…Making Your Life Count with Dr Humphrey Mutiti
SOME people are destined to be entrepreneurs. From the time they get through school, or maybe even before that, they’re hungry to start a business and lead it to success, and they’ll stop at nothing to make that dream a reality.
If you’re going to be successful as an entrepreneur, you will have to be prepared for the risks and uncertainties that come with it.
To be an entrepreneur is more than being a business owner; it’s a philosophy and a lifestyle. The alley to entrepreneurship is often a treacherous one filled with stunning detours, roadblocks and dead ends.
There are lots of sleepless nights, plans that don’t work out, funding that doesn’t come through and consumers that never materialize. It can be so problematic to launch a business that it may make you wonder why anyone willingly sets out on such an alley.
Despite all of these tragedies, every year, thousands of entrepreneurs embark on this journey determined to bring their vision to fruition and fill a need they see in society.
An entrepreneur identifies a need that no existing businesses address and specifies a solution for that need. An entrepreneur is a solution or a problem solver. Entrepreneurial activity encompasses developing and launching new businesses and marketing them, often with the end goal of selling the business to turn a profit.
Let me end with the following five risks that every entrepreneur must take, from ideation to ongoing development:
1. Abandoning the regular salary.
Before you venture into the world of business ownership, you may first have to say goodbye to your existing job, and in some cases, your career. There’s no guarantee of your income, especially in the first few months and years of your company’s existence.
2. Dipping into your savings.
Though some entrepreneurs can start their ventures relying on solely external funding like Government grants and loans, many times entrepreneurs have to dive into their savings or bank accounts to get things done.
3. Sometimes you will lose.
Some months you may fail to make a profit, this should not put you off.
4. Banking on a key employee.
When you start a business, you won’t have a full team of employees working for you. Instead, you will perhaps have one person working with you. You will need to have absolute trust in his/her ability to get the job done.
5. Donating your personal time (health).
Entrepreneurship takes a toll on the average person. You will spend countless hours doing work to make your company successful, and your remaining hours worrying about what you have or have not done thus far. You will relinquish sleep, you will miss out on personal time, and you will experience much more stress than usual.
In Conclusion, the rewards of entrepreneurship often outweigh these personal risks, but you have to be equipped to live this type of lifestyle. Risks should not steer you away from pursuing entrepreneurship. Rather, see them for what they are: essential obstacles on a greater path. There is no way to avoid the risks you will face as an entrepreneur, but by recognizing them, you can prepare for and mitigate them.
The author, Dr. Humphrey Mutiti is a Pastor, conference speaker, instructor, and lecturer at Great Commission Theological Institute, an author of several books, has a Ph.D. Doctorate in Theology, a Ph.D. Doctorate in Ministry and a student in the school of law.
