Do you have what it takes to become an entrepreneur? Is having savvy, guts and spirit part of your personal cosmetics inside of you, and not your makeup bag? Then you may have the the foundation called entrepreneurial instinct, which is the desire to have your own business. I have heard it called killer instinct - but we really don’t want to kill anyone. Just maim the competition.

OK - knock them out of the game…

It takes a whole lot of serious willpower and dedication, and being completely devoted to your goal. Devotion to take on totally the responsibility for researching where your services or products would be used over having a love for your intended venture. When starting a business from scratch you better make dam certain it is something you want to do and stick with for richer and poorer - until death us do part. It is like a marriage and it takes work and nurturing to flourish, and maintenance to survive and prosper.

Hands On Experience Outweighs Any Degree

You certainly don’t have to have a business degree to start doing your thing. The best credentials is your hands on experience. As you know there have been many self-educated successful entrepreneurs in todays society. Your best resource is you. Your experience in learning everything from the bottom up in the field; you have stored it inside your head. This is more important then any scholastic achievements, and this only goes hand in hand with your desire to strike out on your own. You no longer want a boss, you want to be the boss.

Any Dangers? Find Them Out Before You Start

You should do some marketing research first find out if there is a potential market for your business, who’s the competition, the demand for your service or product. You have to use self discipline here and remain objective. Being too enthusiastic at this time will likely make you overlook an obvious factor. After all, when you are in love with the idea of your own business, the blinders seem to go up . So don’t leave any stone unturned while you are finding these facts out.

And What About The Money?

It is always a gamble, but once you have the facts and checked them twice you are ready to get going. You will need some starter’s money of your own plus money to maintain a positive cash flow during the first year. You can always look for investors.

Once you get past the first year, you can predict your cash requirements for the oncoming year. Don’t go risking all your net worth at the beginning. Let’s be smart about this: lots of businesses can be started with very little money investment and on a part time basis. This is good because if you have kids, you don’t need extra capital to hire a babysitter. Maybe other employees though.

So going solo is practical less money is needed. OK ! But better yet you will learn everything first hand.You have to remember you are the boss,salesperson,laborer, accounts receivable and accounts payable and owner of this baby so this experience you gain by doing it yourself will improve your own skills to hire qualified people later on to delegate your duties to after your business has grown and you can have some much needed time off.

Commit Yourself And Stick To It

I have said earlier that starting your own business is like a marriage. You are committed to giving your blood, sweat and tears to have it succeed. Once you are established, it’s actually comparable to child rearing - but it’s nothing like the real thing baby! Truth is you definitely have to divide your time up, with family taking precedence over work.

You must never get your priorities mixed up by spending too much time working and neglecting your loved ones. Often you don’t realize that the sacrifices you have made are too far over the top until it is too late. You find yourself strapped for money and social time. Remember to always put money aside for living and recreation.

These are just some of the pitfalls of becoming an entrepreneur. It’s important to always look at both sides of every venture, even with entrepreneurial instinct flowing through your veins. Let me rephrase that: especially when you have entrepreneurial instincts!

Photo above by Pedro Simões