Living Entrepreneurship Blog / Babson Entrepreneurs

5 Great Things About Starting Up

Starting a venture can be one of the most exciting and stimulating things of your life. In order to share a part of my experience with you, I’ve compiled a list of five great thing about starting your own company.

  1. In my opinion, the best thing about starting up is that you’re doing what you like. Ultimately this should be the main force that’s fueling you to work to the best of your abilities. When you start encountering monstrous problems that you inevitably will, the enjoyment you receive from your work will be the key factor that keeps you motivated and your vision aligned. This concept of doing what you like also ties into your life outside of work. Why waste time with something that you don’t enjoy? You only have around 100 years on this planet, so why not fill your experience with the greatest possible amount of pleasure, enjoyment, and fun as possible? If you’re doing something you don’t enjoy, which is often the result of greed, in my opinion you are taking a huge risk. If your work doesn’t pay out in monetary assets, you have wasted your precious time, health, and energy on doing something that doesn’t bring you enjoyment. It doesn’t have to be the product you handle that ignites your passion. It can be the processes required to sell, buy, or handle that product. For example, you can be passionate about selling. If you are, you will pretty much enjoy selling anything. Find something with a good price margin and go out and sell it! With the force of enjoyment behind you, it is likely you will overcome the inevitable hurdles and succeed in your venture.
  2. Another great thing about starting your own business is that your venture will take you places and enable you to do things you never thought it would. Your venture will open up opportunities for you that will excite you and teach you valuable lessons. As an example, I recently flew to Dallas, TX to attend the 2013 NWFA Wood Flooring Expo. I didn’t feature my company but I thought it would be a good idea to go anyway to gather some info about competitors, make acquaintances in the industry, and just see how the expo operated in general. While there, I was introduced to a certain representative from a wood manufacturing company which has a factory in Brazil and who later invited me to visit the factory on his next trip. This is a great excuse for me to go visit and make connections in Brazil, which has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Visiting Brazil would not have crossed my mind or seemed probable if I were sitting in my dorm room and watching TV. A venture is able to give you great and sometimes unexpected opportunities such as this one which you otherwise wouldn’t have had.
  3. A huge part of having a startup is the learning experience. You might not always succeed with your business but the lessons you learn are invaluable for your inevitable success in the future. Whether it’s learning to sell, to manage your finances, or to take care of legal matters, you will constantly be challenged to do something new in order to make progress in your venture. We can safely assume that most people starting a business aren’t expert salesmen, accountants and lawyers all in one, but are passionate, aspiring honchos. Learning from the mistakes you make while operating your business is just as important as learning from textbooks and professors in school. Your venture allows you to learn practical things which provide you with a more applicable perspective than, in some cases, classroom knowledge.
  4. If you launch a startup you will never be bored. Ever. This can be both a good and bad thing but I’ll try to focus on the positive side. Especially during the beginning phase of your venture, you will have an insane number of things to take care of. You will probably end up doing work in the morning, in class, after dinner, and late at night, every single day. Your work will fill up all the free time you have during the day so you will never be wondering what to do and end up wishing the days lasted twice as long as they do. If you prefer to have a daily routine to help you complete all of your work, it’ll be really easy to incorporate your venture into it as most days will pass by exactly the same. A venture is a great way to avoid those boring Sunday nights and long weekends. But don’t get me wrong, that should not be one of the main reason to start a company.
  5. The last great thing about starting up I want to talk about is that ultimately, you are in charge of your own destiny. The work you put in will determine the results you receive. Every venture will have its own obstacles and how you handle these difficulties will contribute to how successful you become in the end. For example, if you decide to put minimal effort into managing your finances, you will have a very difficult time when tax time or investor inquiries come around. If, on the contrary, you spend the time required to thoroughly organize, file, and analyze your finances, it’ll be easier and faster to receive that investment or save precious time on filing those taxes. That work equals results is a great motivator for me, and I’m sure for most of you too.

Babson is a great place to create your own startup experience. The five great things you encounter while starting up might be different than mine but I hope they make the time you spend working just as pleasurable as mine was. Check out my company at http://dartindustrial.com/

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