We find ourselves living in turbulent economic times. Finding ways to keep a business afloat is of the utmost importance these days as even Wall Street and the international banking and business industries continue to reel from the effects of decades of mismanagement and lack of regulation. Just like any other person, my family and I have been affected by these events. I did not understand a lot about what was happening when the news first broke and the negative effects began to directly impact my life. Slowly, I became aware of the importance of proper business management skills and business leadership in the world. From the ruins of the business of the world wide financial crisis, my passion to learn all about how to properly conduct a business was born.
I found myself beginning to wonder, why was it that as the big businesses went belly up, the small entrepreneurs seemed to manage to stay afloat and keep their business going. How was it possible that the large conglomerates were needing government bail outs while the mom and pop store at the corner found a way to keep their capital going? Surely there was not much difference between running a small to medium scale enterprise and the likes of Caterpillar or General Motors.
Questions about how to survive the business crunch began to swirl in my head as our family business began to feel the effects of the downtrend. More so when my father approached me one day and told me that he needed a fresh set of eyes with which to look at the family business. We were not exactly in the red, but we were not running an affluent business either. Just like any business we too had our loans and creditors to pay. But due to the tightening consumer belts, we were seeing a smaller profit on a daily basis, which was making it difficult but not impossible to meet our financial obligations.
Even though I had yet to receive a formal business education, by this point, I had already been reading the business section of the papers and also reading books about business management which gave me a simple understanding of what needed to be done in order to keep our business afloat. It was this information that I brought to the table and presented to my father. He was the first person to recognize how passionate I was about business and that I had the full potential to be a success in the field if given the proper instruction and tools to begin with.
I had imagined a few simple business solutions which, with my father’s supervision and guidance, I began to implement in an effort to infuse new blood and savings ideas into the company. Ideas which, to the amazement of my father and those concerned, managed to work out and actually kept us stable enough to meet the problems that arose before us.
My passion for business is something that obviously had a profound effect on me. It enabled me to enter a field that is not for the faint hearted and actually make a small difference. Leadership skills within me would have remained untapped had my father not trusted my idealistic visions enough to give it a try. Such passion can only be found in born business leaders, whom I believe myself to be one of.
It is said that some people have a knack for business and others don’t. I believe that I can make a difference in the business community in the future because of the fiery passion I came to realize that I posses. Such passion allows me to envision a global business community where all SME’s will survive alongside the giant corporations. This desire also fuels me towards a desire to see a level playing field for all businesses, regardless of capital. Afterall, business has a trickle down effect that everyone has to deal with, but only a few can survive.