I think many of us can list the reasons why we would want to start our own business and leave a job where we work for someone else. The idea of working for yourself offers a different kind of freedom and it's a passion that drives so many of us to become entrepreneurs. But it is an idea that is full of risk, made especially concerning if you're in a good job currently. So if that is the case why would you leave a successful business you own to start a new one?
I ask myself this question, because I recently sold a great business that I grew from the ground up. It was a franchise, but even with that there are no guarantees of success, and many owners did not succeed. But I did. I had a passion for my business and I liked my employees and clients. However, as an entrepreneur, I got restless and wanted to share my success and the lessons that I had learned with others. With many years of marketing experience, both in the corporate and small business world, I knew I could help others be successful by implementing solid marketing strategies. With this idea in mind I launched Marketing Eye Dallas as a licensee of the greater international Marketing Eye firm.
With both the knowledge of being successful and starting from the ground up again, I realize there are some things that never change.
I ask myself this question, because I recently sold a great business that I grew from the ground up. It was a franchise, but even with that there are no guarantees of success, and many owners did not succeed. But I did. I had a passion for my business and I liked my employees and clients. However, as an entrepreneur, I got restless and wanted to share my success and the lessons that I had learned with others. With many years of marketing experience, both in the corporate and small business world, I knew I could help others be successful by implementing solid marketing strategies. With this idea in mind I launched Marketing Eye Dallas as a licensee of the greater international Marketing Eye firm.
With both the knowledge of being successful and starting from the ground up again, I realize there are some things that never change.
They are:
· Growing a business from startup to small business size is especially hard if you haven't done it before and learned the lessons that you need to learn. You will find people who do this over and over again seem to get better every single time. Nevertheless, it is still hard to start over.
· When you are growing a business it's impossible for one person to have all the right skills; the bookkeeper, the CEO, the marketer, the finance person, logistics and so on. Then be good at understanding your product or service with the ability to sell it. Who teaches you this stuff? In my experience, too often the teachers of courses have never actually sat in your shoes and while they give you a good base, it never is enough.
· Finance is always a killer. Managing cash flow and the costs to start a business and continue to grow it is crucial to your business, particularly in the early days.
· While we want to celebrate failure as a learning experience, I don't care who you are, but I am sure you are a little like me and in the back of your mind you are afraid of failure or letting others down. Just because you have had success in the past, it does not guarantee success in the future.
· Anxiety over how people react to you, your success, or your position in the world. It's human to feel uncomfortable about the fact that there will be naysayers who try to knock you down for no reason at all, or some people may quite simply not understand you. It is odd how anxiety can come from both great success and lack of it.
Even with the ups and downs that come from being an entrepreneur, I would not change my career and lifestyle. Growing, striving, driving and helping others is what fuels me. My true goal is to never go back to the cubical life. I love having the freedom to help others, grow my business and help others grow theirs.
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