The route to Entrepreneurship

Are you an enthusiastic individual who believes you can do more than what your job requires? Do you believe you are a top talent? Are you fed up with organizations preaching about work values but not practicing any? Feel you need a chance to prove yourself? .. Read this article carefully ..

In 2015, a new type of business has been introduced to the world, and that was “Access Economy”, which mainly refers to doing business and trading based on access rather than ownership (so rent a business rather than own it … an Uber-like term). Later through the years, this business type turned from being a new concept to being a huge part of the economy where it was named the “Gig Economy”. Forbes estimates the size of Gig workers to be 34% and expects them to grow to 43% by 2020.

What does this mean for you?

If you believe you don’t want to face business hypocrisy again .. If you believe you need to live a better life-centric time … If you believe you need to do what you love … Time to kick-off your new business .. Here are some helpful steps to guide you through ..

1. Set your “Love-To-Do” list

Always start with your passion. List the top 5 things you would love to do every day.. even if it is sports, driving, talking to people … anything and everything you love to do .. that could be the start of a whole new business that can turn huge in the future.

2. Turn passion to business

Think of how you can turn this passion to a business idea .. for example: you love sports, think of being a personal trainer, or if you have the funds, think of having your own sports school for kids / talents / business people .. think of whom you want to target..

You love teaching? think of personal tuition, business consultancy, training ..

You love speed cars? think of modifying cars, teaching people skills, writing your blog about cars, car reviews. trading in cars ..

Thousands of ideas exist, just list your best 5, according to your passion and budget.

3. List your first 100 prospective clients

Do your best to make a 100 names list. It is expected to start with around 5-10% of your list.. The majority of your list might be not ready for the business yet .. it is important to create the list, speak to your prospective clients and ask them about their expectations from your business idea.

4. Focus on construction and positivity

You will most likely receive more negative comments than positive .. The world is full of self-scared people around you .. Be prepared for statements like “Why did you quit your job?” “How will you cover your expenses?” “This idea won’t work” …etc

Focus instead on constructing your idea .. turn the negative comments into constructive questions, like “How do I make it?” “How will I manage my budget to afford paying my bills?” “How do I avoid the pitfalls of other people who started the same project?” ..etc

Every single business in the world started with an entrepreneur behind it .. Almost all car manufacturers were family owned businesses .. The largest hotels in the world started with self-owned places .. The largest food chains in the world started with individuals who believed in their idea .. Fill your brain with all the good stories of success .. read them and see your success next to them ..

5. Prepare for a rough ride

Your first year is going to be a really rough ride (most probably). Prepare yourself to cover your expenses for almost a year at least, before you start making money. Prepare yourself for a lot of unexpected reactions and events (like administrative burden, customer feedback, urgent requests ..etc).. All of this should be installed in your mindset .. remember, you are starting a very exciting journey of creating your own legacy, and exciting journeys need some fear-factors to be exciting .. Would you enjoy surfing without high waves? Would you enjoy a roller-coaster without speed and steep curves? .. Prepare your mind for that so that when things happen unexpectedly, you are able to focus and act positively.

6. Learn from the past, and keep very open ears as you go

According to the Entrepreneur Middle East, the top 3 leadership mistakes that led to entrepreneur projects fail were lack of focus, lack of passion and not listening enough. As for the top 3 reasons of why entrepreneur projects did not do well, those were lack of market need, lack of necessary cash and lack of the right people behind the projects.

The above reasons are very easy to avoid if you walk through the steps above..

The world is full of opportunities, be optimistic and create a success story that others will be proud of .. Remember that great success stories like Oprah Winfrey, Walt Disney, J.K.Rowling, and Steve Jobs started with almost nothing but passion, and they managed to create some of the world’s most amazing entrepreneur stories .. Get inspired by them .. The world is waiting for your passion ..

As a closing remark, here are two of the latest examples of great people with passion, who turned out their ideas out of UAE into a project that is now on the ground, fully operational. Those are only a couple, out of tens of the projects that are on the way… As much as I am very proud of their work, I am asking everyone who reads this post to support them whenever an opportunity arises..

Written by:

Engagement Expert, International Speaker & Pragmatic researcher