Every distressed woman and man need the same chances we are all lucky to have. For their sake and our communities' future, we need them to succeed. REAL SECOND CHANCE will create leaders/contributors, and hopefully start at early stages in the communities we serve.  

SO MANY QUESTIONS ABOUT ENTREPRENEURSHIP, SO LITTLE                                                     GUIDANCE. THESE FAQ'S WILL HELP

Can Anyone become an Entrepreneur?

The answer is YES!

1) No one is born an entrepreneur.

“You can’t go into Boots and buy a bottle of entrepreneurial juice – entrepreneurial spirit is something you are born with.”

Lord Alan Sugar

Sorry Lord Alan, but we beg to differ.

You don’t pop out of the womb with business acumen, nor are you waltzing around the playground building your empire. Yes, you may be born with a natural desire to succeed, but I think we all have that to varying degrees. No one is ever going to be shouting from the rooftops, “when I grow up, I want to be UN-successful.”

We believe an entrepreneurial spirit is a combination of this natural desire to succeed and our own personal experiences. Entrepreneurialism is often born out of things that have happened to us during our lives. For example: it may be fostered by the people we have met that have inspired us or given us encouragement; it may have been born out of a desire to get us out of a desperate situation such as debt; or it may have been the product of losing a job. In our case, we are concentrating on women who need a "real second chance."

There are many reasons why people choose to become an entrepreneur after one or more of these experiences, making it arguable that entrepreneurialism is not something we are born with but a result of what has occurred during our lives. We all have the ability to become an entrepreneur; therefore, it then becomes a case of whether we put this into action, and how hard we are willing to work to make ourselves a success.

2 )You don’t need money

Many people will list ‘lack of funds’ as a reason why they don’t start up their own business.

It is often daunting to hear of businesses that have been born out of a huge injection of capital, and it’s easy to conclude that this is a necessary pre-requisite for a business to be a success.

The truth is, anyone can start something on little or no money; you just need to be wise as to what your first steps into entrepreneurialism will be.

Think about what resources you already have at your disposal. What skills do you possess that you could capitalize on that wouldn’t require a huge financial outlay?

Also, in line with the affordable loss principle, think about what you can afford to lose. As you progress your business, financial gains may mean you are able to risk more, but you should never risk more than you can afford.

The phrase, ‘build your empire’ doesn’t come from nowhere, and businesses will often start small, gradually developing as they gain financially and in confidence. Large scale businesses that have huge amounts of capital were once a seedling business starting with little money.

If you do however, decide that you want to start your business with more money than you are able to provide yourself, there are many options now available for gaining investment. A Real Second Chance provides ready markets to fund women and men who have the capacity and desire to create their own businesses.

3) A lack of formal education/qualifications is not a barrier to success.

We’ve often heard many smart, business-minded women and men complain that success is out of their reach as they didn’t get good grades and/or didn’t go to University.

We call BS on this.

There exists today a huge amount of pressure to pursue higher education. The thought process seems to be that you work hard for good grades so that you get into a good University and then get a ‘proper job’ at the end of it.

As such, formal education is setting you up for becoming employed rather than becoming the boss.

What we really learn many times is that being ‘good’ at exams is a skill in of itself and not necessarily indicative of how hard we have worked.

Some people will naturally find exams easy because they have a pretty good short-term memory. They may easily be able to retain a lot of information for the exam, regurgitate this information (remove) only to then pretty much forget it all once the exam is over.

Other’s may know the subject area like the back of their hand, understand it fully, yet have been unable to master a specific exam technique. As a result, their grade may not necessarily reflect their capability.

Our point is, formal education is all about ‘coloring within the lines’ and adhering to a certain formula.

Entrepreneurialism on the other hand, is all about thinking creatively and outside of the box. These are skills that are often not identified and furthered in school.

In fact, there are plenty of examples of successful business women (and men?) who haven’t excelled in school or who have dropped out of school early. For example, Michelle Mone, founder of Ultimo dropped out of school at 15. A clear indicator that anyone can succeed no matter what their educational background.

4)    You get along great with everyone in your life

As it turns out, entrepreneurs aren’t the wide-grinning, back-slapping, glad-handing socialites they may seem to be. Entrepreneurs tend toward the outer fringe of social behavior and cultural norms. 

This makes sense when you realize that entrepreneurs are the ones who disrupt industries, chafe against the status quo and spark a good revolution.

Psych Central reported, “New research has found a childhood pattern of antisocial tendencies among entrepreneurs.”

So, if you’re sometimes labelled as a nerd or geek, or boring, or rude, don’t sweat it. Instead, go do what you were meant to do -- start a business or two.

5)    You feel very mainstream. (And you love it.)

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

The women and men who Real Second Chance works with are not your everyday friendly neighbors who come without a serious amount of baggage. They are human beings deprived of things most of us have in our lives. They start off behind. But within this community of women, we know there is hidden raw talent, ability, and desire to succeed. These women we hope to help and nurture to make the communities they live in better for the lucky experience of having them as a part.  

Where is Real Second Chance headed?

In our nearly 4 years of existence, we have handled all kinds of situations, with homeless, drug addicts and convicted felons. We have had many successes, some failures, but we have created an awareness that minorities coming form low economic neighborhoods, can actually make it.

To make maximum impact, we have learned that the way we can affect, in a major way, communities of all types, is through Kids. Before they get into trouble trying to survive, helping them become their own business owners will be a game breaker for urban areas. so, although, we still continue to help adults, our main focus and our largest payback is clearly helping kids get the right direction before others turn them in a wrong direction. 

For Volunteers, How Do you Contact Us?

We need all the Volunteers we can get. Contact Us.