Braving Your Way through the First Year of Entrepreneurship

Ever heard parents of newborns complaining about how life has suddenly become tough. They, all of a sudden, have so much responsibility that they seem hazed.

Entrepreneurs go through a similar phase when they start a business, especially if it is their first business.

According to a report by SBA, three of every ten startups expire within the first two years. This clearly shows that most people, despite the qualification they have, fail to sustain in the business world. This can either be because they did not plan well, or it might be because the tough life of an entrepreneur was too much for them.

LEARN FROM A PARENT:

Most parent entrepreneurs would tell you that there’s very little difference between running your own startup and taking care of a newborn baby.  Startups require wholehearted attention; they would require you to get up at 3 a.m., tire you, and cause you to fear failure.

However, your startup is your baby, you love it the way a father loves his son. Despite all the hard work and late night thinking, for an entrepreneur simply owning a business is a feat in itself. All you have to do is to take care of it, nurture it, and feed it. And if you manage to pull it off successfully, it will be the most beautiful thing ever happened.

SPEND WISELY:

One mistake that entrepreneurs make is that the minute they start earning some money, they spend it. They would hire new employees, buy new equipment, and spend money on things that could have been avoided. This form of spending often leads entrepreneurs to lack of investment and thus bankruptcy, since the minute you took a loan to start your business, you are in debt.

Entrepreneurs should rather do most of the work themselves, and hire only when they either don’t know how a particular task is done, or when they workload is too much for one man to handle.

BE PRUDENT:

One thing that could be said with guarantee is that your business would be plagued with problems the minute you launch it. The best you can do is to think about everything that could go wrong, and plan on how you will solve these problems.

KNOW YOUR NUMBERS:

One thing that entrepreneurs find most difficult is the numbers. Not everyone who starts a business knows accounting. Entrepreneurs should take time to study how accounts are made, and how much money they have in their bank accounts. This will help them analyze their performance.

One of the things that we hear first time entrepreneurs complaining about is related to accounts. They don’t know the difference between receivables and payables or, they don’t how to tally the bank reconciliation statement. Their petty problems with accounting cause them to lag behind and not be able to analyze their business.

ASK FOR FEEDBACK:

Feedback is most important when running a business. A business can only survive if the entrepreneur knows where his business stands. Your customers are the biggest indicator of your success. They will tell you whether they want to buy what you are planning to sell, or not. Also ask them whether they have any issues regarding your business.

GET SOME SLEEP:

Last, but not least, you need to sleep to be creative and to manage your emotions and make good decisions. Every startup founder needs sleep, it’s just a myth that startup founders don’t sleep. Startup founders sleep, though often at odd hours, it keeps them fresh and active.