What does it take to be an entrepreneur? Does it take brains? Cunning? A lot of money? It can be all of these things and none of these things at the same time. It takes determination, hard work, luck, and maybe a couple of classes or two about business to know the business. So, you want to be an entrepreneur, but you’re a future entrepreneur without an idea. Guess what? You can still be one.
Every person is different. Some are followers while others are leaders. Others are planners, while some like to go with the flow. And of course, some are thinkers, philosophers, creators, and brainstormers. Being an entrepreneur means a lot of things. You go into it unofficially or officially. With friends or alone. The point is that you need to find the opportunity.
So, what do you do?
Look to Your Local Community
For starters, one thing you could do is go around your local community, find small-business owners or other entrepreneurs, and ask if you could get started there. The worse they can say is no. But, they may be able to point you in the right direction. Try the local farmer’s market. Many people sell their own homemade goods to customers. Look into seeing if you can help out on one of those farms.
Another way to go about it is by thinking like a child or teen and starting out small with a lemonade stand or as a pet sitter. It may not sound like the glamour you imagined for an entrepreneur, but you take what you get out of it. These jobs are short and easy, but they make money. Those kinds of operations can help you brainstorm the idea or look into more official brands of these jobs and search for opportunities there.
Connect in College
If you are a college student, then networking and finding business-oriented students can help out a lot. Connecting with them can be great for the future if you all decide to get together and form a business. You should take all the free time you get in college and look for ways to build upon yourself and find an entrepreneur idea. Many times, college students are broke and in need of clothes supplies, food, and other things. That should make it much easier to either figure out an idea yourself or go in with a buddy and make a company for yourselves.
Use the Internet
Sometimes, your real-life community does not have the opportunities that you were hoping for. As an alternative, you should look online. This is your golden goose egg of opportunity. Look for forums and sites about business and entrepreneurship, there you can find like-minded people, and perhaps, if the stars are aligned, you can meet up with these people and make a business yourself. In fact, there are already many websites that do business from home for people like you. Again, you may feel that you are not the entrepreneur that you were hoping to be, but these operations work from home on the person’s own time. If they can do it, so can you.
Some websites like Etsy allow people to make handmade items such as jewelry, woodworking, bags, clothes, and more. In fact, these kinds of websites are great for those who have a hobby. Look at what hobbies you have. Can anything be done with them to make a profit? If you like to build birdhouses, you could sell those online, in the community, or to your friends and family. Then, if you really enjoy doing that, why not expand your horizons. Look into building things like chairs or other furniture. These things can help build yourself up as well as your business.
Conclusion
In all, being an entrepreneur doesn’t require much. Just a dream and a lot of determination. It doesn’t matter when or how you get there, it matters that you got there in the first place. And you still may not feel comfortable with any sort of entrepreneur idea and that is a totally valid reason. One way to get around this is if you have the financial resources, look for entrepreneurs like yourself and see if you can finance them. That way, you can be a shareholder or another position in the company as an entrepreneur, and the other person gets the finance to make their startup a reality. In the end, both of you get to become entrepreneurs. A win-win situation.
