Being Honest: 4 Things to Ask Yourself Before Becoming an Entrepreneur

I have been doing a lot of speaking at PRSSA chapters around the country; it has seriously been awesome to see so many people excited about PR. Honestly, before I started doing these speaking gigs, I was going through an “over it phase”. When I woke up each morning, I just wasn’t all that excited about my job anymore. This is really bad when you own your own business, and a major key to success is being positive and energized. Needless to say, talking with college students that are excited about their careers is REALLY infectious.

I have been getting a lot of questions about how to start your own business/PR firm. It seriously warms my heart to see people wanting to create their own paths in life. I am all about keeping it real, and being an entrepreneur is not all unicorns and rainbows.

While owning your own business can mean a lot of stress, if you are successful, it is the most rewarding experience ever. One of the biggest parts of making it work as an entrepreneur is having the ability to be brutally honest with yourself. You have to know your strengths and weaknesses. Before you spend the time and money to start your business, you should sit down and really ponder these questions:

1)   Are you scared of failure?

I read this quote the other day from Alan Kay: “If you don’t fail at least 90 percent of the time, you’re not aiming high enough.” I pretty much think this is the truest thing I have ever read.

I fail/make mistakes all the time: I have clients that don’t re-hire me, I send out pitches that go nowhere, and I always make tons of typos. If you plan to work for yourself, you can’t let failure stop you. When someone says “no”, and slams the door in your face, this should be motivating, not paralyzing.

2)   Are you flexible?

For me personally, I don’t know if I can honestly say yes to this one. I am not very flexible, but I am getting better. In the mornings, I always try to make a daily schedule for myself; I don’t think I have ever actually stuck to it. Things always come up, and you kinda just have to go with it. Part of being an entrepreneur is constantly reshaping your original idea based on what is working (or not working). I think people are more successful when they can quickly adapt.

3)   Can you successfully manage a lot at once?

When you own your business, you don’t just spend all your time perfecting your trade. For example, I only spend about 80% of my time at work doing PR. The other 20% of time, I spend looking for new business, invoicing/accounting, and finding ways to market myself. I have to be able to switch from one task to another pretty quickly. There is always a lot to juggle, and the key is just to make sure nothing hits the floor. If the prospect of this stresses you out, maybe being an entrepreneur isn’t the way to go.

4)   Do you worry a lot?

I can admit that I worry a lot. Just the other night, I couldn’t sleep because I was thinking about money (or my lack there of). However, I am determined to have my own business AND enjoy life at the same time. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive. You have to get to a point where you can turn the worrying off because it will eat you alive, and become toxic to all parts of your life. If you don’t think you will ever be able to do this, then don’t start your own business. You don’t want to be miserable all the time; life is too short.