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There are many people who dream of owning their own business.  Some even leave their jobs to be entrepreneurs.  Karen E. Klein in her article at Businessweek.com explains the entrepreneur’s mindset as “entrepreneurs embrace risk and view it as opportunity”.  If you are have this mindset and if you believe this is the life style you want, try entrepreneurship.  How will you know if entrepreneurship is right for you?  Andrea J. Simon, a corporate anthropologist, suggests you visualize yourself in such milieu.  “Draw a picture of yourself in five years and storyboard how you are going to get there. Our brains work with pictures, so the pieces will come together if you try this,” she says.  Give yourself a deadline.  Will you jump?

Becoming an entrepreneur after losing a job isn’t easy, but leaving a job to become an entrepreneur is often tougher psychologically, says Jack McSunas, a business counselor at SCORE.org in Orange County, Calif. “When you must abandon a safe harbor for the high seas of being on your own, it is more difficult,” he says.

Yet many people do become entrepreneurs in midlife. Why? Many of them say they had a lifelong obsession with striking out on their own, despite knowing how much risk and how much hard work were in store. The entrepreneurial impulse was like an itch they needed to scratch.

Kerry Brock, an interim executive and principal at consulting firm Brock International in Santa Fe, worked in large corporations for a decade before becoming a serial entrepreneur. When he started his first small business, he says, he did three things: reduced his financial risk; maximized his returns; and determined what he wanted from entrepreneurship.

In a first step, Brock says, he divested himself of most of his assets. “The poorer you are, the less you will have to lose,” he notes. “Put your assets totally out of your reach, then after you either incorporate or start an LLC, borrow what you need to start your business.” If your business plan is not strong enough to attract capital, improve it or reconsider your decision.

Secondly, Brock decided to maximize his return by sharing his business goals with investors and lenders. “If you are successful, there will be enough for you—and your lenders will be willing to fund your future and your growth. If you start to fail, you will have advice from lenders who have a reason to make you succeed,” he says.

Finally, decide what it is about business ownership that will bring you happiness and concentrate on that. If you’re starting a business mainly to make lots of money, you’ll need to leverage other peoples’ time for your profit, Brock says. If you’re venturing into entrepreneurship to give yourself flexibility and time with family, you’ll structure your company quite differently. …

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