One of the key attributes of successful entrepreneurs is their enthusiasm and passion for their businesses. During the initial phases of SelectAbilities I faced many hurdles including but not limited to, raising initial capital, failure, and unexpected tasks. My passion and vision for SelectAbilities may be the only reason it was ever launched.

One of the first obstacles I faced was to come up with the initial capital. It is very hard to raise money as a young entrepreneur without assets to collateralize against and no track record. Banks will not consider the investment, and investors typically like to see some sort of business history before they put their money at risk. Therefore, I needed to put my vision on hold until I could save up enough money to start it up on my own.

The first attempt at creating SelectAbilities failed due to a owner operated web design firm taking on too much work than he could handle. The failure cost much needed capital / precious time and made it difficult to proceed. Fortunately, I was able to find a website engineering team, which possessed the project management resources needed for a project of my scale, and as an added bonus offered me a grant which matched my expenses dollar for dollar; essentially providing me a premium service at a discounted rate.

All business owners will tell you that starting a business takes a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck. I encourage all of you to have a VERY detailed business plan, however there will be tasks excluded from that plan. While starting SelectAbilities (and currently), I worked full time as a consultant at a CPA firm. This means not only was I working 50+ hours a week as a consultant, but I was also working on SelectAbilities as the only full time employee. If the saving my hard earned money and failing didn’t require much passion for my business this one defiantly did.

To recap; raising capital may take more time than expected, do your research when outsourcing a project, and plan for the unexpected. But above all, do what lights your fire within and will continue burning for the long haul, because without passion for what you are doing there is no point to continue doing it.

www.SelectAbilities.com