Before You Commit to Being an Entrepreneur, Stop and Think

Published by Ryan Paugh on February 18th, 2008 in Entrepreneurship | 17 Comments

The only thing I knew about entrepreneurship when I joined Brazen Careerist was that it was going to be risky, more than I could have ever imagined during my time in Corporate America.

In hindsight, I was probably ill-prepared to make such a big commitment. Would I have made the same decision if I knew about the pressures I deal with today? Sure, but I'd certainly plan better.

Preparation is key for any soon-to-be entrepreneur. Timing can be everything, and the people you work with can make you or break you. Not to mention, it's a commitment that's not easy to walk away from.

Find Your Strengths (via StrengthsFinder 2.0)

Ryan Healy, Penelope and I are all very different. Unfortunately, we didn't truly discover this until after we all got together in Madison. It would've been nice to know more beforehand.

Fortunately, our strengths ended up lying in very unique areas. If they didn't, we might have ended up stepping all over each other.

Business partners who are too common end up in competition. Do a strength assessment with your potential team to determine if the relationship can really blossom into something great. I recommend using StrenghthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath. The book took me 45 minutes to read (I'm a really slow reader) and the online materials are especially practical for someone who is online for a significant piece of the day.

Make sure your finances are in order

In a perfect world, money wouldn't matter. But it does. Even our career decisions are affected by the clutches of personal finance.

Money was the first thing that came to mind when I thought about entrepreneurship. I had been working for less than a year, had a full-year lease on my house and had a heap of other payments to deal with on top of that. How could I give up a steady paycheck with all of these responsibilities?

After taking a look at my finances I decided that I could manage my bills on the money I saved, barely. Speaking of, you have to be willing to barely get by to endure the life of an entrepreneur. You'll always have just enough to survive and you'll never stop worrying about when the money will run out.

Ask a lot of questions, share your concerns, don't be afraid to annoy

Don't be embarrassed to ask questions about everything, it's expected of you. In retrospect, I wish I had asked more. And I asked questions for a solid week.

Still, after committing to Brazen Careerist, the questions didn't stop pouring in for at least another month. The sheer anxiety of the situation kept me up at night.

I must've been an enormous pain in the ass, but I didn't care. I was committing to a huge lifestyle change that wasn't going to be easy. I had to be sure that my big questions got answered before I packed up the moving van and hauled it cross-country to Wisconsin.

Ultimately, asking questions will make your business a lot stronger. When everything is out on the table you understand where each other are coming from and know where concerns lie.

Make sure you're doing what you really want to do

Everybody says that they want to be an entrepreneur, but most people are just kidding themselves.

Most entry-level corporate jobs are going to suck. And to top that, the transition from college to corporate is damn near depressing. So a lot of people tell themselves that their problems are with corporate life when they are really about the stage of life they are in: the transition into adulthood.

Most people can get through this period and have a fine life in the corporate world. So it's important to know how to make these distinctions.

Entrepreneurship is a very stressful endeavor. Dealing with your transition into adulthood is not going to get any better because you're an entrepreneur. It's probably going to make things more difficult. Think about it.