In this article, you’ll read about why is great for companies to stimulate their employees to become entrepreneurs or at least to promote entrepreneurship in the office.
My story
I am the Biz Dev Director at Dreamix (see what I do here) – a 20+ software company that provides Java and Oracle FMW solutions. It happened that several months ago I cofounded a mobile application called Гражданите (Citizens) in order to better the drivers’ culture on the road. Surprisingly in 3 months it gained more than 24,000 users and became the fastest growing Bulgarian mobile app – several times being at number 1 spot at the Apple store with $0 for marketing. Currently, being involved at both places I wanted to share why is better for any company to support its employees in their entrepreneurial endeavours. Just to mention that this is my personal viewpoint and my own understanding. Below are the pros and the cons for the employee and thus for the company as well:
Gains:
- You start realizing that taking risks is normal. And only through risk taking big rewards can come.
- You see that every person has the ability to create something valuable which changes everything.
- Learn from zero to one how to build something.
- Make a lot of connections that is almost impossible to be done while being in a position at a company.
- Learn how to work with all types of media – TVs, Radios, Newspapers, Magazines, Websites etc.
- Really understands how important are users. They must be happy.
- Learned to multitask – not simply multitasking but hypertasking – customer support, marketing, sales, PR, community building, accounting, etc.
- From the minimum to extract the maximum.
- How important is the work ethic.
- Being able to see what is to be in the shoes of your bosses.
- Learned to deal with politics as politics is in everything.
- How hard is to stay true to yourself and your beliefs as many people will want to become part of your life when you succeed.
- To work in a super fast paced environment.
- Learn to speak in front of people.
- Learn to motivate people.
- Learn not to be easily demotivated during lows.
- Feeling completely free which triggers unimaginable creativity and motivation to work as hard as possible.
Loses:
- Not being able to take risks or the thought of asking for permission kills the intent.
- Once tried the “forbidden apple”, it’s super hard not to reach for it again – meaning ones you’ve cofounded something successful it’s like a drug you don’t want to throw away. You want to create, create, create:)
- Being in such a fast paced environment and going back to where the things happen slower is demotivating. Every company has a bureaucracy to battle with.
- Having a boss is hard to comprehend if you’re with an entrepreneurial DNA and are used to make your own decisions.
- Constantly thinking about new things that can be done or improved and most importantly highly energized by the thought of taking an action to start executing them. If the company you work for doesn’t do something exciting in your opinion it’s hard to be fully focused in the office.
As you see from the above, the pros are a lot more than the cons. The skills and experiences gained from an entrepreneurship endeavour are extraordinary. Knowing that nowadays the relationship between an employee and an employer is flowed as Reid Hoffman says, stimulating the entrepreneur in your employees can provide you with enormous value. If you have a company and you are working in a competitive marketplace you need the best people to succeed. Most of the smartest people don’t want to work for someone but to create, build and do interesting, challenging and meaningful products and to feel appreciated and rewarded. If you realize all these you’ll prosper nowadays and will attract the best talent. If not, it’s pity because we live in a wonderful time full of possibilities.
