ENTREPRENEUR SPECIAL.... The Joys of Entrepreneurship

The Joys of Entrepreneurship

Starting a business provides joys that are worth the extra effort that owning a business requires. I have owned five businesses — two restaurants, a screenwriting company, a moving company and a book writing company. All of them were successful but demanded extraordinary efforts. I sold the moving company after eight years and then started the restaurants and then sold the restaurants after eight years. The writing companies are still operational, although I have been spending more time as a consultant and a professor in India.

When you work for an employer, you are generally restricted by their requirements — the hours and days you work, the salary you receive, the amount of vacation time you can take and the type of work they require you to do each day. For many people, there is comfort in these routines and parameters. For others, these requirements may quickly become restrictive. Doing the work someone else wants you to do during the times they want you to do it can stifle imagination and creativity. If you feel restricted, constrained and stifled then you should look at starting your own business.

Another reason to start your own business is that you can make more money. Tax laws favour small business owners. Small business owners are the backbone of every economy and governments recognise that they need to help small business thrive. I started my first restaurant with a bank loan of $200,000. Each year, I increased my profit and by the end of the third year, I had paid off the loan. Five years later, I sold the restaurant for a good profit.

I also must say that those eight years were filled with long hours and few vacations. When you start a business, you are the captain of your own ship and it sinks or sails smoothly based up the amount of effort you put into it. Failure is always a possibility, but even failure teaches us lessons that will lead to our success if we don’t give up.

Students often ask me what the key to being a successful entrepreneur is. My answer is people, people and people. Hire good managers to help you run the company. Hire good employees who know how to provide excellent customer service. The key to any business is good people and good customer service. The other key to being a successful entrepreneur is being unselfish. Don’t think just about yourself and how much money you can make.

I always encourage people to start their own businesses because the opportunities for success and finding great joy are available to those who are in command of their own lives. Do you have an idea for a good business? I encourage you to create your own business - build it, own it and love it. If you have to work, work for joy – work for yourself.

JAMES WEST
An entrepreneur and academician and professor, SRM University, AP, Amaravati

 (The author is an entrepreneur and academician and professor at SRM University, AP- Amaravati. 

TOI 25JUN18