People usually think of entrepreneurs as risk takers - bold people who have it all figured out with a head for business and a great plan of action. Someone recently said to me entrepreneurs are not risk-takers because they don't see what they are doing as risky.
This really resonated with me, because I am an entrepreneur, yet from making the first decision to start a business and then all the subsequent decisions that followed, it never seemed like a risk to me. It just felt like it would work.
Currently, my business partner and I are faced with decisions daily that require we choose between things with varying levels of risk. Should we hire someone now? Can we afford it? What if we don't do it? We recently brought on a full line of healthcare for our employees. Was it a good decision? How much will it cut into our bottom line? If we hadn't done it, could we have stayed competitive as an employer?
All these unknowns can become paralyzing without some way to manage the decision-making process. In our case, we educate ourselves extensively before every decision. Before we even opened our doors, we learned every aspect of what was involved in starting a business. When upgrading our healthcare, we went over numbers of profit vs. payroll and we researched and partnered with people who specialized in healthcare. We basically defused the risk with knowledge. Once we had our information, the best path seemed obvious and the level of risk seemed minimal.
When I heard entrepreneurs are not risk-takers, it made perfect sense. Our business works because my partner and I understand every angle. It made me wonder for other potential entrepreneurs out there who are feeling afraid of risk, maybe you can decrease it by digging deeper into the facts. Maybe your dream to start a business can happen sooner than you think, as long as you accept that you'll regularly be researching new decisions and asking lots of questions.
Successful entrepreneurs welcome information and actively seek more. It's the only way to accurately assess risk and make decisions that drive the business forward.