No More Excuses! Start Teaching Pretzel Kids NOW! 

By Robyn Parets

If you’re a wannabe entrepreneur, your upcoming summer vacation isn’t the only thing you’re dreaming about while at work. Starting your own small business is likely top of mind when you’re staring out your office window.
There are always reasons why the time isn’t right or ideal to launch a business or become your own boss. However, if you’ve got a great business idea, here are five reasons why you might want to turn those dreams into reality sooner rather than later:

1. You have found a way to solve a problem and you think your future small business can achieve this better than any other possible solution out there.This is paramount to succeeding with your small business, and many upstart entrepreneurs founded their companies to address a consumer problem. Take a look at Uber, an app created to get people from point A to point B for a low price Or what about GrubHub? This app lets you order food on demand to be delivered from a myriad of restaurants—from wherever you are.
2. You’ll be happier being your own boss.While this may be a generalization, those who are self-employed experience greater job satisfaction and are often happier than those who work for someone else, according to Fast Company.
3. Technology is on your side.You may not be flush with cash, but you can create a website and blog yourself or hire a web designer for short money. You can also make use of cloud computing for accounting and marketing tools. Social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter let you easily reach thousands of customers, as do inexpensive email marketing sites like MailChimp and Constant Contact.
4. You have many financing options.Long gone are the days when you had to take an advance on your credit card or beg your parents for a loan to fund your small business as you couldn’t get approved for bank funding. Times have changed and there are an abundance of non-traditional funding options available to new businesses, including crowdsourcing through sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, as well as numerous online lenders that loan to small businesses and entrepreneurs of all sizes. If cash flow is a concern when you’re starting out, sites like Fundbox offer another funding option: Advances on outstanding invoices. With this scenario, you’ll pay back those advances plus a small fee, but you’ll get your money much faster.
5. You can choose when to stay or go.If you have a comfortable job with a reliable paycheck, you may prefer to stick around for a bit while launching your small business at night or on the weekends. This is a good way to build up slowly until you can devote 100 percent of your time to your new endeavor. On the flipside, if you’re unhappy at work and want to leave right away, you can still do that and take a part-time job just to make ends meet. The economy is thriving right now and jobs are plentiful, so why not take advantage of this?

The bottom line is: There’s no time like the present. If you sit around wondering when the right time is to bust a move, you’ll be waiting around forever. Besides, even if your business doesn’t pan out, perhaps it will lead you to an even better idea for another new company. You won’t know until you try, and 2016 just may be the year for a leap of faith.

---