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The Truth About Starting a Business

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The Truth About Starting a Business

“What Does It Mean to Do What You Truly Want to Do?”

FT Press,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Starting a new business isn’t easy, but you can bolster your chances of success with smart planning and creativity.

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7

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Recommendation

Starting a business is a serious undertaking. You need an inexhaustible supply of enthusiasm, energy, resilience and good fortune – and plenty of funding doesn’t hurt either. getAbstract finds that management professor Bruce Barringer cites every salient detail – however briefly – in this comprehensive, condensed look at entrepreneurship. In his list of 53 “truths” about getting a business underway, he doesn’t try to discourage you from fulfilling your dreams, but he asks you to be deeply introspective about your motives and abilities. Owning a business can be fraught with pitfalls, and any lack of commitment will greatly diminish your chances. Despite entrepreneurship’s numerous challenges and frustrations, Barringer contends that it offers tremendous potential rewards, and he tells you how to pursue them.

Summary

Taking the Plunge

Most people would like to make more money and have greater control of their work lives, but those two enticing goals aren’t the primary reasons entrepreneurs start their own businesses. Their main motives are to fulfill their destinies and to execute their ideas. Many start-up owners would rather risk everything than go through life haunted by nagging regrets and unfulfilled hopes or ambitions. They can’t let go of their dreams, though life may have steered them in unexpected directions. They want to manage their own enterprises and execute their own unique concepts. Fervent enthusiasm gives new business owners the motivation and energy to push forward against the odds.

Starting a business requires more than determination. You need to find a product or service that truly engages you and plays to your strengths. If you hate to get dirty, pursuing a janitorial franchise probably isn’t wise. Conversely, someone who loves food and is comfortable in the kitchen may be ideally suited to opening a restaurant. The idea of starting a business may be intoxicating, but ignoring reality is a critical mistake. Don’t hand in your resignation at the office until...

About the Author

Bruce Barringer, a professor of management at the University of Central Florida, wrote Preparing Effective Business Plans, and is the co-author of Entrepreneurship and What’s Stopping You?

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