Of small business entrepreneurs of every 10 who want to start their business only 1 actually does. I suppose the step after knowing you want to be in business is actually… going into business. However, those 9 people made judgement calls, and what was it they considered before NOT starting their own business? Well the reality is, there are many reasons why people do and don’t start businesses.

Most businesses spawn from your environment, if your family had their own business or siblings, it is likely that you will consider starting your own business. The fact is the dinner table at your parents or siblings house is about business, the ins and outs, and how to maximize making money to enjoy life, survive, or make money. If you don’t join the family business, you will definitely go out on your own. Families encourage diversity, and going out on your own almost always comes with support, advice, and in some cases love money and loans.

If you can find all of the aspects of a business that make you happy, that you believe to be successful, that meets your skills or is attainable, you will work towards the goal of obtaining those necessary skills and starting your own business. It helps once again to have family present as they will give the valued lessons, recommend trusted advisors from within, and establish with you skills you may want to grow. In some cases, they may lend funds to you in order to gain skills and may even do it with you which is a very nurturing benefit. Friends and family in essence are a key portion in making entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship… it starts with the parents and the siblings. We forget how important family and their influence is, but the chances of you starting your own business because of some influence they have had on you is high!

The only chance of you running into a wall is if you are not a risk taker or require certainty in your life. If this is in fact who you are, it may be difficult to borrow funds from your family without feeling it as an immense burden. In fact, it may be difficult for you to ask anyone for money. This is not the place for an entrepreneur, as you will need to ask suppliers for financing terms, family, banks, strangers, it doesn’t stop there… so get use to it. If your family was in business for themselves, then you would be use to this, you may have even been asked by family members to help them in the early stages of their company… in labour or maybe in investment. Be prepared to ask for money and take risks…

The thing about family run companies is that they often have one in the family, but the head of the family business is a Jack-Of-All-Trades. So what does this mean, if you are going to be the head, it may be good to know how to market, or how to sell, but you are also a buyer, an accountant, an HR manager, a Sales Manager, a marketer, and possibly the product as people buy who you are. Being an entrepreneur is like being good at school, there are a lot of subjects and the only way you keep moving up is to be good at all of them. There is Theatre, Math, English, Physical Fitness, Business, History, Geography, you name it. Once you are shipping products, performing services, buying product, or traveling about, you are on a mission and the graduation is a place few make it to because they don’t make themselves proficient in all the subjects. Each stage requires a slightly higher level of each subject, so if you are a person who wants to learn, and you have learned from the generation before you, the sibling or your parents, than you are ready to move on and build your own business.

If you are looking to borrow from friends or family financially to get this business started, I suggest going to www.documentyourloan.com or www.kasu.ca and registering to make a loan document.

I highly recommend purchasing as much educational materials on the subject as possible, if you would like a book recommendation on the best Business Success Series to buy as an entrepreneur, contact me at ryan@documentyourloan.net.