Some suggest that entrepreneurship is a high-level trait that can give more knowledge to an entrepreneur in four months than a degree of four years. But, where does an entrepreneur start, and does he need to focus on one start-up or does he need to keep exploring options and improvise new ventures all the time? What is the sustainability period of a start-up?
In the Pakistani market, the economic and political situation is very volatile and keeps on changing very rapidly. It gets very difficult with time to keep up with the new rules and regulations introduced by the government. Entrepreneurs are increasingly under pressure to keep up with the regulatory changes and they are finding it very challenging to adapt to the ever-changing regulatory requirements all the time.
A recent study has identified that there are two types of entrepreneurs; 1) Those who start a business and keep on growing it and take it to a certain level of maximum potential and make it sustainable, 2) There are entrepreneurs who start a business, develop it to a certain level and then start another vertical of their interest.
It remains a big question: whether an entrepreneur needs to take one initiative, make the business sustainable and keep on managing it after it has achieved its full potential. Or, should they have a knack for taking a series of initiatives and keep on developing new start-ups? The answer to that is rather tricky and has many objectives attached to it.
One school of thought says that keeping one vertical and sustaining it by continuously doing the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis should be the way forward. That way, a business can achieve more potential and will have people associated with it for a longer tenure.
Another school of thought might argue against it by stating that, with the introduction of new verticals; after the initial start-up has achieved a full life cycle; entrepreneurs will be able to achieve more & contribute more overall. The entrepreneur will be seen as a serial entrepreneur by having a portfolio of successful businesses and will have more to his credit. Also, after a while, a business becomes less challenging and the entrepreneur will get bored of the tedious routine.
While there are examples to back up both scenarios, the debate is never-ending and takes us nowhere. Whatever the case might be, one thing is to be nurtured—entrepreneurship—because that is where creativity comes from and it is the oxygen to any country’s ecosystem.