Barriers to Entry

If you've ever studied business, you know that one of the things to consider when evaluating a business opportunity is the presence of barriers to entry. The term refers to what possible obstacles stand in the way of the business getting off the ground or gaining market share.

• Is the industry heavily regulated? Big barrier to entry.
• Is there a large financial investment necessary up front for equipment, land, people, etc.? Another barrier to entry.
• Are there already several established, dominant players in the market who could squash you like a bug? (Think John Deere, Microsoft, or Coke.) Yep...another barrier to entry.
• Or do you just need a lawnmower, edger, and a few flyers to put in people's mailboxes? Low barrier to entry.

Some of the barriers to entry aren't physical or financial ... they're mental. And they can be the biggest, hardest ones to overcome.  Those voices inside your head can be pretty loud.

And for me, I can be my own barrier to entry. You see, I'm a list maker. I can procrastinate just about anything away and blame it on a to do list of things that "had" to be done first, before I could even start.

A friend of mine (I use the term loosely ... we've met twice), Jon Acuff, is inspiring me to get over waiting for the perfect moment and simply jump at the first moment. This moment. Because this moment will never come again. And the perfect moment may never come at all.






Check out today's blog from Jon on mental barriers to entry. It was convicting to me:

Jon's Blog: Do you have what you need to start your dream?

I talked about some of my mental barriers to entry last time. (Click here to check out my Sunday Confessional.) I'm sure I'll come back to them, but I'm also a very practical person. So my next few blog posts will be about the more concrete, in-my-face barriers to entry that have kept me from working on my dream (being a professional writer/novelist). The list includes — but is not limited to:

• Time
• Finances
• My day job .. as a writer

So in the meantime, enjoy Jon's blog. And if you are considering pursuing a dream — whether it's to be an accountant, a doctor, a pet groomer, a writer, a mechanic, or a minister — check out his book, Quitter. It is a funny, practical guide to "closing the gap between your day job and your dream job. "

Finish Well.