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Peter Drucker, an Austrian management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation, described an entrepreneur as someone who seeks change, responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity.
Peter Drucker also, in his book innovation and entrepreneurship, asserts that to be an entrepreneur, you must accustom yourself to change and uncertainty. To be a successful entrepreneur, thus, you should brace yourself for the hard times, since alongside change and uncertainties, hurdles that may result in business failure also exist.
Some of these entrepreneurial hurdles may include:
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Inadequate capital to finance the day-to-day running of the business.
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Poor marketing strategies.
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Absence of skillful management team to ensure business continuity.
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Incompatible infrastructure or business model.
Overcoming these entrepreneurial hurdles requires a mastery of entrepreneurial skills packed with patience and resilience, which will enable you to learn and relearn. As an entrepreneur, it is detrimental to rely only on a one-sided business strategy which may block your vision of the other side of the coin. Instead, be flexible, be open-minded and research more on various business models. Then choose, based on insights, the model that will favour your business's success.
In addition, as an entrepreneur, you should unapologetically have a fundraising plan. A fundraising plan is a structured document that lays out specific fundraising tasks and strategies, including who will be responsible for completing tasks and the timeframe for those tasks. It also entails the strategy that you will use to source capital. Failure to do so, your venture may be part of the 20% of startups that are bound to fail in their first year, according to the Small Business Administration.
Upon failure, some entrepreneurs may revisit their venture to analyze what worked and what did not. Some may be forced to quit altogether and begin looking for alternatives. However, to be or not to be an entrepreneur, is only a matter of learning, relearning, and timing.
Those who consider seeking solace in job searching face a hard and rough time in getting it together to work for someone else. Since they are about to dive into a path they had let go of.
This article gives you 5 tips on how to smoothly transition from being an entrepreneur to being an employee.
1. Writing your cover letter and resume
Your resume should be tailored to show your value, skills and personality to the organization you are applying to. In writing your resume, you should be aware that the majority of companies use an applicant tracking system to screen through resumes. Therefore, strive to format your resume with keywords and phrases depending on the job specification.
2. Define your comparative advantage
Job seeking is like starting up your own business. You have to find your own niche to excel. According to Charlene Walters, a business and branding mentor and author of Own Your Other, finding a niche differentiates your business from the competition and allows you to excel in your sector. The same applies during job seeking, where to identify your niche, you have to state and define clearly your comparative advantage. The skills that you possess, or what you can do better than anyone. You could also back up your niche by quantifying the accomplishments and experience that you may have achieved as an entrepreneur.
3. Find the right role
As an entrepreneur, you may have been used to playing different roles in your company. A trait that you will have to leave behind, perhaps temporarily. As you embark on your search, it would be wise to know what role you would want to play as an employee. Transitioning from being your own boss to settling down for a specific role may be hard at first and merely confusing.
To ease the process, Fuzu, East Africa's #1 online career platform, offers career and personality tests that will help you understand which roles match your personality and skills.
4. Prepare your pitch
At the top of your resume, it is highly recommended that you use a summary statement. The goal of the summary statement is to demonstrate your value through skills and accomplishments. Preparing your pitch requires that you also know how to answer interview questions, by conducting mock interviews.
5. Tap into your network
In the course of your entrepreneurial journey, you must have built rapport with different clients from different fields. These clients should exist as your referrals. This will place you at a higher chance than other candidates. Also, your contacts may be able to review your CV and recommend you to potential employers. They can also critique you, To tell you what may work and what may not.
Bonus Tip: Relent no more for Fuzu is your ultimate career companion as you transition. It offers all opportunities in one place. You'll have access to expert career coaches and also get to interact with a community of professionals through its forum. With Fuzu you are not alone anymore.
Conclusion
The transition from an entrepreneur to an employee is a tragic shift that has ties to emotions as well. Emotions to this kind of shift may include elation because now you may get a regular paycheck. Besides, companies are inherently looking for candidates who have leadership skills, are risk-takers and can generally be intrapreneurs. These are the qualities that you possess and should be your selling points while job seeking. Companies are looking for candidates like you.