Readiness and Restraint Small Business Owners

529 Words3 Pages
Starting up and running an owner managed small business is a trying task that takes dedication, commitment and in some cases luck. Unless you manage to grasp a guaranteed successful opportunity and excel from the word get go, most small business owner managers (SBOM’s) face a tremendous amount of pressure and risk. Deciding whether or not to start up a small business is not easy and with it comes a lot of restraints which in turn tend to defer prospective SBOM’s. Peacock (2004) claims that some people have certain periods in their life cycle where a window of opportunity open’s, this is where a person builds confidence in the feeling that their current restraints are considerably outweighed by their feeling of readiness. Readiness represents a person’s confidence and feeling of complete competency over the challenges to come in the new business venture. All SBOM’s are different, some are very entrepreneurial and willing to take risks while others are very readiness reliant and don’t necessarily have entrepreneurial traits. All SBOM’s face major readiness and restraint factors. Some of the major restraints published in literature relating to studies on small business characteristics, entrepreneurialism and small business owner managers can be recognised as ‘risk factors’. Liles (1974) recognises a major restraint as being satisfaction in one’s current position/direction. People tend to get ‘used to their creature comforts’ and ‘stuck in their ways’ which in turn tends to make people afraid of what could be or afraid to take that leap. In one context entrepreneurs can be seen as any new small business owner because unless there are precipitating events that basically guarantee them a head start, any new business owner is taking a risk entering into either a new market or even a pre-established market. Risks and restraints can in some cases go hand in hand, for
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