In recent interviews, I get asked often when is the best time to start? When should I take the plunge and try to become an entrepreneur? The answer to that question is always the same…YESTERDAY!
Starting a business isn’t difficult, its actually fairly easy. You get a great idea, you are excited and energetic, so you work on the basics you need which are typically your website, social media, logos, marketing, etc… and then you launch. Its fairly easy these days to even get your first few clients as everyone is connected to everything thanks to the idea of social sharing. So then you might ask “Why would everyone say that starting a business can be difficult?” They say that because they are saying “Starting a business and making sure it succeeds is difficult”. So which is it? Is it hard or easy?
Well, its extremely easy to start but not so easy to succeed. That is in part not related to how great your idea is, or how well priced your product is but rather based upon your tolerance for failure and your ability to persevere. While your idea matters, and your marketing has importance; it is very far from the importance you hold for your business. Your belief, conditioning, and ability to see things through to the end no matter how good or bad things get, holds a lot more importance.
So how can you make sure it is the right time for you to start a business?
Well the answer is yesterday because you are very likely to fail at your very first attempts and also very likely to gain the experience you need to keep improving until you eventually hit a home run with the right business which will have come from your experience, and past failures. That said, the business you should have started yesterday was the experience you missed on today.
Think about it this way. You don’t play basketball for the first time with the expectation that you will win the playoffs. Playing equals practice and if you become good enough, you might make money doing it. Its no different here!
Business is like sports. Practice makes perfect.
