Have you got what it takes? Really got what it takes, to go out on your own? Sure you may have created the world's greatest business plan. But do you possess the essential skills and personal traits required to make that plan work?
We look at a range of skills that you will need to dig out – commitment, motivation, emotional resilience, stress management and time management. But you also get the freedom and flexibility of running your own show. Don't worry if all the responsibility frightens you a little, think about some of the other options on offer – whether it is taking on a partner or buying a franchise.
Can you, for instance, work incredibly hard, all day, everyday? And, before you instantly answer “Hell yes!” – just think about the implications for a moment. And while you do, bear in mind the words of Bob Pierce, joint managing director of new online style emporium Pupsnuts.com. “There will be more work and it will be more difficult than you can possibly imagine. And it will be around you all the time.”
So, we're not talking about putting in a couple of late nights. And we're not talking about making an extra effort for a one-off project. This is a potentially gruelling timetable that could go on for weeks and weeks. Months and months even. Or, in the case of Dylan Wilk, a whole year. In 1995, when he was setting up Gameplay.com, Wilk was permanently “doing 24x7”.
“I was working every single second of every single minute. Sure I had to give up a few things, like sleeping and eating, but I was willing to do that,” says Wilk. Are you prepared to make the same commitment?
Linked to your level of commitment is your ability to be motivated, crucially, self-motivated. This is not the same as being pushed to do something because someone else tells you to or because something else demands you do. It has to come from within you. It has to come from your energy, your discipline, your focus.
This is difficult enough when things are going well – but what about when things are going badly? “It's really tough”, admits Wilk who recalls just a few things that when wrong in the early days. “We were burgled around eight times – we had tens of thousands of pounds in stock stolen; we had someone register our name and tried to slap a writ on us – that was pretty hairy; we had moments were it looked like the business was going to go under. And, at times, I didn't really know what to do”.
So even the most determined of entrepreneurs have their moments when they are not sure what direction to take. Even if they do know, can no longer be bothered taking it. “This can affect all of us”, admits Alan Denbigh, executive director of the Teleworkers Association. “To succeed in self-employment you have really got to be a self-starter.”
Wilk couldn't agree more. “You have to really believe in yourself and decide that, no matter what, you will not be beaten.”
Belief in yourself is not enough though. You must also have a capacity to work for yourself, often by yourself.
At first this might sound like bliss. No more irritating politics. No more tiresome gossip. No more painful back-stabbing.
But what about the jokes and the banter? What about the Monday afternoon lunches and the Friday night drinks? More seriously, what about the brainstorming of solutions and the bouncing around of ideas? Won't you miss all this? If you are like most solo entrepreneurs you will.
“The simple fact is that it can be very lonely”, says Andrew Ferguson, founder of the Breakthru Centre which counsels people on new ways to work. “You can feel, professionally at least, very isolated at times.”
Gwen Rhys, founder and director of a networking organisation called EW agrees.
“But there is a solution”, she says. “You need to build up a virtual team. You need to develop a circle of colleagues that you communicate with in much the same way you did in the office, except now it may be over the phone, via email, or face-to-face, but once a month rather than every day.
“You also need to make sure that you do get out there and mix with people. It is worth joining a professional group you connect with, even if it is only learn that there are others who have been through what you're going through and identify with how you're feeling. In itself this can be a great source of support.”
So budding solo entrepreneurs need not be put off altogether. But they should at least be aware that there will be some lonely times.
All this talk about what can go wrong and how badly it can go wrong sounds nothing short of daunting. Gameplay's Wilk urges you to remain optimistic. “There is no point doing something if you think it will not work. [But] sometimes you just have to think of ways of making it work better.”
Ferguson of the Breakthru Centre is equally encouraging. “It's an opportunity to do something you've always wanted to do and never quite found anyone to pay you to do it. It's your opportunity to do something that makes you happy.
