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Anyone Can Be An Entrepreneur



anyone can be an entrepreneur

I decided to write this article as a logical follow up to 2 previous articles.
The aforementioned articles are:
Are entrepreneurs born or made .
&
Is entrepreneurship for rich kids.

The first article explored the different views and arguments on who becomes entrepreneur, are we born or made to be entrepreneurs.
There’s no doubt that learning entrepreneurship have a big influence on becoming successful, but most entrepreneurs become so, by simply doing and failing, and then doing again.

The second article explores studies about higher risk taking behavior among rich kids. Of course having capital makes entrepreneurship easier, but the majority of entrepreneurs start small and bootstrap.

From these perspective, i came to the conclusion that anyone can be an entrepreneur. All it takes is having the life essentials (food & shelter) secured so that he/she can take the risk without having the survival instinct stop him / her.

so here’s how i think …

Anyone Can Be An Entrepreneur !

To be an entrepreneur you will need as much time as you can dedicate, preferably, full time. And you should expect not to make much/ any money for some time …

The most important question is, how to secure life essentials, so that you can make the jump into entrepreneurship all while dedicating enough time to your company? (Rich & upper middle class people do not have this problem, so the advice below are mainly addressed to poor and middle class people).

If you have a full time job, try to switch to a part time job that can cover bills & life essentials, also dedicate as much time to start your company, and eventually hire a part time employee to replace you.

In case you have no job, or already decided to leave your job to start your company, remember that no man is an island. Ask your close ones to help you in your entrepreneurship endeavor. Here’s some cases that show how counting on close ones can help anyone follow his entrepreneurship dreams.

Marriage / Couples Support:
Probably one of the best and easiest ways to take the jump, is to rely on a partner to put food on the table & pay the bills.

First you should talk with your spouse, partner, and ask for financial support while you are launching you business. And make sure the partner is patient, especially if you are the man. (men are historically considered providers, relying on your woman can have negative effects on the couple if your woman does not fully support your plan)
With one salary, a couple will in most cases be still able to pay the bills, but might need to make some tough cuts on unnecessary spending.
Less vacations and less spending on non essential wants for a couple of years, it is not only a must, but also beneficial, as it will teach the entrepreneur how to reduce costs.

Parents Support:
No spouse/partner to rely on, return to your parent’s house and tell them why you need to do that, chances that they will be supporting are very high.
Yes i know, returning to your parents’ house might be lame, but that would relieve you from a huge burden, no bills, no rent, you might even get free food, ideal if you are planning to put all your money in your new venture!

Friends / Relatives Support:
Returning home is not an option ? ask a friend/ relative to host and support you, in exchange for a part of the business.

Convince them of your business, do a nice presentation or explainer video, then clearly state that for supporting you for x month they would become investors in your company and get x %.
If the idea is interesting, no one would refuse. Who knows, they might even be interested to invest money and become partners.

Sponsors:
You don’t want to rely on close ones ? No problem, find sponsors that are ready to host you or even feed you in exchange of getting x% of your company.
I bet a lot of lonely old people would love to have company (no pun intended). Again, if you convince them enough, they might even invest money in your company.

Cooperation:
In case none of the above options apply, try finding people with similar mindset, or eventually convince some to share living expenses. Rent a small apartment split the rent, cook together & split the bills. Find people that are determined to save money, you can rent a house or apartment and live 4-6 people in it, yes crowded, but hey your share of the rents is almost negligible. You want to take things further on saving money? Cook together, yes, it’s cheaper than eating outside or cooking for yourself!

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Abdallah Alaili

I'm a serial entrepreneur (mostly tech) and micro-investor (tiny), this is a blog to learn from other entrepreneurs and spread the wisdom to many more. You can find me on: Instagram - Twitter - Linkedin - more about me