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How to be an Entrepreneur in 2023

Salt Creative • Nov 09, 2022

What Strength Distinguishes an Entrepreneur From Others?

We are currently in the golden age of entrepreneurship. Many millennials and Gen Z want to become entrepreneurs, and there's a good reason why. Think about the mega-success that has been achieved by Amazon, Airbnb, Apple, Google, and Facebook.

Everyone loves a rags-to-riches story, and starting your own business is probably the biggest dream that most people have nowadays. In 2022 alone, there were as many as
33.2 million small businesses started by entrepreneurs in the United States.

Becoming a successful entrepreneur may not have specific professional requirements. Still, it takes lots of k
nowledge, passion, and a drive to achieve. It's also an industry that requires someone who is risk-averse and has support to handle failure, sometimes multiple failures.

But how do you get to be an entrepreneur?

Most of the information you will come across on the web focuses on the practicalities of becoming an entrepreneur. For example, you might bump into information about:


  • How to write a business plan
  • Raising money
  • Finding the right staff,
  • Marketing
  • PR


While all these are great things to know, we'll go a different route in this article.

What is Entrepreneurship?

But first things first, let’s discuss the definition of entrepreneurship.

Simply put, an entrepreneur is a person "who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise." An entrepreneur can often take on more risk than the average business person and possibly reap more fantastic rewards.

Entrepreneurship has a particular element of excitement. Most entrepreneurs are incredibly passionate about their business. At the same time, they address a variety of social, business, commuting, economic and technological problems.

Entrepreneurship is an essential resource in production. All entrepreneurs contribute to the global economy by using land, labor, and capital to provide goods and services.

Different ways of approaching entrepreneurship

There are a few things you need to keep in mind. Raising money or finding capital funding can be hard to come by for new entrepreneurs. So almost everyone starts small and invests their own resources into the project.

Some entrepreneurs start projects alone, and that's completely fine. Just remember that in this case, you'll be taking on the risk-reward ratio with no help. Some may find this disconcerting and seek partnerships. These entrepreneurs tend to have the benefit of additional credit and resources; additionally, their businesses tend to grow faster, seeing more tremendous success.

That said, as we've mentioned before, most of the information you will find on the subject will discuss how an entrepreneur should create solid business plans that lay out the resources required for financing, hiring, and the leadership of a new business.

But in our eyes, at the heart of successful entrepreneurship lies something oddly more abstract:
an accurate insight into what causes human unhappiness. An entrepreneur needs to become an expert in the things that make life difficult for people.

Think about it, all the big new companies we have today came about because they were trying to fix a problem for a particular group of people. For example, if you look at Airbnb, the whole concept was based on solving a hotel room shortage in San Francisco during conventions.

So the bigger and more original your idea, the more successful your business is likely to be.

How to become an entrepreneur in 2022

Now let’s discuss what you came here for.

1. Identify a problem you can solve

The entrepreneur path always starts with a great idea. Something as simple as a conversation with a friend can get your wheels turning. But that’s where some people stop because as the consumer society has become more developed, it’s easy to think that all the big problems out there already have been solved.

Imagine all those pizza outlets, car companies, or news websites. Indeed there's enough of everything. What can you possibly add to such an over-saturated market? The good news is that there is always something that needs fixing.

However, to get a sense of the vast opportunities that still remain in capitalism, all you need to do is ask yourself one simple question:

Where and in what areas are you unhappy in the course of an average day?

Every unhappiness or challenge you can identify is really a new business waiting to be born. The things that frustrate you are a nearly inexhaustible source of raw ideas from which future enterprises can be built. So while there may already be plenty of organic baby food, unique clothing, apps, and mobile devices for sale, there's so much more than frustrates and depresses the human race.

For example, think of how difficult it is to have a successful relationship nowadays, cope with mental issues, educate children, figure out what you want to do with your life, find a nice place to live, wind down after a busy day, and so on. The list of griefs and irritations is endless.

2. Come up with a business plan

Once you've identified a problem you are passionate about solving, you can then start creating the business plan. This plan should, of course, be centered around your consumer problem-solving idea.

So let's say you're watching the news. There's a report that your city lacks sufficient daycare centers for the working population. A great entrepreneur will recognize this shortage as an opportunity. So the first step would be to figure out whether surrounding areas or counties share the same problem. 

Your business plan here would be to open a childcare facility with multiple corporate partners who support your city and the surrounding areas. As so many businesses employ parents with small children who have no access to dependable childcare, there's clearly plenty of customers and revenue to be made.

3. Ensure profitability by failure-proofing your idea

The most significant first step to take towards entrepreneurship is studying your own unhappiness and what might possibly heal it for you and others. This aspect has to remain at the core driving force of your business.

When businesses experience a decline in profits, it’s really the result of too many people throwing themselves at trying to fix the same area. This is because the whole industry can’t think of anything more innovative to do other than doing what’s already been churned out.

Think about how many people are talking about starting their own Facebook, Spotify, supermarket chain, or Amazon? Plenty right?

By contrast, failure-proofing your idea but not copying what others are doing is the best way to ensure healthy profits. These are the rewards for understanding and mastering an area of human distress ahead of anyone else.

4. Expand your education (formal and informal)

It's pretty evident that ideas aren't enough on their own; you need to take care of practicalities such as education. Whether you choose to go for formal education or not, this is an essential ingredient for entrepreneurial success.

Suppose you find it beneficial for your journey. In that case, you can try a college degree program, apprenticeship, or a variety of work experience. Learn the basics of business, build your vocabulary, and have solid business acumen.

You'll inevitably incur frequent problems when starting a business, and knowing how to overcome them is vital for you to thrive.

We also recommend looking for inspiration and mentorship. Make sure you explore a variety of success stories (and even failures) of certain entrepreneurs. Doing so will help you comprehend the tenacity required and inspire you to keep working on your goal to resolve a human problem or unhappiness.

5. Learn to manage money

You can't focus on or succeed in solving human unhappiness or irritation if you have no money. In fact, one of the primary reasons some entrepreneurs fail is the lack of money management skills. If you run out of money quickly, you can't sustain the business.

Money management also means knowing how to raise capital. The three ways to obtain capital include:

Applying for a loan: This is perhaps the most common way of raising capital. You can approach your local bank for a loan but keep in mind that it may not be possible for a small business to get a loan this early. However, most governments have loan facilities that you can approach.
Find an investor: With proper networking, you can find an investor willing to provide financial aid. This is where having a solid business plan comes in handy. You can pitch the idea to an angel investor, or you can approach a venture capitalist firm. Although these firms require entrepreneurs and their businesses to meet specific requirements to apply.
Bootstrap: In other words, go at it alone. You can use your personal funds to start your company.

While it's good to raise capital, every entrepreneur should have savings to fall back on. Statistics show that many entrepreneurs don't start to turn a profit until at least three to five years after the business has begun. So it's good to always have a backup plan should the market change during those years.

6. Know your target audience

Know who your idea will appeal to. You must have a good idea about who you're selling to. Their age, income, culture, gender, race, etc., will play a huge role in determining how you run your business and how you'll tailor-make your product to ease their unhappiness or challenge. 

Conclusion

While there are many things you should know and do to become a successful entrepreneur, these methods won't be of much help if your original psychological insight into human unhappiness isn't sound.

It goes without saying if your insight into what makes people unhappy is accurate and your solutions bold, then regardless of how difficult the journey is, your business will stand a high chance of making money and benefiting humanity too.

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