To do or not to do is a classic dilemma that characterizes an entrepreneur. Starting with the business proposition down to marketing and recruitment an entrepreneur has myriad dilemmas to sort out. While a decision taken right spells success, a decision gone wrong means another decision tree to work on.

There is, however, a difference between an entrepreneur with no issues with regard to capital flow and a small entrepreneur with limited access to funding to leverage on. Therefore, the consequences of risk for a person with substantive funds to test the feasibility of an idea are entirely different from those of a start-up. In the case of the former, tasting the market water may not be a make or break situation for his survival. In the case of the latter, however, should an idea fail, he may not have anything left to test another idea and grow.

With the country now focused on small businesses to drive growth, let us look into the issues of enterprise at the start-up level. For a start-up entrepreneur, the dilemma arises from the risk of losing a flow of steady income.

He has to weigh the option of sacrificing a source of steady income against embracing an uncertain income flow. By getting into the business he would be exposing his family to the uncertainty as well. Will his family be up to it? Will they be ready to cut down on the lifestyle? A grave decision fork that faces an aspiring entrepreneur right at the beginning!

Once he sorts this out and trudges on, the next one is whether to do it alone or do it with a partner? In most cases, businesses fold not so much because of lack of opportunities but due to differences between partners. Business by itself tends to keep one on the edges. If at the top of that the partners are at loggerheads, the business as an entity starts suffering.

And then of course comes the staffing and infrastructure issue. And it keeps rolling. Once the business is on the go, the decisions become much more complicated. Because if the break-even gets delayed, the initial risk of planning for a beating in income gets compromised. There is then the risk of failure and embracing an alternative.

In short, the decisions, though, may appear disjointed, are not. Every single decision has feedback on the past. And all past ones have an impact on the future. Enterprise is exciting precisely because of challenges and the risks involved in them. It’s a field that needs creative thinking and out of the box decisions. The rewards, therefore, are commensurately higher.