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As a small business entrepreneur if this is your first initiative then please take some time to review your options before you get right stuck into it. When I started my first business it failed and it failed miserably, now when I look back all I can say was that I was naive and unaware of how to run like a successful entrepreneur.

Over time i relearned and programmed myself to tackle situations differently. Now that i have learnt a few techniques, I have now come to a point where i want to give back what I have learnt to my friends so that they don’t stumble across the same problems that i did a while back. If you are looking at starting your own venture and if you are reading this post then hopefully both of us can walk through a small short journey together to figure out if you are truly a successful entrepreneur or do you need to train yourself before you get there.

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Are You Running Away from a Problem or Running Towards creating a Legacy?

Today a lot of people have lost their jobs due to this uncertain environment. Some have opted to use this downtime to study further, some still try to apply for new jobs, some decide to join an Internet Business, while others decide to create their own small business as entrepreneurs. All these options seem viable but before you choose an option, ask yourself the burning reason why you are an entrepreneur:

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These are questions that sometimes may hurt and sometimes may make you think. Either way you need to ask yourself the reason behind starting your own small business. It could be any business but a business that has a purpose has a fair chance to succeed. Don’t jump into this entrepreneurial trend if you are running away from a problem. I beg you not to make this move.

As an Entrepreneur do you have the support required?

This is a very important area. We assume that our parents, siblings, husband, wife, kids, close family members, friends will be supportive but that is not necessarily true. Believe it or not there are many entrepreneurs who have to battle it with no support during their early stages. Ofcourse you have the fortunate entrepreneurs who have support.

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If you believe that you are going to have the support of your family and friend circle then do sit down and discuss your business plans with them. If you learn that you may not necessarily have the support you need, then ask yourself if you are prepared to go down this road by yourself?If the answer is positive then make a list of your time commitments, your financial commitments, and your own individual space that you require to your family, be prepared if they disagree to be flexible.

If your option is to compromise right from the beginning then I guess you know what’s ahead of you. If your option is the balance family and your startup then remember this is not necessarily a great start. Remember Entrepreneurship always starts at home so if your partner is not supportive and if you live with them then you need to agree on a few fundamental views before you go ahead on this road.

Do you have a good commercial network?

This one hit me hard when I started out. I did not know any body other than my university friends in New Zealand. Most of my University friends were International students too so having a local network of contacts was a mission. I practically had to start from scratch meeting people and developing a relationship to refer me to their network. So if you don’t have a strong network you need to look and see how can you create a market without knowing people.

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Of course now with the Internet you can always have a diversified market but the business you decide to get into needs to have that flexibility. Here having an Internet business comes in handy. It’s a lower barrier to entry then a business that targets a specific geographic location. The flip side, if you don’t know how to market yourself on the internet and at the same time don’t have a great commercial network then you have a different set of problems, here it’s better to build your business locally while learning techniques of how to market to your local customer . It’s a long route so think about this step.

Do you know your business inside out?

If someone asked you a question in your specific line of business are you able to answer or would it be something that you have no clue about? Are you comfortable to admit you don’t know but are willing get back to them with a valid researched answer? Finally are you really passionate about your industry or are you doing this only for the money?

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Ask your mom or dad to sell your small business idea back to you or to their friends

I know this may sound ridiculous but it’s a fact if your mom or dad can sell your concept back to you or tell their friends what you are actually doing in your business then you pretty much know that most of your clients will get your offering.

Are you financially sound?

This is a must answer question. You need to make sure you can survive and not back on the fact that your venture will be able to back you in a few months. When my partner and I started our venture we worked full time and pumped whatever we made into the business venture. It was a bit painfull and a great learning experience.

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I now tell all my friends to make sure they take time to sort out their finances before they go about setting their own business ventures. Having a full time job and doing a business is possible but you need to create a system where you can plan your exit strategy from your full time job. May be you need to gather all the entrepreneur resources available to access what entrepreneur grants are out there.

Do you have a Role model Entrepreneur?

As a child i loved being a Ninja, I would act like a Ninja, think like one and at times behave like one too All of us have that child sense in us. Some of us have forgotten that side as grownups. I am sure you do have role models too.

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It’s important to have a business mentor or business coach . Watch out for key players that you admire, follow their moves and then make sure you implement some of their techniques for your business.

Are you going to run your small business all by yourself or are you going to involve a business partner or investor?

It’s important to recognize what your role is going to be in your business. You can either go about this the long way by learning how to let go or nut out who you would need to team up with, in the first instance to get your venture off the ground.

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If it’s more operational then maybe you need to find resource you could outsource these tasks to or may be you admit that you have no clue how to market your small business. In this instance it’s wise to look for a partner who lives and breathes marketing and sales. May be you need funding earlier on during your startup venture. These are questions you need to ask yourself way before you setup your business.

If you got a job offer would you decline it?

If tomorrow you were offered a job where the perks were high let’s say $600K or above, along with acomodation and travel benefits or maybe continuous education, etc would you accept the offer or decline it? If you would accept the offer then you need to rethink your strategy. If you would not accept the offer you need to experience what your inner conscience feels. Listen to the voice inside of you.

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Don’t ever do things on the basis of pride, ego and society norms. Do what’s best for you and the rest will follow.

Do you have the ability to raise finance?

Say you have sufficient funds to get you going for about 8 months. Is your business plan rock solid to drive enough momentum by then? If for some reason you cannot cover costs in 8 months time do you have the ability to raise finance to keep you and the business afloat?

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If you can genuinely answer this question you will know whether your business initiative is rock solid.

Do you have the skills of an Entrepreneur?

Ability to take risk and deal with the consequence: Remember as an Entrepreneur you may be initially self employed understand and think what happens to your family if something happens to you? What if you have staff and the contract you were backing on fails? Would have the funds to support your team? What if you make hiring mistakes? Are you willing to go that extra mile and take all these risks?

World Class marketer: If you cannot sell and market your offerings either online or offline then don’t go down this route alone. Take help from a person who knows this field. There is no point being a world class innovator but no way to market that invention. The days where Einstein got his due credit are long gone. Yo need to have a person you trust and at the same time a superb marketer to get your idea to market.

Perseverance and Determination: The road ahead is going to be a tough road. You will have set backs. Look at your life to date and analyse and see if you are the type who looks for sympathy, who cribs and morns about why an incident happened to you, who runs away from responsibilities, who gives up easily. If you have this trait then there is nothing wrong, may be it’s better not to go down this route. Ask yourself why would you want to invite a situation where there is a high risk of set backs?

As an Entrepreneur you need to take life with a pinch of salt and keep moving forward no matter what happens. Entrepreneurs are continuously refining their objectives

Emotional Intelligence: Psychologist Daniel Goleman has written about this topic and to some degree you need to understand Emotional Intelligence so that you understand who needs to work on your team, how to pick a good leader, how to be a good leader and how to go about influencing others. He explains the topic in depth. Do read his books if you get a chance

So Are you really an Entrepreneur? if you believe you are then go for it, plan your strategy for the next 6 months and lay down your short and long term goals.

Here are a collection of some great videos on the entrepreneurship topic

Entrepreneurs can change the world

Donald Trump’s view on Entrepreneurs

The Entrepreneur Rollercoaster

Guy Kawasaki’s view about what entrepreneurs should say

Do What Makes You Happy