Deciding Whether Entrepreneurship is Right for You

From Tapping Your Inner Entrepreneur, by Diane Sears, in NAWBO's Entrepreneurship Trilogy

Why do women start businesses? What motivates anyone to dive into entrepreneurship with her heart and soul? How do you know whether business ownership is right for you?

The answers to these questions are as varied as the 10.6 million privately held businesses in the United States that are at least 50 percent woman-owned. These businesses generate $2.5 trillion in sales and employ 19.1 million people, according to the Center for Women's Business Research in Washington, D.C., founded as the National Foundation for Women Business Owners. And each woman business owner has her own story.

• Tracie lost her job in a dot-com layoff. She started her business almost by accident when a partnership with her sister fell through and she was left as sole proprietor. She struggled for a few years. Then she found her groove in the industry.

• Lisa and her boyfriend decided in college that they'd like to own a business someday. So they got married, graduated, and went to work for other people, saving his salary and living on hers. Several years later, with their start-up capital and a business plan in hand, they opened a restaurant.

• Laura and two friends put their heads together for more than a year to draft a business plan for an imaginary company. One day they asked themselves whether they were doing it just for fun or really serious. They said goodbye to their corporate jobs and started a financial consulting firm as partners.

• Janie quit selling petroleum for someone else's company because she knew she could do it better on her own. Her corporate experience had given her a well-rounded education of the industry, as well as skills she needed to operate a successful business.

• Sheila had moved up the corporate ladder as far as she wanted to go, and one day she knew it was time to quit and start her own business. Today she's taking her company to new levels that challenge all of her skills.

• Jacqueline entered entrepreneurship when her youngest child started school. As a partner at a prestigious law firm, she represented several major corporations. One of them made her an offer too good to refuse and she returned to corporate life as vice president of a worldwide franchise company.

What will your story be? If you're thinking of starting your own business, you're in for a journey of self-exploration. The good news is that many, many people before you have tested the waters, and you can learn from their experience.

You'll find some of their stories outlined in this book, along with statistical information, expert advice and checklists to use as guidelines as you explore a possible new career.

Today's Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship in the United States is so widespread today that it's "as common as getting married or the birth of a baby," according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri.

Actually it's more common. About 10.1 million U.S. adults are trying to start a business at any given time. Some are working in teams, so the number of businesses in formation is about 5.6 million, the Kauffman organization found in its 2002 report "The Entrepreneur Next Door: Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics," published online at www.kauffman.org. By comparison, at the time of the study, the nation annually recorded about 3.9 million births and 2.4 million marriages.

You're just as likely to start a business when you're in your late 20s as you are in your 30s, 40s or early 50s, the study shows. If you're involved in starting a business right now, you're among about 4.5 in every 100 women in the United States. That compares with 8.1 in every 100 men - or an average of 6.2 in every 100 adults.

The Center for Women's Business Research, which posts its data online at www.womensbusinessresearch.org, gives a national perspective of where women are operating businesses:

• The West and the Mid-Atlantic have higher ratios of women-owned businesses than the South, the Plains and the Midwest.

• California, New York, Texas, Florida and Illinois together account for 38 percent of all firms owned by women nationwide.

• States with the highest percentage of women-owned firms are the District of Columbia, New Mexico, Maryland, Colorado and Oregon. Those with the lowest: Mississippi, Wyoming, North Dakota, Arkansas and South Dakota.