Taking the Plunge into Entrepreneurship

In book, "The Finch Effect," author Nacie Carson distills the best practices professionals who have successfully adapted a challenging economy. In this excerpt, she describes harnessing your entrepreneurial energy can become the bridge your own business.

Christin, 31, Orange County, Calif., was laid from her job as a digital music consultant 2008. "I became so desperate that I applied for minimum-wage retail jobs," she says.

After three months trying to get back the traditional workforce, Christin committed getting herself back track, just a completely different one. She shifted her thought process and started looking a new opportunity. The result? She started Green 4 Your Soul, a one-stop shop for all things green. She'd developing the idea for three years, but never had to pursue it while working full-time.

Now, Christin is reveling making her own schedule and her own business. "I find that I work around-the-clock, weekends, but I try to mix things so I don't get too burnt-out or overwhelmed in one sitting," she says. "I never feel overworked like I working in corporate America."

I have heard many similar stories people around the U.S. who harnessed their entrepreneurial energy successfully -- and happily -- strike out their own. the plunge into entrepreneurship is particularly attractive professionals who have seen opportunities in their industry dry , get outsourced to foreign labor markets or replaced technological solutions. It is also attractive to those are itching to break out of the nine-to-five and pursue passions as their occupations.

At first blush, starting your own business in a down economy might seem like a idea. After , if the huge corporate guys are teetering on the of disaster, why would a microbusiness fare any better? A September 2011 article in USA Today notes that the number of self-employed Americans remained stagnant the recession started in 2008, at just over 14 million. Financial concerns and a lack confidence are the major reasons why people are backing from entrepreneurial paths.

Christin acknowledges the challenges and benefits of entrepreneurship: "You are going to have to harder since you are not working someone else, but if you are doing what love it doesn't feel like work. Because 24/7, you are getting the word on your business. And if you do that, you can quickly build a following and a living."

When it to starting your own business, the news isn't all and gloom. Commercial real estate is down, making office space more affordable to lease. Thanks the Internet, setting up an effective marketing campaign is fast and inexpensive. With a higher unemployment , finding customers for a product or service may be no difficult than finding a job. As as the security piece goes, I beg to differ: With such high unemployment, it is hard for this observer believe that a full-time job is any more of a sure thing working for yourself.

I can't tell you that there is risk to starting your own business. In economy, some ventures will succeed and some will fail. Others will plug unspectacularly until the creator moves on a new project or sells it to someone who can it succeed. How yours would fare is a matter of a million factors, preparation, determination, passion and a healthy dose of luck.

If you are starting to consider that now or sometime the road you might branch out on your , here are some questions to help you consider how ready you are, mentally and logistically, to handle the risks and potential outcomes entrepreneurship:

What kind of capital you have to fund start-up costs?
Do you have enough savings buffer your personal expenses while the business is starting, and do you have a realistic sense of how long that will ?
Do you consider yourself disciplined, self-motivated and to succeed?
Do you prefer taking direction or direction?
Review your responses. Do you see any trends that give you pause pursuing an entrepreneurial endeavor? I have found that seeing your own written responses can help determine whether this is the right way to move your career .

When you take an entrepreneurial leap, even your best-laid plans are to greater than normal instances of Murphy's Law; that is to , if it can go wrong, it will. So if you are planning to the leap, you need to plan for extra resources to handle inevitable arrival of unanticipated costs. Before you get started, it's a bad idea to double or even triple what you think you might need to be on the safe side.

Successful entrepreneurship is focusing on what problems you can solve, doing your homework and learning how to fail, successfully.


Adapted and abridged from: MacNewsWorld, June 20, 2012.