Biggest Barriers Of Entry for Those Interested in Becoming an Entrepreneur?

What sparked the entrepreneurial spirit?

I spent several years working for people that were complete idiots. I still cannot believe how many dumbasses there are out there in command of multi-million $ companies and manage to stay there.

I realized after being out of school for a few years that I didn't want to spend my entire career working for idiots. I want to either work for people who are really smart and actually know what they are doing, or be self employed and self sufficient. It turns out being self employed is easier and faster than finding a company not run by complete morons.

What problems have you had so far?

Time and money are two big ones. I frequently work 18+ hours/day right now.

What tasks associated with getting started have come easy?

Getting a business license, finding a good lawyer, and getting the infrastructure of my business setup were the easiest parts for me.

What has been the biggest challenge?

Finding good people to work for me. It turns out that 90% of the employees out there are complete dumbasses too.

Hey Z,

Fun question. I too come from a family of Jersey Italians (well, Staten Island, and they'd cut me up for saying Jersey LOL), so there is some entrepreneurial spirit bred in me f'sure.

When I worked proper 9-5 jobs, I spent the better majority of the time at those desks working on my own stuff. Just could NOT stop working to carve out my own piece. And I never connected to filling up someone's pockets while getting "just enough" with the lure of more to come.

Starting out, the desire to know and try out everything definitely robbed me of making more money faster but I don't regret it at all. Information overload sucks but knowing about everything will only benefit you.

Doubtful, uninspiring people in my life also held me back as I was first starting out. Sometimes, one has to disassociate.

Now with focus, awesome mentors/friends, and a clear plan of action I am makin' money and am as happy as a pig in $hit doing what I want to do, when I want to do it. That's what it's always been all about for me.

Although venture capitalism is way outside the scope of nearly every IM, ideas are a dime-a-dozen. Investors want to hear about your planned execution. After all, most people could probably think of a few business ideas, but how many will think of viable execution plans?

The biggest barrier to entrepreneurs I believe is raising money. There are a lot of people with great ideas who don't know how to raise money to put those ideas into motion.

Another big barrier for entrepreneurs is fear of rejection. This is a big fear for many people. If you are building a traditional business your going to experience some sort of rejection in building it.

I think fear of failure and fear of getting scammed is a big one.

There seems to be a lot of this going round lately.

In answer to that question I would have to say the negative influences of friends and family who don't have the same drive and ambition that you may have, verty easily to become influenced by what others who are close to you say and end up settling for way below second best

I got excited about becoming an entrepreneur after coming across with several young entrepreneurs in a short period of time. I had my crosshair set up after one of them got really excited about my skills and abilities and wanted to found a company with me.

The biggest problem for me was not realising that all the funding for the company does not have to come out of your own pocket.

The biggest continuing problem is, of course, finding the time and energy to develop the concern in the middle of studying and other social relations.

I echo what most people have said. I also got disillusioned with "working" life and knew i had to give it a shot on my own.

I have been freelance writing for three years now and half of that has been in a full time capacity. it was by far the best thing I ever did and this was why I started my blog. I wanted other people to know that working for yourself is a possibility and that it could even be easy.

I think being an entrepreneur is especially important for women. You must accept if you work in the real world that women are not always taken seriously, are paid less than their male counterparts and often have to do poorly paid part time work because they have family responsibilities.

The best thing about working for myself is the fact that I am paid what I am worth, I will never sack myself because I get pregnant or have sick kids and I am happier than ever. Flexibility is the key thing when it comes to working for yourself and there are far fewer barriers than there are in the real world - for women at least.

What sparked the entrepreneurial spirit?
I started a small eBay venture years ago before eBay and Paypal lost their minds... so I suppose the thirst started there. After college, the logical thing to do was find a 9-5 corporate job and work till I die. I worked my 40-50 hours a week, busted my hump for the fools, only to be laid off without severance. I decided it was time for me to come back to running my own shop...

What problems have you had so far?
Information overload. Right now I feel like a deer in headlights, I want to run in all directions, and because of that, I can't choose one, and stand frozen...

What tasks associated with getting started have come easy?
Setting up my LLC, web hosting, etc.

What has been the biggest challenge?
Direction... followed by ACTION!

The biggest barriers to being an entrepreneur are the unwillingness to work hard without a safety net, and unwillingness to step out of the comfort zone.

Let's face it - starting your own business isn't a sure thing. There is the possibility that you'll fail. Unless you have the fortitude to work your ass off without knowing for sure that you'll succeed, you'll never make it. Whatever you do will just be a hobby.

Starting and running a business is hard work. It takes discipline. You might have to give up a weekend or two camping because you need to run a webinar. Maybe your bowling league needs to be put on the back burner for a while. You won't have the luxury, for a while anyway, of 'leaving the job at the office'. If you need that, if that's important to you, keep your job. It's easier.

Being an entrepreneur means taking gigantic leaps out of your comfort zone, at least for most people. You'll have to do things that you didn't think you could do, or didn't really want to do. But you will do them, because you want success, you want to make it happen. You know if you don't do them, if you don't put aside your fears and just jump in the water, the next day holds the promise of puckering up to kiss the backside of the person one rung up from you on the corporate ladder.

Don't know about anyone else, but that vision inspires me to do extraordinary things sometimes

Other Christian and Volit,

Isn't that the truth? With the economy, you'd think all the egregiously incompetent managers would be out of jobs. I hold strongly that human resources is an art, not a science, and that once someone gets a job, do a good enough job to keep it and suck up to your bosses (hey, it works for the feds, at least).

That's another thing, although I'm a poli sci and history grad, I hate office/corporate politics. By starting my own business(es), I can set the tone and ostensibly be above the lower-level politics.

A little bit of money from a lot of people is a good way to think about making money. I am starting a home business with this principle in mind. The main idea is to have a good product to sell for a small price and to repeat it over and over again. This happens by knowing how to attract people to your site so they have the opportunity to prosper with you in the process.

Biggest barrier?