“I could not find the job that I wanted, so I started my own company,” once said Jack Driscoll, an inventor and a successful serial entrepreneur, whose successes include a device company that has changed the landscape of environmental safety and another company that has grown into the largest privately held in vitro diagnostic company in the world.
However, starting a business is not for everyone, Driscoll cautions. So before you start, think about what you want to do and ask yourself some hard questions.
- Do you have a new and unique product that has a market?
- Will it bother you if you don’t know where your next dollar will come from?
- Will you and your family be okay if you have to work long hours every day for a long time?
- Will you be happy running your own business in the long term?
“Work for someone else if it bothers you to work 60+ hours per week for a long time, and/or it bothers you to own a bank money, and you have to put your assets on the line,” Driscoll advises.
But, if you do strongly believe in your business idea and you think you have the entrepreneurship spirit. “Go for it,” Driscoll encourages. But here are a few things you may want to do right from the very beginning.
- Build a team. To grow, you need a team of professionals with different skill sets because no matter how smart you are and how hard you work, you can’t do everything by yourself.
- Sign an agreement. With a team, you’ll need an agreement that spells out each member’s responsibilities, and most importantly the percentage of profits (or debts) they can take later on. An agreement becomes especially important as your business grow and you start to have investors.
To learn more about Dr. Driscoll's inspiring story, read the original profile published by ACS's Industry Voice.
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