Do you want to be a business owner?

Over time many people spoken or mentioned to me about wanting to start a business. Consider this – less than 1% of the people in this country own business and am not speaking of CEOs of multi billion companies with the exception of Dell, Microsoft, Sun, Gateway, Cisco, Etc.

When you start a business the first thing you have to except is very often those around you will think you are just flat out crazy – yes, I said crazy. Why – because people are conformist by nature and the want the people around them to be just like them – this is why a recently divorced person will be shunned by their married friends because somehow they are now different and instead of embracing that difference people are repulsed by it. As a business owners one o f the things you must be able to do effectively is embrace the people different from you in both attitude, aptitude and appearance. Faith not fear should be the benchmark of why you do what you do. Accept often you will be walking your path alone and worst yet ridiculed not because you are wrong but because people cannot see what you see so clearly in your head.

Let me explain the difference between an entrepreneur and an employee in a nutshell.

• Employee – someone who buys into someone else’s vision of their life and sets their expectations and goals based on that other person’s vision
• Entrepreneur – someone who has a vision of who and what they want to be and accomplish and goes about working to create the situations which will bring that vision into reality.

A few question – consider carefully:

• What skill or ability do you have that is marketable?
• Are you able to manage yourself?
• Are you self motivated?
• Are you solution oriented?
• Are you a person of integrity?
• Are you willing to correct yourself and your behavior (what characteristics do you have which are self defeating)?
• Are you humble enough to surround yourself with people to offset your shortcomings?
• Are you self aware of what your shortcomings are?
• Are you able to trust your decision making processes?
• Are you a life long student willing to forever learn, grow and change?
• Are you an ethical person (what are the rules and structure you will never violate)?
• Are you willing to take responsibility for the lives of others?

Here is a tool that you may find helpful - http://www.entrepreneurscan.co.uk/index.xhtml