But being able to provide a product or service and building a sustainable company are different challenges.
For anyone contemplating the leap into self-employment, a book by entrepreneur and executive Pantelis Velentzas encourages a pause before committing money, time and energy.
To Start Up or Not Start Up?, published by LID Publishing, explores the questions aspiring founders should ask before turning ambition into action. Its central message is straightforward: enthusiasm matters, but it needs to be matched by preparation, clear thinking and an honest understanding of the journey ahead.
The book groups its questions into seven areas: mindset, opportunity, strategy, money, team, systems and context. Together, these offer a framework for examining both the business proposition and the person preparing to lead it.
Is there a worthwhile opportunity? What resources will the venture require? Who should be involved? And does growing bigger necessarily mean becoming more successful? These are practical considerations that can easily disappear beneath the excitement of launching something new.
Velentzas draws on two decades of experience founding and scaling ventures across European markets, alongside senior executive roles at Hellenic Duty Free Shops and Avolta. His business background includes franchise, distribution and representation partnerships involving brands such as Victoria’s Secret, Hershey’s, Superdry and Korres.
He describes the book as the one he wishes he had read before his first start-up. Rather than offering a rigid checklist, it is intended to support structured reflection on the forces that help businesses succeed or quietly undermine their progress.
His experience also challenges the assumption that every company must pursue rapid expansion. Some businesses achieve success through stable, profitable income while deliberately choosing to remain small. Others may benefit from strategic growth, while some ideas are best reconsidered before substantial commitments are made.
That is a useful perspective for first-time founders, existing small business owners considering expansion, and students exploring entrepreneurship. Investors, enterprise educators, accelerators and incubators are also among the intended readership.
For That’s Business readers, the appeal lies in its emphasis on making a considered decision. Starting a business can be rewarding, but deciding how, when and whether to proceed deserves attention.
Sometimes, the strongest entrepreneurial move is to start confidently. Sometimes it is to grow carefully or stay small. And sometimes, having asked the difficult questions, it is to walk away with your resources intact.
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