5 Lessons Learned from 10 Years of Entrepreneurship

My first attempt at entrepreneurship was the transportation service. We ( My husband and I) had a bus where we offered public transport to the community. This business was a lucrative industry, but we failed because we lacked the knowledge needed to make it profitable. Not only did we lack knowledge, we had no business knowledge.

We also attempted the food industry. What do you think happened? You guessed right. It failed. The mistake we made was hiring someone who lacked experience in such a business. We wanted to start the business on our own where we were involved in preparing the food, but we had our full-time jobs at the time.

There are numerous businesses we tried but eventually had to cut our losses. However, ten years of entrepreneurship have taught me a multitude of things.

5 Lessons learned from ten years of entrepreneurship

1. Entrepreneurship is a risk

There is a chance that your business venture will not work, and there is a chance that it will. Nonetheless, you have to be mentally prepared to lose your investment. You cannot be emotionally attached to it. When I was a teacher, co-workers would ask me about business ventures, or they would ask how I did it. I said, you have to be willing to lose because when you decide to invest $1000 in a business, if you are not ready to lose that $1000 don't do it. You will have some sleepless nights. You will worry a lot and not want to invest in anything else. Therefore, when you decide to get into business understand that it is a risk. Be prepared to lose your investment.

2. Be mentally prepared for failure

Failure is inevitable. I am not saying that when you go into business it will fail, but there will be times when things will not go your way. You have to go into business with faith. You have to go into business believing. As a result, when the failure comes it will not stop you from pushing forward.

3. Learning is continuous

Learning is a continuous process. It is not school where you go through your years of school and at the end of school you enter a job and that’s where learning ends. Throughout your life, you should always be learning. Similar to business, always be willing to learn something new so that you can grow in your business, and improve your business. businesses do change and you have to keep up with the changing business world and be the best in your business.

4. Don’t become comfortable

Sometimes when we are in business, for instance, you own a clothing company. The company is doing well. What happens is that we become comfortable to the point where we don't realize when things start to go downhill. We don't see the gaps because we become so comfortable in this position in our business that we become obsolete and do not realize when we get to that point. We must always look for ways to become a better business person and not become comfortable in the present. We must always strive to be exceptional in service to our customers.

5. Take care of yourself

This is an integral part of building your business. Don't forget to take care of yourself. Don't forget that your mental, emotional, and physical being is an important part of you. Sometimes we get so caught up in the rat race that we forget ourselves. This can break us as an individual. This is one thing that I learned in entrepreneurship. It is okay to stop. It is okay to take a break because if you're unable to take care of yourself; if you're unable to take care of that health of yours then you can't run the business.