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Is Starting a Company Risky? Part 2

Guest post from Justin Beck, CEO PerBlue
In my last post, I discussed a few risks and sacrifices associated with starting a company. If you didn’t have the chance to read that post, you can find it here. Today, I’ve put together a few more thoughts on starting a company.

Are these sacrifices too much to ask? Are the rewards worth the risks? It’s up to you to decide.

Opportunity Cost: When you say yes, it will mean that you will have to say no to other things. In the next few years, what will starting this company mean for you? What will you have to give up? I’m sure the list will be plenty. Of those things, what can be pushed to a later date in life and what do you have to do now?


Spare Time & Other Hobbies:
Similar to your business opportunity costs, this sacrifice relates to opportunities within your free time. During the early stages of a start up, your free time gets really pinched and will no doubt be short on supply. Most likely your personal hobbies will fall by the wayside, and you will discover new hobbies that revolve around your new business. This is great, these hobbies will broaden your skill set and will push you to explore all facets of your start up.

These are the risks and sacrifices of starting your own company. So why does this matter? My argument is that if you lose a few of these things, even just temporarily, they will either be easy to get back, or they will come back much stronger after the company gets going. Realizing how much personal value that PerBlue has provided for my life, there is not a day that goes by that I regret starting it. As more time goes by, the more I get out of it- in the form of education, financial, skills, people connections, even travel opportunities!

What I can promise you is that even though you put tons of time and effort into building your business, ultimately the company will give you much more in return!

Guest post from Justin Beck
Justin is the Co-Founder and CEO of PerBlue, a mobile and social gaming company in Madison, Wisconsin. The company is best known for its flagship product, Parallel Kingdom, the first location-based RPG. Justin is a passionate software developer and entrepreneur. As CEO, Beck has grown PerBlue from a group five college friends to a team of 30 full-time employees.

Prior to starting PerBlue, Beck held software engineer and program manager positions at Microsoft and Google. Beck graduated from the University of Wisconsin with degrees in Computer Engineering and Computer Science.

About Guest Blogger

Guest bloggers for the TDS Business Blog.

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