Review assignment extra points

14.5 - Managing Small Business

Is small business management right for you? It might be, but it would vary greatly from

the typical experience of working for someone else.

Yes, you will set your own hours, but they tend to be long. You may keep all the profits,

but you will also (probably) be risking a great deal of your personal assets. You

maintain autonomy and can make the decisions, but lose the ability to rely on others to

fill gaps that you might encounter. The idea of “taking time off” might well turn into

thinking about your business nearly all the time. So, unless you have had the benefit of

growing up in a family that included an entrepreneur that provided a model for you to

observe, how can you know for sure if it’s right for you?

You can’t. Although lots of quizzes can be found online that will attempt to guide you in

your decision, the fact is that anytime one begins a new venture, it carries risk along

with potentially great rewards. That being said, remember that most entrepreneurs

don’t get rich; most of them make a living.

The best advice might have come from a gentleman who quit his job as an engineer,

gave most of their life savings to his wife, then went into his garage workshop to work on

a medical device that, after many years, ended up changing the lives of millions of

individuals who, without that invention, could not have gotten out of bed. He suggested

that one undertake an entrepreneurial effort only if “you just can’t help yourself”.

Indeed, it is that innate drive (along with a little bit of good fortune) that probably

characterizes the successful small business owner from the pack.

Engineers have completed equations that prove the bumblebee cannot fly; its wings are far too

small to support the considerable relative weight of its body. But nobody told the bumblebee,

so it flies anyway.

Image: https://www.pexels.com/photo/bee-bumblebee-insect-macro-3780/ Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.

"Managing Small Business" by E.M. Henn, MAN2021 Introduction to Management, Broward College is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0