Page 185 - Marky Stein - Fearless Career Change_ The Fast Track to Success in a New Field (2004)

For Entrepreneurial Spirits

Possible Advantages Possible Disadvantages
•Your income is limited • Your income may differ consid-
only by your ability to erably from month to month
make a profit for yourself. and year to year.
•You can choose with whom • Employees and even business
you want to work. partners can present problems
such as cheating, lack of moti-
vation, or legal or disciplinary
issues. (You can hire an on-call
human resources consultant to
help you with employee issues.)
•You have almost unlimited • People with money to loan you
creativity. may not agree with your cre-
ative ideas. You must persevere
to find funding or fund your
business yourself.
•You can choose the image • Some advertising, marketing,
you wish to portray to the and public relations efforts can
public. be expensive. You may need to
market yourself constantly to
stay competitive.
• Most small businesses, • None.
consultants, and
corporations enjoy
considerable tax benefits.

Consider carefully whether the advantages are attractive
enough for you to take some major risks along the way in order to
achieve your desired result. Also note whether or not you think you
can persevere in the face of some of the disadvantageous aspects of
running your own enterprise or being a private consultant.

Self-Assessment

The following pages present a test, or self-assessment, to help you
think about some of the skills and personality traits that might be
beneficial to you while you face the ups and downs of entrepre-
neurship or consultancy.

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