Written by Kodie Axelsen
What does it take to be an entrepreneur?
I think first off it takes guts and determination. That big leap into being self-sufficient can be extremely daunting.
Has anyone seen the memes that say I left my 9-5 to work 24/7 for myself? Well they weren’t wrong! The second you take that almighty leap the buck stops with you! Every decision that is made, every mistake that is made, all you! It isn’t for the faint hearted. Building your own business is extremely hard work and is very much life consuming if you are giving it a red hot go. But if you never try, you’ll never know.
Now, you can boot strap and fund your own start up or you can access funding from a multitude of lenders.
Either way I suggest you write a business plan and nut out a cashflow forecast. From experience, people starting a business think this is excessive and ‘hard work’ but I cannot stress enough how much this opens your eyes to what building blocks you require to get your biz off the ground. It will also help you foresee any issues you may run into. As they say, cashflow can be the biggest issue in your first few years of business. I remember running cashflow forecast’s for every possible scenario before going into business. Once I had it all in my head and I knew I could get through any potential hurdle it gave me the confidence to go all in.
There are so many more small businesses popping up and with the recent government mandates I believe we will start to see a lot more people becoming self-sufficient.
All it takes is the confidence to back yourself and know that you have the capability to make it happen and the rest will flow. Business is hard and the lessons are never short of smacking you in the face at any given moment. It’s a huge step to take. At times you’ll find yourself in the deep end and at others wadding in the shallows.
Then you will have these moments where you will look back and realise how far you have come. I guarantee, these moments make that blood, sweat and tears all the more worth it. When you get to the point where you have the time and the money to give back, that’s when you get that epic feeling in your bones that you have made it.
Get your ideas pumping and your creative juices flowing and ask questions.
Go to business owners, go to the people in the trenches and ask them how they did it.
Everyone has their own unique set of circumstances and it just may be that you are one conversation away from realise you can do it too.
This lights me up because I get asked these same questions by people. When they realise that they can do it too you can literally see their brains ticking over and that “ahh hah” moment where they’ve just come to that realisation that they can do it. And from there the journey begins…