Could You Be Your Own Boss?

Sadly, there is no fail-safe method of becoming a successful entrepreneur. Research shows that successful entrepreneurs have:

• Strong needs for control and independence
• Drive and energy
• Self-confidence
• A point of view of money as a measure of performance
• A tolerance of ambiguity and uncertainty
• A sense of social responsibility

and that they are good at:

• Problem-solving
• Setting (and achieving) goals and targets
• Calculated risk-taking
• Committing themselves for the long term
• Dealing with failure
• Using feedback
• Taking the initiative
• Seeking personal responsibility
• Tapping and using resources
• Competing against self-imposed standards.

How do you measure on these criteria? Be honest with yourself.

Very few entrepreneurs can lay claim to all of these characteristics. Making the most of your best characteristics and using ingenuity (including the skills of others) to bridge the gaps is perhaps the most frequently encountered entrepreneurial characteristic of all!

However, despite the great variety of people who end up as business-owners, probably the most important personal characteristic for an entrepreneur is determination.

It’s easy to start a business; it’s more difficult to keep it going. When you are faced with long hours, with working through nights and weekends, with extended periods away from your family, and with seemingly-permanent  financial worries, the thought of a secure permanent pensionable job is tempting. Determination is what will see you through these lows until you break through to success!

Most people, because they are unfamiliar with the process of starting a business, need help in doing so. Thus, it’s no surprise that one of the questions I hear most frequently from people who are considering going out on their own is “Where can I get assistance?”. Some are even more direct, replacing the word “assistance” with “grants”!

The first port-of-call for anyone thinking of starting a business should be their local County or City Enterprise Boards. There are 35 CEBS across the country – at least one in every county, with four in each of Dublin and Cork – you’ll find a complete list and more information at www.enterpriseboards.ie. Yes, they do provide grants – for capital equipment, employment, feasiboility studies and web development, among others – but they also provide a valuable range of other supports, including subsidised training, mentoring and business advice. And these supports are usually available, even if your business / business idea does not qualify for grant aid (like all enterprise support in Irreland, the CEBs are primarily focused on manufacturing and internationally-traded services – local services are not usually supported).

The CEBS are targeted at businesses with less than 10 employees – above that, Enterprise Ireland (or Shannon Development or Udaras na Gaeltachta, depending on where you live) take over. EI provides a wide range of supports and has deeper pockets than the CEBs. However, EI is looking for a speical kind of business: what it describes as a “high potential start-up” (HPSU), which will achieve sales of €1m+, 75% export and 10+staff within 3 years. While it’s easy to write a business plan that shows all of the above, it’s more difficult to convince EI’s experienced development advisers that you can deliver on it – that’s where the challenge lies!

And there are many more organisations that can help a start-up – see the Resources page for a selection.