I’ve read an article by Somjit Likitsataporn in the Bangkok Post about the start-up difficulties.
I have to agree with most of the point raised:
- (entrepreneurs) “have unrealistic dreams of how they will develop and run their enterprises. They foresee employees running around following their orders, and lots of customers in the store.” Yep. I do however think that without the insanity and unrealistic dreams, most of the businesses would never start. Fame and fortune are the things that drive entrepreneurs around the World. They do what I called “day dreaming”.
- “Too much confidence can ruin the new” (entrepreneur). Very true, but statistically speaking, only bold entrepreneurs make it big. Entrepreneurs have to wear 47 hats to run a business as Bob Walsh says – they have to have confidence in wearing at least some of the hats.
- “People tend to give up even before they should“. True again, and no comments on that.
- “Break-ups among business partners” Sadly enough, I experienced that on my own. I simply got lucky enough to find a way to keep it going without my original partners, but I suppose in most of the cases it means death for a business.
This article is just one more example that Entrepreneurship happens all around the World and even if it has to respond a different set of business environment variables it has first to find answers to generic challenges before creating local values.
There are so many valuable thoughts, ideas and examples in the article, so here it is if you want to read it all: People who seek the satisfaction of running their own businesses need to do some hard-headed planning to make the dream come true
I can only assume we are not strictly speaking about internet entrepreneurs?
I agree with your comments – as well as your closing sentence and would like to add another very important condition.
If one is choosing start their own business, they should have at least 5 years of overhead in the bank as most businesses fail in the first 5 years due to lack of funding. This also, in my opinion, applies to internet businesses though the overhead is much less than the typical retail store.
Just imagine the peace of mind one would have if they didn’t have to worry every single minute about the rent, the employee wages, the taxes, the inventory, the utilities, etc.
Finally, use your credit cards judiciously. One might like to check out the SBA to get if they qualify for a loan.