Jump into Entrepreneurship this week

  photo by kimrose

In case you weren’t aware, this is Global Entrepreneurship Week, a celebration of all things entrepreneurial – sponsored in part by KC’s own Kauffman Foundation.  Here’s the official blurb on what it’s all about:

For one week (November 15-21), millions of young people around the world join a growing movement of entrepreneurial people, to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things. Countries across six continents come together to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week, an initiative to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity. To think big. To turn their ideas into reality. To make their mark.

Primarily it’s intended to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit in young people, but in my opinion there’s a huge group of experienced workers who are thinking about or are ready to make that same leap into starting their own business.

As an example, I had a great discussion this afternoon with a friend of mine who’s been kind of straddling the fence.  He’s made some great progress in ramping up a business, but he’s also been ‘looking’ for a job on the side and considered that his fallback if things don’t go well.

His feedback this afternoon?  He’s making the full leap into really owning his own business…his comment to me was, “I’ve been thinking about it a lot and I don’t want to go work for someone else”.

What a perfect sentiment for Global Entrepreneurs Week!

The Intuit 2020 Trend report that I mentioned last week specifically noted a strong trend of baby boomers starting their own businesses:

Younger baby boomers, aged 55 to 65, will start more small businesses than any other demographic.

Along the same lines, I’m seeing a lot of former corporate employees ages 30 to 50 who are actively considering what kind of business they can start.

If you’re interested in activities to celebrate the week – Allison Way put up a comprehensive listing of all of the local Kansas City Entrepreneurship Activities.

Are you thinking about jumping into your own business?  Are you straddling the fence of starting something and still looking for that J.O.B.?  I’d love to hear your perspective on today’s environment for starting something…or better yet, I’d like to hear what you’d like to start!  Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach