Are all entrepreneurs big thinkers?

I have always been brutally honest.  Although with age and experience I am not as harsh as I might have been in the years prior.  An area that I will always need to work on.

Entrepreneurs come in all sizes and shapes.  There are entrepreneurs that have been coming up with ideas in their head from the get-go that have gone on to build businesses on those ideas some starting with a lemonade stand.  Then as they get older they have come up with really big ideas that have been funded to grow.  They have not only come up with the business model they have had to raise money which means getting other people excited about what you are building.  That money raising piece can be one of the most difficult components. 

There are entrepreneurs who create businesses and are able to self-fund or just raise money from friends and family because that is all that they need to execute and succeed. 

Then there are those entrepreneurs who have boot-strapped businesses and have never raised a dime.  Their businesses are at a point where a little bit of cash would be a great thing but it isn't a business that an angel or a VC would support.  It is a business that might do $10m annually.  Where does that funding come from?

Years ago the banks funded the smaller entrepreneurs.  Not sure who banks are giving loans to but they are certainly not giving them out to small businesses like the ones I have seen.  I have met with more than a few women over the past month who are in this camp.  Driven, smart and focused women who are making money but are struggling to get to the next level.  It will happen but it takes time.  Would an infusion of cash help, sure but from who? 

My advice to all of them is just keep doing what you are doing.  If you can find one single investor who wants to roll up their sleeves and get involved of course if that make sense then perhaps that is the way to go.  Otherwise, just keep doing what you do.  It takes a long time to build a business.  We read about all the businesses that come out of nowhere who have been financed.  Many of those businesses have been around a lot longer than anyone realizes.  Those ideas have been rambling around the entrepreneurs head for a lot longer than you think. 

Great businesses take time to grow.  Being an entrepreneur is never easy but it can be really rewarding. You can spend a lot of time in the echo chamber of your head.  We all want to see the big success stories that we read about but there is a lot of people building new companies that will have loyal users that will never be huge but those companies are making an impact in their own powerful way.