By: Colleen Kardasz, Director, Export Assistance Network
When I talk to other small business advisors, I often find myself discussing our reputation of sometimes “crushing dreams” or not understanding someone’s passion. When you meet with several hundred small businesses a year and around 20% of those businesses are pre-venture or in the planning stages of starting a business, as an advisor, you often find yourself telling people things they don’t want to hear. The millennial with no cash and no credit who wants to buy a historic building doesn’t want to hear about the $100,000 build out any more than the aspiring restaurateur wants to hear that she most likely won’t be able to open in six weeks like she had wanted given the amount of time it will take just for the inspection process. We as small business advisors do not want to crush anyone’s dreams we just think it is better that you as a potential business owner think through, plan and prepare for all the aspects of running a business. We want you to have a plan well before you’ve invested your time and money. What’s better for the individual and the community: ten businesses who open and close in their first year, or five business who take a little longer to open, but stay open year after year? We’ll keep breaking the hard news to people if it means that we are helping entrepreneurs be successful.
When I talk to other small business advisors, I often find myself discussing our reputation of sometimes “crushing dreams” or not understanding someone’s passion. When you meet with several hundred small businesses a year and around 20% of those businesses are pre-venture or in the planning stages of starting a business, as an advisor, you often find yourself telling people things they don’t want to hear. The millennial with no cash and no credit who wants to buy a historic building doesn’t want to hear about the $100,000 build out any more than the aspiring restaurateur wants to hear that she most likely won’t be able to open in six weeks like she had wanted given the amount of time it will take just for the inspection process. We as small business advisors do not want to crush anyone’s dreams we just think it is better that you as a potential business owner think through, plan and prepare for all the aspects of running a business. We want you to have a plan well before you’ve invested your time and money. What’s better for the individual and the community: ten businesses who open and close in their first year, or five business who take a little longer to open, but stay open year after year? We’ll keep breaking the hard news to people if it means that we are helping entrepreneurs be successful.
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