THE CHALLENGES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
There are many rewards for being a business owner. You
have the ability to define your own destiny and your fate is largely in your
own hands.
If you make the right choices, develop good plans and execute well on your plans then you can reasonably expect to do well financially.
If you make the right choices, develop good plans and execute well on your plans then you can reasonably expect to do well financially.
There are many people who talk about running their own
business and they a subset of those who go on to actually take the risk...
because that is exactly what it is. There are a ton of statistics around the
number of companies that go bankrupt in their early years in business... around
80% of new companies go bankrupt... and, depending on who you believe, this
happens in either the first year, the first three years or the first five
years. Best case you have a 20% of surviving as a new business.
Assuming that your business is one of those that
survives, it is a fair bet your survival is the result of hard work, good
strategy, good people, good execution and some luck!
So now you have a "going concern", a
business that generates profits that can be used to fuel growth and compete
with the best. Of course we live in an ever changing world and you have to hope
that …
(1) Your company is not operating in the equivalent of
the "buggy whip" sector
(2) Your competition is not reinventing your market
space before you can
(3) You can attract and retain talented people
(4) You can attract and retain good clients
(5) You can remain relevant
(6) The economy will not tank to the point where you
can't hang on
(7) A cheap offshore solution doesn't become available
(look at SW Ontario's manufacturing base)
(8) That governments do not introduce legislation that
will make your business model unaffordable.
On a day to day basis you are responsible for the
operation of your company, its conformance to the many laws of the land,
Federal, provincial and even municipal; you are responsible for the actions of
your people; you run the risk of legal action for any number of events that
could happen among your staff, your offices or your clients.
Now you are a "pillar of the community", so
you volunteer (happily) to help with charities, donate funds and time help those
less fortunate than you. Of course in doing so you self-identify as the person
to approach for every charity "out there", and feel about 3 inches
tall every time you have to say no. The time commitment grows and you soon find
yourself with another full time job, in addition to the one running your
company.
Because you own the company you are expected to
"do whatever it takes" for the company. You represent the company on
the industry association, you attend breakfast functions, luncheon meetings and
dinners. You give speeches (which require preparation), lobby politicians
(which requires time and preparation), jump on airplanes at the drop of a hat
and learn just how little sleep you can survive on. One entrepreneur I knew
referred to the "raccoon look" that he related to entrepreneurs and I
relate to business owners... that dark eyed, haunted look of the Type A
personality on no sleep!
You spend the years trying to set aside some money for
that time when you choose to retire and if a market meltdown doesn't totally
destroy it, or a company crisis cause you to reinvest it, then likely you will
end up with your own self funded retirement fund. If when that time comes you
still have a "going concern" then you may get the opportunity to
actually sell your company. At which point you get to commit to company
performance for two or three years following the sale, while you work for
someone else and hope they don't make stupid decisions that kills your nestegg!
Welcome to the life of a business owner ... I love it!
Does that make me a masochist?
Kevin Dee
CEO of Eagle,
one of Canada's largest professional staffing companies.
No comments: