live Like Most Can not

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One of our favorite quotes around the office is "Entrepreneurs are people who are willing to live like most will not so they can live like most can not." Starting your own business is the best, and possibly only, legitimate way to drastically change your financial position in life. Working for yourself provides flexibility and independence like working for others never can. True entrepreneurship is not always easy, but it is always rewarding.

Starting your own business is difficult. There is some inherent risk, but most of that risk can be mitigated through working smart and working hard. The tough part is becoming an expert in all the areas that truly define entrepreneurship. You need to have a comfortable relationship with accounting and financial management. The point of running a business is to turn a profit, so knowing where the money has gone and where it needs to go is critical. You need to be a marketing expert, at least as far as your target market and competition are concerned. You need to have the drive and management skills to keep yourself and your staff on track and motivated.

Above all, you need the ability to teach yourself what you need to know. Research, analysis, and synthesis of vast volumes of information is a must in order to evaluate where you are, where you've been, and most importantly, where you are going. You do not necessarily need a college degree or twenty years of experience managing a business to succeed, but you do need the awareness to know how much you do not know and the willingness to figure it all out.

Very few business ideas (if any) actually take off overnight. The majority of the overnight success stories you see do not tell the whole story. Sure, once a hi-tech company secured venture capital and blasted the world with top-of-the-line marketing, they started raking in the big bucks. But it takes a long, long time and an awful lot of work before most venture capitalists will even consider hearing you out. Stories of viral marketing successes, where a company is hyped like wildfire through social networks (Twitter and Facebook, for example) leave out the part where the founders have been laying the marketing foundation for months, or even years before the public picked up on it .

The first goal for most business startups is what we call Ramen Profitability. That is, your venture makes enough money to keep you, your family, and your staff nourished with Ramen noodles (they still go on sale 5 for $ 1 sometimes). During the early stages especially, your entertainment budget consists of a $ 5 take-out pizza and whatever movie is playing on TNT. You drink store brand coffee (weak), wash your own car, and politely bow out of any invitation that is going to cost you cash. Every penny you have plows back into the business, even the ten bucks you find in the street.

Every waking moment and a good amount of the sleeping ones are filled with thoughts of what needs to be done next. Sleep is a bonus, and your ideas of having all this free time once you work for yourself feel a million years away. But once you get through the rough and tumble of the startup, the light slowly begins to appear at the end of the tunnel.

One important outcome of all this hard work and dedication is that your company will have developed a culture commensurate with your outlook - working hard and smart is the best route to success. Over time, you will build your venture up where you want it to be, with all the financial and personal independence that comes with that success.

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Source by K. MacKillop