Are You an Aspiring Entrepreneur?
Posted on June 20, 2007
Filed Under General |
Entrepreneurship can beat you down if you let it. I’ve seen it happen to others as well as myself. I suppose there’s a sort of “weeding-out” process that takes place, to determine if you’re going to be an entrepreneur & trailblazer, or whether you’re going to go the route of the 9 to 5′er.
The entrepreneurial bug hit me long ago. I started working around the age of 13 or so. I spent my summers working, while other kids were running the neighborhoods, playing baseball doing all the fun stuff. I didn’t mind working because I always enjoyed having money to do stuff or buy things. At some point though, and I don’t remember exactly how old I was, my dad and I were in the car one day driving somewhere and he told me….”you know Chris, the only way to really get ahead in life, is to work for yourself, be your own boss”. This was coming from a man that had worked hard his entire life to provide for his family. And he provided for us well, but I could tell there were times when he knew he’d have been better off if he had gone out on his own. I think most everyone probably feels that way from time to time.
So I’ve always liked the idea of working for “me”. Lord knows I’ve tried more than one business idea over the years. All of these ventures were attempted “part time” while I worked a full time job as well. Let’s see…there was the…
- Computer repair & maintenance business - FAILED / Too impatient - thought I should have customers ringing my phone off the wall for help within a week. Didn’t happen so I lost interest.
- Pressure washing & steam cleaning business - FAILED / I actually invested quite a bit of money into this and really tried to make it work. Eventually I lost interest and got tired of losing money because of under-bidding jobs just so I could get work.
- Real estate agent - FAILED / Got my license and decided to try this for a year or so. I just knew I’d get hordes of business from the people that I worked with at my full time job. The hordes never came and I got tired of having to work when everyone else was off. Figured out that I wasn’t cut out for sales.
- Lawn equipment repair - FAILED / I don’t even recall why this failed? Lost interest and didn’t make any money would probably be two good reasons?
- Hypnotherapist - Semi-FAILED / This is actually an area that I remain very interested in and have a website dedicated to helping others learn about hypnosis. The actual business didn’t succeed because quite frankly…people are skeptical of the service I was trying to provide, and customers were few and far between. When I was successful with clients, it was a tremendous feeling! When I wasn’t successful, I felt like I had failed them and myself and it was depressing. Decided to give it up.
- Online Pet Supplies - Semi-FAILED / This started as an ebay business and quickly developed into me starting my own website. I enjoyed this business for a while. I liked the fact that I worked the business out of my home and didn’t have to deal directly (ie. face to face or on the phone), with customers. This was my first taste of selling on the internet which had some good points and bad. I still ended up having to deal with customer complaints though
. This business simply got too overwhelming. I learned first hand how much time a business like this could take! If I wasn’t working my “real” job, I was running this business…weekends included! This just started consuming too much personal time and was draining me both physically and mentally. And I wasn’t making nearly enough money. Shut the business down.
That brings me to where I am today. All these failed ventures have taught me a LOT! When I look back, I’m actually happy that things turned out the way they did. One thing I learned is that I didn’t “really” have a great love or passion for any of those things I was doing. The bottom line motivation to all of them was centered around making money and being able to quit my day job.
You’ll note that I marked my last couple of ventures as “SEMI-FAILED”. This tells me that I was getting closer, but just hadn’t found my real passion yet.
So what have I learned from trying my hand at being self-employed? It’s hard to be your own boss! The hours are long, but if you find something you love doing, you’ll find that you really don’t care how long the hours are because you’re enjoying yourself.
I’ve learned that I generally don’t like dealing with the public when it comes to business and I wouldn’t want to have to deal with employees. I always wanted to do something where I could just “create” a product or a service, and people could buy it or use it if they wanted. Take it or leave it. No customers whining and complaining because what they got wasn’t good enough. Here it is…if you want it, fine…if you don’t, move on. Writing has long been a passion of mine, and it fits nicely into that mold.
I like “techy” kinda stuff and creating websites. I really don’t know any programming, or how to code, but I can usually figure something out. I’ve been around computers long enough to know and understand the jargon. Lets see….computers, websites, writing/blogging…we’re getting there!
I enjoy helping other people and I try to show my sincere appreciation for those that help me. It’s a good feeling to know that you’ve helped someone solve a problem.
So if I can take a knowledge of computers, create a website and write something that will help another person, the I feel like I’ve found the ultimate way to make a living! And I truly believe that when you’re helping people and doing something you love, there is no way you can go wrong!
I still work a “day job”, but for the last 6 months or so, I’ve been doing what I really love to do, whenever I can do it! I still have a ton to learn about being a great blogger, but I have no doubt I’ll succeed.
If you’ve been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, hopefully you won’t have to experience as “many” failures as I have. If you’ve tried and failed in the past, don’t let that discourage you from moving forward! That experience has toughened you and put you a step ahead of everyone else.
As always, if I can ever help, please don’t hesitate to ask! Have a great day!
Chris
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12 Responses to “Are You an Aspiring Entrepreneur?”
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wow that is top clss article on Entrepreneurship helps lot thanks
Learning by doing is a really good one
I’ve also made a few mistakes with my ventures but the amount of stuff I learned in the process outweights it
Thanks for your comments!
Yes…the failures are so valuable, although they can be disheartening
If you’re cut out for it though, you take what you’ve learned and move on to the next. It would have been a lot easier if I’d picked things that I liked to do vs. what seemed like a good idea at the time.
I’ve tried the entrepreneur thing a couple of time… Did really well on eBay, until a rule change made my #1 seller no longer possible. We’ve done the pc repair business on the side for awhile. It’ll never be full-time income as long as we don’t have a store front (which is waaay too expensive to merit the risk). Til then, it’s try try again. You can’t let a few failures stop you from trying though… otherwise you’re destined to be an employee til you’re old and gray
Keep failing forward, Chris. Think about all those before us that didn’t hit their bullseye until late in life. It’s never too late.
Well, I’m a consultant… I work at home. I love creating my own hours.
Hello faithful readers!
Robb - I agree totally. Quite frankly…I don’t care to be an “employee” any longer than I have to.
Angela - Yes…I think lots of people are very satisfied going to work each day and collecting their paycheck. And just to clarify, I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. I just can’t imagine spending the next 20 or 25 years, working for a company and not knowing whether I’ll get laid off today or not?
Fruity - Sounds like you have things headed in the right direction! The only question I have is “are you happy in your line of work or is there something else you would rather be doing?” I ask because if I pushed hard enough, I could be doing my job from home…which would be nice, but I still wouldn’t be happy because it’s not what I really enjoy doing. Make sense? I guess thats a big part of what I’m trying to say with my post. Doing what you love and loving what you do! Can’t go wrong there!
Thanks everyone for commenting! I appreciate your input!
Well they say a true Entrepreneur tries several businesses before he finds one that succeeds. Maybe blogging will be it!
Thanks for commenting Patrick!
You know…with blogging, I just have this gut feeling that I can’t fail? I enjoy it so much that it certainly doesn’t feel like work? My biggest challenge will be, not getting discouraged by the length of time it takes to build up your readers and to start seeing results. It is slow at first, but all the successful bloggers I’ve been reading say to keep plugging along and things will start happening. I’m anxious, but being very realistic.
Thanks again for commenting and hope you’ll keep visiting!
Chris
very intresting reading, keep up the good work man
I am the knid of person that hates to be confined in the same place daily doing the same old routine, lols
But I do believe that being employed at an office also serves a learning ground if you want to put up your own business in the future.
We all want to earn in different ways aside for our day jobs. I hope I’ll get there soon enough…
That sounds like something similar to what I have done. I have tried real estate and the internet and mortgage and it seems it is a tough road to being and entrepreneur.
Although it does give you the freedom and satisfaction that you are doing a good job in helping other people and companies.