8 reasons to start your business in 2017

Are you an aspiring entrepreneur who has been thinking of setting up your own business but lack the courage to do so? Perhaps you already have a plan, but there’s a multitude of reasons why entrepreneurship is risky. From the lack of resources, to losing sleep, to possibly ending up in a pile of debts, the inertia to start seems pretty high.

However, there has never been a better time to start your own business than 2017. Here are some reasons to motivate you to take the first steps in starting up your own company.

 


Online platforms

In this tech savvy age, the Internet provides increased interconnectedness and easy access for you to obtain outreach on your business. Online platforms make it easier for you to reach out and connect with potential customers. With evolving technology people can now access the Internet anywhere so they’re increasingly are turning to online businesses such as the e-commerce markets. Gone are the days of traditional marketing, and knocking from door to door in hopes to sell your Fried Chicken recipe like Colonel Sanders did in the early days of KFC. Businesses such as Amazon and Alibaba are examples of start-ups that hopped onto the e-commerce bandwagon, and are now conquering the online retail market.

Furthermore, with a plethora of social media platforms available like Facebook and Instagram you can market your business and open up your ideas to the digital world. The social media platforms have made it much easier for you to push your business out to a very large pool of potential customers.

Venture friendly market

Capital shouldn’t be a reason to hold you back from starting a business. There plenty y of resources in Singapore to help you out with building your initial startup capital such as venture friendly markets as well as government grants and policies.

According to Singapore Business Review, aggregate venture capital deals have risen from 102 in 2014 to 147 in 2015. The surge in availability of financing is due to schemes like Early stage Venture Funding Schemes (ESVF) and Business Angel Schemes (BAS). The ESVF is a scheme where the Singapore government would inject S$50 million to energise the early stage investment ecosystem. You can take advantage of these scheme by visiting this website to know more

Government support and policies

 Singapore’s government is one of the key drivers of Singapore’s start up eco-system with the abundance of initiatives providing necessary infrastructure and finance to develop the ecosystem. Readily available are cash grants such as Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE), and Technology Enterprise Commercialization Scheme (TECS). You can read more on grants provided by the government on our blog such as the Productivity and Innovation Credit Scheme (PIC) and  and Innovation and Capability Voucher  (ICV).

Institutional and infrastructural support

 A notable infrastructural support in Singapore is Block 71. It is deemed “the world’s most tightly packed entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Singapore’s equivalent to Silicon Valley. Singapore also boasts some of the best co-working spaces in Asia. So you’ll never have to worry about paying expensive office rent or finding a conducive workspace for your startup or business. Read more about co-working spaces in Singapore here.

Improved support services

If you are setting up your business and looking for skilled freelancers or other business services to work on projects, there are available sites that allow you to easily connect with these people. For example, ThunderQuote is especially good for start ups with low budgets because it can help you find 5 different vendors to meet your needs, and gives you more room to decide on the best option.

Low cost

Large start up companies like AirBnB, Uber and Facebook are known to own no physical inventories, but still thrive in the start up scene. This is because people are increasingly embracing the idea of a shared economy where consumers create shared experiences, or work together to contribute to the industry. It is possible to tap on this idea to create a business without necessarily getting winded by limited resources.

Businesses can still thrive even in an economic downturn

A depressing economic climate may seem to be one of the worst times to set up your business. However, there are still individual markets that present opportunity which you can exploit. Knowing how to adapt to the economy will give you an upper hand no matter the economic climate.

Fulfil your drive and passion as an entrepreneur

Being an entrepreneur definitely has its risks but if you’re passionate about it, the benefit it brings are aplenty:

  1. Ownership. You get to decide the direction your company heads towards, and be your own boss while leading your team.
  2. Freedom: You get the freedom to pursue your interests and passion, and solving for a cause that you are interested in. This will give you more purpose in your career, and the drive you need to motivate yourself everyday.
  3. Flexibility: You are able to decide your own working hours. Flexibility allows you to plan your time around your priorities like family and friends, giving you more autonomy of your time

You will never know if you fail or succeed if you never start

Simply put, there is never the perfect time to overcome the inertia and set up to start up your own company. But the general consensus is that if you never try, you will never know.

ThunderQuote is the most comprehensive business services portal in Singapore, Australia and ASEAN , where hundreds of thousands of dollars of procurement contracts are sourced every month by major companies like Singapore Press Holdings, National Trade Union Congress and more.

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