When to Start Your Own Business? You Should Read This

The question, "when do I start my business? " has always lingered in the  minds of millions of people. When it comes to this question people come up with different designs (or swags) of excuses like no capital, no experience, timidity, no customers, government policies, poor power supply etc. And yet, amidst the challenges faced in entrepreneurship so many have succeeded.

Is the absence of challenges a sign from God that you can start?

Is the availability of capital capable to start your business?

Is having a huge market to tap into a sign as well?

“When do I start? Today, Tomorrow, When?  is the big question.

My recommendation comes from the success story of others as well as my own personal tough experience.

I will simply put, start your business when you are not ready, yes! I said so! - when you have little or no capital. Okay,  i know some people aren't gonna be happy :( about this, even, some experts will argue.

But for a minute, think about this questions: Was it easy when your mum gave birth to you? Was it easy getting into that good relationship? Will gold have higher value without passing through fire? Will your tea-bag make any sense if you don't dip it into hot water?  Did you know how to drive before you dared to learn touching the steering?

If  your answer to this questions are 'yes', then am speechless.

Entrepreneurship, to me, is not a description or a title, it’s a journey (an hybrid of fun and rough roads). The earlier you start the better. Sure, there will be lots of mistakes initially. Don’t worry, even Bill Gates still makes mistakes - its normal.  In the learning curve, its your previous process that shapes you. You learn by doing, not just reading or studying business lessons. By doing!

Studentship is a fantastic time to start a business. In fact, this is my favorite! School is a time to learn to live on your own, have a ton of fun, and even, perhaps, learn a little something.  Jessica Stillman in her article shares good insight on this.

 

I recommend starting out as early as possible because it takes quality time to build a great deal of a business!

Why should you do this?

- You will be motivated and disciplined early enough to learn from your mistakes as most of them will become costly later on.

- You will have less (or nothing) to loose. Because you are small.

- Challenges are powerful human developers; they are like the fire gold needs to pass through in order to become highly valuable.  Going through the challenges will teach you best how to do things. So many people go to business schools and come out with distinction, but yet fail woefully at business. Why? Experience is a powerful teacher.

- You are now in control of your time. (No arrogant boss to yell at you). You will learn early overtime how best to make good use of your time. Have time for friends, families, and loved ones. Awesome!

- It makes you value your money well. Have you seen how lavishly scammers spend their money, or perhaps, how most inherited businesses are mismanaged? people learn their money-lessons when they use it! You think am kidding? Ask your colleagues, or check out most people's new year resolution.

When I started Orangeville Systems, still in its early age, it was easy freelancing (but less productive) when I did everything alone, but challenging when I decided it should be a company, the team grew, I had to train others, motivate, coordinate etc. (whew!)

But most of our growth came from realizing that things were not as they seemed from outside (mostly in the business plan) – and that’s one reason I recommend starting out early. Don’t wait for the perfect time because it will never come.

kudos to my friends who are starting out, they are doing a great job. I also advice that they(mostly Nigerian Techies) rely less on VCs. Get on the field first and learn before entering in some deep mess with VCs. C'mon! its Nigeria not the US!

If you start early (like me :D ) you will soon, become an expert adviser. Not those consultants with little knowledge base of the internals of your own (unique)company.

Start soonest so you can be a positive impact to your society. Stop those excuses and start growing!

By the way, you should read this : How to Survive Your First Year As An Entrepreneur

(Create your) Good luck!