Why launch your own business? Steve King has talked to a lot of entrepreneurs and explained in a post how the motivations for entrepreneurship can be grouped into three categories.
You should read King's full explanation, but I'll outline the three goals here:
1. Financial: The entrepreneur wants to be able to generate a certain amount of income through his or her business. This can be anywhere from just enough to support a basic lifestyle to a fortune.
2. Passion: The entrepreneur has a passion that he or she wants to pursue full time instead of just as a hobby. Phoenix Coffee, one business I've profiled, is an example of this. It's run by two people who are very passionate about coffee and had great interest in it. They channeled those interests into a business.
3. Lifestyle: The entrepreneur wants more independence in his or her life. Starting your own business is a way to perhaps keep doing what you were doing before, but without a boss telling you what to do.
Of course, no small business is going to be strictly one of those. But I bet that most entrepreneurs can identify one of those motivations as the most important for his or her life. An entrepreneur wants to follow his passion, and being able to do it while having an independent lifestyle might just be an added bonus.
I'd be interested in finding out which of these motivations is most often the dominant one. My suspicion is this: Money is not the main motivation. The failure rate of start-up businesses is too high for many people to think that starting their own businesses is going to make them fortunes. Going off and working for another company is just an easier road to financial success. But it might not be as fulfilling. I would bet that the attraction of the entrepreneurial lifestyle or the opportunity to sell your passion for a living is why most entrepreneurs do what they do. At least one survey seems to confirm that suspicion and suggests that lifestyle is most important.
of @ Aug 15, 2008 17:13:58 PM