The Entrepreneurs' PainThe Entrepreneurs' Pain

www.sajeevnair.com

• To get into an entrepreneurial mode one has to bring in radical change in one's thinking process, especially if one is coming from an employment background. Lot of people get excited about some business idea and jump into it. 

• One of the reasons is that they haven’t come out of the employment mode. Recently I met a successful businessman who was remembering the mistakes he made in the first three years of starting his business. He was holding a high position in one of the leading companies in India

• He decided upon taking voluntary retirement to venture into business. Once he left his job he realized that the people around him used to respect him only because he held a certain position.

• The first few months into running his business was frustrating as he was used to getting things done by others at his previous job. While in his previous company he had never taken a photocopy by himself, never filed anything personally, never ever worried about dealing with statutory authorities like Service Tax and Sales Tax authorities as there were subordinates who did these jobs for him

• He said, “It took sometime for me to understand that in business in the beginning one needs to have a first hand knowledge of everything related to the business. This could be obtained only by doing things personally.”

• Hence one of the qualities required for an entrepreneur is the willingness to do any task to achieve the desired goal. For this one needs to have lot of flexibility. Try to have a first hand experience of all the activities connected with your business. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to soil your hands

• . This is the reason why most of the businesses collapse when the second generation takes charge. The first hand knowledge and experience one gets while setting up a new business, is not easy to gain for a second generation entrepreneur. Hence for a second generation or third generation entrepreneur to become successful, they need to learn and do the most basic level tasks.

• A lot of employees decide to start a business of their own, mainly to avoid the pressure at the work place. No one likes to work under some one else. But if you are in a job you have no other option, but to work under someone else.

• . When you start your own business you don’t have to work under the pressure of a boss. You are your own boss. It looks very fascinating, isn’t it? But there is a flip side to it. As there is no boss there is no one to drive you, there is no one else to set goals and put targets for you, there is no one else to monitor your work, there is no one else to discipline you. Hence the chances of failure are very high.

• That is why not many people become successful in business. Only if you can drive yourself, you can set goals for yourself and strive to achieve them, only if you have self-discipline then only you could become successful in any business.

• When I decided to quit my job and pursue with my business full time, one of my senior business leaders gave me an advice, which I think was a million dollar advice. He told me that before I resign from the job, at least set one room in my house as an office and have a regular reporting system like that of an office.

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