The economy’s in the tank, business credit has dried up and just about every retailer in the world is slashing prices 50 percent or more. If there was ever a year to put your entrepreneurial dreams on hold, it’s 2009. Your spouse, your friends, your parents, everybody you know will certainly understand–and perhaps even applaud–your decision not to start a business until things get better.
Everybody, that is, except for you, the frustrated entrepreneur who’s been living a life of quiet desperation.
That’s why I wanted to share an excerpt from a new book, So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur? How to Decide If Starting a Business Really Is For You. The author, Jon Gillespie-Brown, a British technology entrepreneur and a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, has pledged to donate the proceeds from the sale of his book to the Grameen Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that seeks to help the world’s poorest people lift themselves out of poverty by giving them access to microloans and financial education.
Below is Gillespie-Brown’s list of the top 10 excuses for not becoming an entrepreneur:
1. I am afraid of being an entrepreneur, as it’s risky and I could fail. According to most statistics, most businesses fail financially after the first few years. The bottom line is that it’s OK to fail so long as you learn and improve each time. You will not be considered a failure if you did your best, gave it your all, and acted with honesty and integrity.
2. I don’t have a degree–I’m not clever enough to be an entrepreneur. There are many examples throughout history of super-successful people with little or no education. It’s more about hard work, not giving up, being dedicated, learning from your mistakes. If you need specialized knowledge, then you can get it or recruit a team member to do it for you.
3. I don’t have any money, so I can’t become an entrepreneur. Depending on your ambitions and the type of business you want to start, you don’t need lots of capital. To compensate for a low budget, you need to be creative, resourceful and make realistic plans. You will be amazed at what you can achieve with very little, an enterprising spirit and the help of others.
4. I want to be a millionaire, so I will become an entrepreneur. It’s fine to dream about a better life and want to improve your personal financial circumstances, but this should not be the focus of your startup efforts or your path as an entrepreneur. Rarely does anyone succeed by being self-serving or chasing money. In order to succeed, you need to add value to others, and money is a by-product of being great at doing that.
5. I don’t have a hot idea. Almost invariably, the initial idea an entrepreneur has is not the one that makes the money. The trick is to take any reasonably good idea in a growth market in which you have skills, experience and contacts and just get going. In the final analysis, it will be all about the execution and the team, rather than the idea.
6. My parents want me to become an astronaut (or whatever). The problem with parents could be that they are not in tune with you and what you want, or they are still more interested in their own fears and historical biases than what’s true in the world today. You need to consider your own goals, objectives and needs rather than those of your family before making a decision [to start your own business].
7. Why don’t I just get (stay in) a job like everyone else? Why become an entrepreneur? Many successful entrepreneurs have spent their early years “learning the ropes” as company employees before branching out on their own. It’s just not cut and dried, and luckily you can decide to do it now or get a job and do it later.
8. I have a family to feed, so I can’t become an entrepreneur. There is no doubt that having family responsibilities is a real challenge. Start small, start on evenings, weekends, prove it works without spending a lot of money and be cautious. Get your family to support you, get them involved and make it fun. Sharing those dreams is even better with someone you love.
9. I am not experienced in business. The key here is self-awareness. When you first start out, you should be more concerned with getting the business to a stage where you can get it funded or get some customers. Once you get some revenue in, you can iron out the wrinkles of your business.
10. I don’t have a partner or team to support me. If your venture is more ambitious, try and get a team together as soon as you can. If you have work colleagues, friends and others in your network, you can start to sound them out before you get going building a skeleton team and have them ready to jump on board when the time is right.
“Dreams only come true with action,” Gillespie- Brown writes. “The time will never be perfect. Your finances will never be what you want them to be. Your children will never be old enough. Whatever reasons you have been using not to get started or for not doing as well in business as you could must be confronted honestly.
“Fear is normal, but if you ever plan to own your own successful business, the time has never been better.”
Got it? No more excuses! The time to get started is now!
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 8:33 am and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.Leave a Reply
