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Are You Cut Out to be an Entrepreneur?

If starting a business is part of your plans for next year, you need to be sure that you are ready for entrepreneurship and all the ups and downs that goes with it. There are a million and one things that can happen — from hitting on a winning business idea to finding a dud; or from earning a million in a year or finding yourself in the unemployment line asking for doleouts.

Ask yourself the following questions to see if you are ready for all the challenges of starting a business:

• In the event the business fails, am I willing to lose out all the money I invested? If I borrowed the money from family and friends, will I be able to face them and tell them I lost their money? If I wiped out my family’s bank account, can I face my children at the dinner table and explain to them that all they’re having for Christmas is a loaf of bread? Will I lose the house if the bank asks for the money they loaned to me?
• Am I willing to work longer days (and nights), even seven days a week if needed? Do I have the motivation and stamina to go beyond the 9-to-5 working hours of a corporate employee?
• Can I handle pressure and make fast decisions if needed? Can I be calm, cool and collected when things go haywire? How can I let off steam? What can I do to relax and focus on the tasks at hand?
• How long am I willing to wait for the business to succeed? Do I bail out in six months if it is not showing the kind of profit I was hoping? Or can I stick to the business for two years and hope that it will turn in the profit I need by then? When do I throw in the towel and admit that I can’t get it to work?
• Do I have the skills, know how and talent to make the business work? Can I sell? What are my best traits, and if I don’t possess the skills I need, where and how will I get them?