Why Did I Start my Business?
by SmartSamantha
Camellia smiled as she sipped her caramel macchiato espresso and reflected on that day five years ago when she decided to start her own business. After fifteen years of working at a mid-sized marketing company she had been released due to a company downsizing. Using her severance money and a home equity loan, she started her own independent advertising agency. She vividly recalled her two main reasons for starting her own business: (1) to make a lot of money, and (2) to be her own boss.
Can you – or did you at one time – relate to Camellia? Many non-entrepreneurs do. In a recent survey of non-entrepreneurs, 81 percent said that they would like to start/run their own business instead of working for someone else. Can you – or did you at one time – relate to Camellia’s reasons for wanting to start her own business? If so, you have a lot of company. In this same survey, the three top reasons given for wanting to start/run a business were:
- To be my own boss and not have to work for or answer to someone else (36%)
- Freedom to do the things I want to do, like spend more time with friends and family, travel, etc. (28%)
- To make a lot of money (24%)
Although these are compelling notions, statistics show that if they are the main reasons for starting your own business, your business will most likely fail. According to the Small Business Administration, the failure rate among new small businesses is over 50 percent, with the vast majority of these occurring within three years of startup. For the majority of all new small businesses that fail, items 1, 2 or 3 above were given as the main reason for the entrepreneur starting the business. Though compelling, these are not sustaining reasons for starting a small business.
Indeed, Camellia ran out of money and her business failed in less than a year. A failed business can produce painful memories but it can also teach valuable lessons. Through failure, Camellia learned that running a small business is hard work and the monetary rewards seldom match the time and effort. And she learned that small business owners are not really their own bosses; in fact they are often beholden to their clients, suppliers, banker, employees and the IRS.
Building on these lessons, Camellia started a successful second business four years ago. She finally found a marketplace for her passion. She continues to grow as a business owner and to appreciate the challenges, the successes, and the failures that continue to come her way. She particularly enjoys the few moments like this, when she has enough free time to sit and reflect on how much she has learned and how far she has come as she sips her favorite drink, a caramel macchiato espresso.
To be successful, a business must meet some need in the marketplace and the business owner must truly believe that what she is doing is in some way, shape or form, valuable to society. She must derive worth from more than just making a lot of money, being her own boss or having freedom and flexibility.
Good reasons, which are both compelling and sustaining, for starting a business include:
- A fervor or love for what you are doing.
- A strong belief that your product or service fulfills a need in the marketplace.
- A desire or passion to turn your dreams into realities.
- An acceptance of responsibility.
How can you find a marketplace for your passion? We hope to help you answer these questions in the weeks ahead. Keep tuning in…and keep learning! And remember what Henry Ford said, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
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