Everyone knows that running a business is hard. They may not know quite how hard until they try, but still, everyone knows. And yet, business owners not only survive, they thrive.
What accounts for this? What’s their secret? What keeps them motivated despite the hard work and constant challenges?
We interviewed a number of successful entrepreneurs across a range of businesses. You can see some of our interviews here, but this is what we learned:
Freedom is important factor and comes in many forms:
- Freedom from bureaucracy, allowing entrepreneurs to solve problems and meet clients needs in the way they feel is best
- Freedom from time constraints. No one works less hard when they work for themselves, but they get to choose how and when they work (to some extent) and where they concentrate their efforts
Creativity: they saw a need for something and now it’s a reality. Not only that, to see that conviction reinforced in customers’ responses is a powerful, continuing motivation
Problem solving: every day brings new challenges, but, for the entrepreneurs we spoke with, this also represents variety, novelty, a chance for continuous learning and an opportunity to better support customer
Culture and team: to get to work with people you like, to collaborate, learn from and support each other is something the entrepreneurs found especially rewarding
Opportunity to grow in so many ways:
- Personally
- As managers
- To learn new skills
- To grow the business: quite simply, for most entrepreneurs, business growth is what provides the capital that drives the business forward
