re: Successful business owners, did the people around you support your endeavors?

quote:

---

I think about this a lot. I want to start my own business but am terrified of failing. Most entrepreneurs I know were either very supported by their parents (just in general and therefore believed in themselves and had self confidence) or one or both of their parents were business owners/entrepreneurs so that was the norm for them.

---

If you have an entrepreneur spirit, you are gonna have to do it or youll go crazy. I think the best businesses are the ones started without some kind of safety net. It forces you to start small and scale accordingly. The best advice is really the simplest. Run the numbers...do they make sense? You must also factor your time in. Can you hire people that can run the business when you arent physically present? If the business runs well, can it be scaled up realistically? These are all baseline questions that have to be answered before you can move forward.

Be very, very careful about taking any loans/grants etc with strings attached from
the government. Often times it is not worth the extra paperwork and requirements.