How did you tell your loved ones that you wanted to start up?

Photo credit: Ian Schneider

Many of us here are different. We are on different quests tackling problems that irk us. We work on various markets. We adopt different methodologies to grow our respective startups.

But of course, we have a lot in common and more often than not, it’s about convincing your partner, friends, family that you want to start up.

Hands up if that may be the thing you dread the most. Some may say it’s even harder than pitching to investors.

We’ve got some understanding and insights through articles written by our community contributors.

Fresh out of school

Say you caught the startup bug during your final year in school. You went for the highly-acclaimed entrepreneurial program in college. And now you are ready to start something up. You found a pain point to address with a reasonable market size and it’s now or never.

And then this happened.

“You want to start your own business? Why are you so stupid?

Who would want a man with no financial stability? And where do you think you can obtain any housing loan with no income?”cried Joe’s mother.

Christopher Quek recounted his pro-bono mentoring days at Angels Gate Advisory (AGA) where he met Joe (not his real name), a graduate of a local Singapore university back then who was starting up. He mentioned, “when speaking with parents or loved ones, it is always important to focus on keeping it simple and addressing their fears.” Prepare your presentation and give assurance to them.

Leaving your stable job

Cheryl Liew was bombarded with questions from her relatives amidst the joy and festivities during Chinese New Year when they knew she resigned from her stable job to start her own business.

“Why do you want to quit your job?” to “I thought your job was paying you quite well?” and “Why start from square one?”

Selling your home or spending your savings

Let’s discuss