Accidental Entrepreneurs: Make Sure Your Idea is Opportunity

My column this week in the Tennessean offers start-up advice for accidental entrepreneurs:

Has the recession made you an accidental entrepreneur? Not sure how to pick the right business to start?

Business
opportunities are most often the result of major changes in the
economy, society, our culture or technology. These changes create
customers who have new unmet needs. For example, when women entered the
work force in large numbers in the 1970s, they needed child care.

This soon led to creation of a whole new industry called day care.

The
first step in determining if a business idea is right for you is to
make sure it builds on your existing knowledge, skills and experiences.
The best business opportunities come from solving everyday problems
that you have observed from your previous work experiences, your
hobbies or things you regularly experience.

Make
sure that there really is a strong market that is truly interested in
your product or service. Examine the size of the market to confirm that
you need to attract only a small percentage of the total potential
customers to make your business work. And make sure that the potential
customers are willing to pay you enough to make the business turn a
profit.

The
business will need to generate enough income for your lifestyle. Also,
it will need to become profitable before you run out of whatever funds
you have saved to live on during the startup of the business.

It
is very difficult, if not impossible, to find bankers or investors
willing to back a first time entrepreneur’s startup in today’s economy.
So if your savings are meager, you may need to find a venture that
generates cash flow quickly or postpone the startup until enough
savings are in place.

Take it personally

An entrepreneurial business
is not just a simple financial investment. It becomes much more
personal and emotional than that. Surveys of entrepreneurs tell us that
building income and wealth is only one of the many reasons for
launching a business.

Entrepreneurs
want to create a business that is a reflection of who they are. They
want to build a business that has a culture based on their values —
that is, on how they want their employees and customers to be treated.

Finally,
don’t overlook the importance of building a business that allows room
for the other things that are important in your life. The time and
energy you want for your family, your friends, church and hobbies
should be factored into the planning.

The right business needs to fit with your experiences, income needs and values, and it must allow for a balanced life.

I will be leading a seminar for Belmont University titled “Business worthy? How to uncover and evaluate entrepreneurial ideas.”

It’s
designed to help guide aspiring entrepreneurs through the process of
finding ideas and assessing their feasibility. It will be held in
Williamson County on Nov. 3, Nov. 10 and Nov. 17.

More information can be found at http://www.belmont.edu/business/executive_education/workshops/index.html.