“Most people risk little and achieve nothing – they are quickly forgotten.” David Zindell

Starting a business is an Endeavour fraught with risk. Every year hundreds of thousands of businesses open their doors for business and every year hundreds of thousands close their doors.

But business failure is a risk you’ll have to undertake if you’re going to achieve success as an entrepreneur.

Now, please don’t for one second associate business risk with leaping blindly into something without having done research or drawing up a business plan. As this is more like utter stupidity than risk taking.

Of course following opportunities involves risk, but this must be backed up with an intellectual process, where you apply the tools of risk management.

Risk management is something successful entrepreneurs have almost distilled into a science, as they painstakingly undertake very thorough and detailed research. Then if all the pieces fit and they are confident of success (no guarantees) they go for it.

So from the beginning try and minimize your exposure to risk.

If you have a great idea for a business don’t blindly jump into it with both feet. Keep your day job as long as possible and built your business part time. Try your ideas and see if they work – speak with potential customers and suppliers. Then when you’ve got your first order and validated the idea as much as you can – begin. Don’t wait, raise your anchor and sail away from the safe harbors.

A sad fact is that most people dream of running their own business but very few will do so. As the risk involved is just too much for them to stomach, and there’s nothing wrong with this. They have applied basic risk management skills in coming to this conclusion. Maybe they fear the stress, the loss of earnings, or maybe they like the comfort of working for a large firm, and the downsides of running their own concern were too great for them to move forward.

But this is good for those of us who do, as these highly intelligent and talented people may one day end up working for you, helping you to grow your business and applying their skills to your bottom line.

So what stops most of us taking the leap. Well the greatest contributors are, Fear of failure, Fear of the unknown, and one of the greatest ones, Fear of others opinions.

This last one is so sad as we spend our whole lives worrying what others think of us, how they’re judging and measuring us up. And this is a silly way to live!

Why have you elevated these strangers, neighbors ,etc.. to being the arbiters of your virtue. When really they are the arbiters of nothing and should be focusing their energies on their own lives. What’s important is what you think. And believe me on the road you will receive more than your fair share of accusations and sniggers, so start thickening up your skin.

Your family and friends may have the best intentions when they warn you and try and talk you out of this new venture. Others won’t see the situation as you do. They’ll think you’re taking a terrible risk, but if your judgment and figures tell you otherwise it’s worth taking.

So I hope you enjoyed this brief essay on business risk, I’m going to finish with a poem on risk I found very inspirational:

To laugh is to  risk appearing the fool

To weep is to risk being called sentimental

To reach out to another is to risk involvement

To expose feelings

Is to risk showing your true self

To place your ideas and your dreams before the crowd….

Is to risk being called naive

To love is to risk not being loved in return

To live is to risk dying

To hope is to risk despair

To try is to risk failure

But risks must be taken

Because the greatest risk in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing,

Does nothing, has nothing, is nothing and becomes nothing.

He may avoid suffering and sorrow,

But he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love.

Chained by his certitude, he is a slave,

He has forfeited his freedom.

Only the person who risks is truly free.

Don’t be afraid to fail. Most people are!