There are entrepreneurs and there are serial entrepreneurs. But what is the difference between the two? Both start a business from an idea. While a typical entrepreneur may opt to stay to run their venture, a serial entrepreneur may pass on the reigns of managing the business to someone else and moves towards starting another one.
Some entrepreneurs may be more skilful at the startup stage and find it a challenge overseeing the day-to-day needs of the business. Serial entrepreneurs thrive at creating ideas and putting such concepts into concrete results by building startups. There’s nothing wrong with it if one’s skills set better matches becoming a founder rather than managing a business. Still, it pays to be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of serial entrepreneurship should you decide to be one.
Pros of serial entrepreneurship
More opportunities to widen one’s creativity
Not all business ideas can be merged into one venture. Some are unrelated that you need to establish a separate enterprise for your various business concepts. The good thing about being a serial entrepreneur is that you don’t get stuck with just one idea or box yourself within your existing business. By opening another startup, you can experiment and come up with many creative outputs without putting your other business in jeopardy.
Gives you more flexibility and freedom
A variety of businesses with different concepts and core products or services may allow you more flexibility and freedom to do whatever you want. As you are more into generating ideas and laying them out, you are not tied up with the day-to-day operations of your businesses. With that, you can pour your time and effort into what you do best while getting experts to take care of areas where you need help the most.
Personal and professional development
Exposure to different industries and challenges will help hone your skills and capabilities. It can provide you with various avenues for professional growth as well as personal development. You get to learn the ins and outs of the many industries where your enterprises belong and understand more the mindset of different market groups.
Can bring in more money
Having more businesses may bring in more sales and profits. It’s not always the case, but if they all become more prosperous, you will reap a good harvest with what you’ve sown. Many successful serial entrepreneurs now enjoy various streams of income because they have established several ventures and provided a good foundation to allow them to grow.
Cons of serial entrepreneurship
Several risks to take
Establishing businesses here and there may sound exciting but it may come with a huge price. Starting a business means investing your resources, time and effort. If you have several ventures you may need a lot to invest in them, which means exposing yourself to a lot of risks. You need to be more calculating in your decisions to lessen probable harm to you and your businesses.
Need for trustworthy people
Since serial entrepreneurs are usually more present in the business during the early phase and may have to hand over the reins to someone else, there is a need to find trustworthy people who can manage the various aspects of the business once it has started to take off. As the entrepreneur moves on to another startup, there must be strong leadership that will steer the other ventures forward.
A lot of accountability
Although there may be directors and managers that will take care of the other businesses and their departments, having several enterprises entail bigger accountability to the entrepreneur. There are more people under your wing. One misstep may not only affect one venture but may also affect the others. When something unexpected happens, you have more people to tend to and matters to attend. It cannot be avoided that as you multiply your businesses and expand them, there are more mouths to feed and more individuals relying on you. It might be difficult to pull out when the right time comes.
Lack of focus
With three or more businesses to your name, you need to allocate quality time for each. Having too many may result in a lack of focus, causing one or several of them to suffer. Some of your businesses may demand your attention all at the same time and not be able to address a certain issue may yield to losses and failure.
Becoming a serial entrepreneur takes a lot of courage and confidence. Not everybody may be one, as much as not all can become an entrepreneur, but if you put your mind and heart into it, you may be able to surpass the unimaginable and be able to build a business empire.