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It’s a journey which depends on couple of internal and external factors. Let analyze the journey in stages.
The journey begins with having the conviction to be an entrepreneur and to be able to withstand the challenges of running your own business. Usually the decision to start a business precedes the idea stage.
Coming up with an idea can be exciting and fun. What is important is that once the idea sets in it must be developed into a concept which means research, documentation and converging on the idea. A concept is characterized by structure and in the concept stage you take your idea and employ intellectual rigor to carry out extensive market research, develop a business model, determine human resource requirements, run financials, put together an operational plan and assess feasibility.
Converging on an idea is followed by setting up the venture which is challenging and requires significant investment. This stage needs investment of both time and money to nurture the business and make it viable. Funding can come from family and friends, investor angels, and/or grants. Next is the business stage where all entrepreneurs strive to be. This is the stage where you roll up your sleeves and make it happen. You get your first client, market your company, revenues start coming in, manage your expenses and continuously strive to evolve the business.
Although most entrepreneurs are satisfied to build a business, it is necessary to become a sustainable business.
Ultimately the business can go public and/or be sold off to investors. Ventures that last 10+ years may be thought of as sustainable; however, the real challenge is for a business to outlast the involvement of its founders. That is a more relevant definition of a sustainable business.
As mentioned above the sustainability require 10 years and to be honest the way the global and geo political situations are changing there is a high risk always for time line.
The time you got the seed money which is an indication someone believes in your idea, you can start building your team and grow into a company.
it is dependent of this project and tools
Thanks
Mr. Khalid Ghafar answer covered the question
I agree with Khalid Ghaffar Sales leader for MENA region on most points. However the time would be 5-7 years.
Although it does depend on the nature of the business, but in general I say it should not take more than 2 years. When an entrepreneur starts a business, he/she should have a concrete plan for the business to develop from a try/error project into a a real small enterprise that has systems and regulations and a powerful management team. If this process takes more than two years, then I say there is something wrong in the business model. If this process takes more than two years, then this means that the entrepreneur is doing most of the work him/her self and still does not have a solid system. And this time fame of 2 years is not about going public in the stock market, it's just about ensuring that your startup business has totally transformed into a small enterprise. 2 years is more than enough.
