Entrepreneurship has made a resurgence, in recent years, as a viable career option for many people.
While starting, operating, and managing one’s own business isn’t for everyone, the pride of independent business ownership appeals to those individuals who want to be their own boss. Making one’s own decisions about the current and future direction of a company, and one’s own future, is both thrilling and satisfying.
For most of the Twentieth Century, the stress was placed on getting a good job that led to a lifetime career with a single company. Somewhere in the 1970s and 1980s, that idyllic concept flew right out of the window. By the end of the century, it was well established that everyone would have multiple careers with several widely differing employers. During that realization that careers in the traditional sense were fading into history, the older ideal of entrepreneurship made a triumphant return to glory.
Today, we see more and more independent businesses opening their doors, and their websites, to customers. Both men and women are bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. As women made gains in the employment field, vestiges of the old glass ceiling remained as barriers to advancement. As a result, women especially have embraced business ownership as a vehicle to a strong and independent economic future. Often combining homemaking with an online or service business, women are dispaying entrepreneurial skills previously thought to be an exclusively male domain.
Regardless of gender, the idea of owning one’s own business is strong and growing ever stronger, with each passing day. Universities and community colleges offer courses in entrepreneurship as a matter of routine. Even two decades ago, post secondary education focussed on employment with large corporations. Today, small business is getting its turn in the spotlight. As the major economic engine, and largest employers, small independent business is the backbone of the economy.
Many large corporations have reduced their workforces in the more developed countries. Following the layoffs, those organizations then offshored many jobs to developing economies in India, China, and Latin America. For longer term employees, who suddenly find themselves displaced through offshoring, outsourcing, and insourcing, entrepreneurship might be the only available option.
Finding jobs later in one’s life is never easy. It’s even more of a struggle when your peers and their fresh faced children are also your competition. As a result, not everyone can find a career oriented position that challenges their abilities. Many job seekers become disillusioned and give up trying. Entrepreneurship offers a powerful alternative path to success for those who believe in their abilities and don’t give up on their dreams and ideals.
Instead of fighting globalization and outsourcing, today’s entrepreneurs are seizing the opportunities presented by these world wide forces. The internet has made the entire world a company’s potential market. Instead of your niche being only a handful of local people, it’s now the entire planet. That previously uneconomic niche market suddenly become a huge one overnight. The internet business format has only begun to scratch the surface. The potential is unlimited for entrepreneurial ventures developed via the microchip and web browser.
Outsourcing of services by major corporations opens up new business opportunities as well. While running a separate department for public relations, marketing, SEO, legal services, and office management might not make economic sense to a multi-billion dollar corporation, it’s a powerful income producing enterprise for an independent company. The huge company might even contract your entrepreneurial venture to replace the outsourced department.
Look around for business opportunities every day. Talk to people. Find out their needs in their business and personal lives. Your new company can provide their requirements.
You don’t have to have a great new innovative product or service. Instead, you just need one that makes you happy and gets you excited to get up every day. When you love what you are doing, it’s no longer work.
Your independent business should be a profitable labour of love.
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Wayne Hurlbert provides insigtful information about marketing, promotions, search engine optimization and public relations for websites and business blogs on the popular Blog Business World.
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