DO WHAT YOU KNOW: THE CONS It May Not Excite You
One business colleague recently shared with me his feelings about working in his industry. “Stay out of the corporate world!” he told me. “I would rather mow lawns five days a week if I could earn the same money.” If you’ve been working in the same industry for the past 10 years, you may want out because you’re bored or you want to try something new. Perhaps you crave entrepreneurship because it will give you a chance to do something entirely different from what you’re doing now. Clearly, then, doing what you know may not be the right approach for you. If you’re a staff mental health counselor who’s burned out, for example, starting a private practice may not change things enough. If, however, you love the work or field but not the circumstances (e.g., low pay, having a boss, the work hours, the commute, poor working conditions, or challenging office politics), the reverse may be true.
You May Not End Up Doing What You Love
No matter what your knowledge or skill set, becoming an entrepreneur
may actually take time away from what you ultimately feel passionate about. For example, if you’re a top pastry chef at a large hotel and you love making pastries, starting your own bakery will inevitably take time away from the part you love—the baking. You will need to spend a tremendous percentage of your time marketing, managing people, dealing with finances, doing paperwork, and making sales. In other words, you may end up doing “business” rather than what you love best. On the other hand, if you go into it with this knowledge ahead of time, you have the opportunity to structure the business in a way that supports what you want and love to do; you can temper the issue by hiring people to do the tasks that you like least or that you’re least equipped to perform. If you don’t like sales and accounting, for instance, then hire a commissioned salesperson and outsource an accountant. Many of these issues can be overcome with careful business planning.
One business colleague recently shared with me his feelings about working in his industry. “Stay out of the corporate world!” he told me. “I would rather mow lawns five days a week if I could earn the same money.” If you’ve been working in the same industry for the past 10 years, you may want out because you’re bored or you want to try something new. Perhaps you crave entrepreneurship because it will give you a chance to do something entirely different from what you’re doing now. Clearly, then, doing what you know may not be the right approach for you. If you’re a staff mental health counselor who’s burned out, for example, starting a private practice may not change things enough. If, however, you love the work or field but not the circumstances (e.g., low pay, having a boss, the work hours, the commute, poor working conditions, or challenging office politics), the reverse may be true.
You May Not End Up Doing What You Love
No matter what your knowledge or skill set, becoming an entrepreneur
may actually take time away from what you ultimately feel passionate about. For example, if you’re a top pastry chef at a large hotel and you love making pastries, starting your own bakery will inevitably take time away from the part you love—the baking. You will need to spend a tremendous percentage of your time marketing, managing people, dealing with finances, doing paperwork, and making sales. In other words, you may end up doing “business” rather than what you love best. On the other hand, if you go into it with this knowledge ahead of time, you have the opportunity to structure the business in a way that supports what you want and love to do; you can temper the issue by hiring people to do the tasks that you like least or that you’re least equipped to perform. If you don’t like sales and accounting, for instance, then hire a commissioned salesperson and outsource an accountant. Many of these issues can be overcome with careful business planning.
