Being a Small Business Entrepreneur: Are You Up for the Challenge?

Regardless how lucrative it may sound, starting a business is definitely not a walk in the park. It takes a lot of meticulous planning, emotional and financial preparation, and a full commitment to devote as much of your time and effort to eventually realize your goals. The U.S. Small Business Administration reports that only half of new businesses survive five years after conceptualization, while only 35% stay afloat after ten years or more.

The Gallup Small Business Index/Wells Fargo surveyed owners of small businesses on how they fared in their journey toward small business entrepreneurship, and here are their opinions and advice for those who are aspiring to get into small business entrepreneurship.

• One of the first few concrete goals that every new business owner must accomplish is creating a solid business plan. As a foundation of your endeavor, your business plan should be the product of a good research about your market, the industry, your clients, your competitors, and every important aspect of the business.

• It’s no surprise that one of the biggest challenges of starting a business is the need to come up with the initial investment, which is almost always likely to be a large sum of money. The survey showed that the most popular source of funds used when opening businesses come from personal savings. Other sources include loans and credits and some help from families and friends.
• If there’s a business plan, it follows that you also need to come up with a financial plan that will help you look clearly and examine your startup costs.  Get help from a professional financial advisor on reviewing your financial documents to ensure that you are really financially capable with this undertaking and get it through for the first few years.

• If you’re looking at getting a credit or a loan, take the time to really understand what your business has to come up with and what it needs to do to qualify and be in a safe position for a secured financing plan.
• While many small business owners have the tendency to underestimate the time and effort that they need to commit to launch a new business, they should be made aware of how amazingly rewarding it is to own a small business. It is therefore critical for one to first identify his reasons for starting the businesses and to determine the opportunities it can bring.

• Know that starting a business does not guarantee immediate profit, so it is very important to make sure that one has the right reserved resources to cover the initial resources. New business owners are generally advised to be able to come up with enough working capital to cover all costs and expenses for at least a year.

Obviously, starting a small business can be a daunting task with the many challenges one has to face, but it’s a well-known fact that it could be equally rewarding in the long run. So before taking those first steps, make sure to have the right plans on hand. Give it all the time and effort you can, and you’re sure to find reap your own rewards as well.


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