- January 9, 2022
- Posted by: IRA Coaching
- Category: Blogs
Confucius famously said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
It’s love and passion that drive innovation and the search for better ways of doing things. It makes a person take action to address an unmet need and create something of value. It gives purpose and mission that eventually takes the shape of a business venture. It also ensures commitment to the venture. Therefore, love and passion are the marks of an entrepreneur.
The entrepreneurial journey begins with a vision
Entrepreneurship is a deep and long journey that begins with a vision – an image or idea of a product or service that will create an impact in the entrepreneur’s area of work. Most entrepreneurs have a clear vision of a solution that they believe will fulfill an existing gap, solve a problem, or make something better. A clear and motivating vision gives the entrepreneur courage to take risks and keep pushing ahead to translate his/her vision into reality. A clear vision translates to a strong purpose that keeps the entrepreneur going in the face of all odds, fears, and doubts.
Entrepreneurial business lifecycle
Similar to any business, an entrepreneurial venture follows a four-stage lifecycle – the creation stage, awareness stage, growth stage, and consolidation stage.
The initial creation and awareness stages involve building credibility. A credible business is one that has earned the trust and confidence of its customers and partners. This is an exciting time where business models are tweaked, customer relationships are built, and new ways and processes are tried and perfected.
The growth phase is where the business has carved a place for itself in the market. The business model is in place, the customer base is growing as is the revenue. Building a strong team passionate about the business and its offerings and aligning to the purpose is integral to the growth phase. At this stage, digital empowerment can hasten the process of evolution and expansion.
Once the business has reached a certain level, growth is not as fast-paced. This is the consolidation stage where the business has established itself and is well-positioned in the market. Largely, businesses today think beyond earning profits and are more focused on investing money and resources to create a financial worth that involves strategic collaborations all through. The ease of business is enhanced with the availability of capital through the private equity options.
Whichever stage your business is in, entrepreneurship is a journey of exploration, possibilities, opportunities, challenges, resilience, rewards, and most of all, passion. These are traits and events that can be applied to any working professional, whether working for a large company or for your own venture. More about this in the next part of the blog. Stay tuned!
Whether you are looking to keep pace with the industry, hone your skillset, or develop a new skillset in banking and insurance, IRA can help. Check out our upcoming training sessions. Learn from banking and insurance industry experts in real-time!
