If you’re an entrepreneur, you know that in the world of entrepreneurship, you must work more than the rest and that the final result doesn’t depend so much on your desire or motivation, in fact it’s based on the feasibility of your project. Did you know that 90% of startups fail, but the same thing happens with 90% of businesses:)?
The question is, how can you be part of this 10%?
One of the factors that lead us to fail is the fact that we are surrounded by stories that only show success. No magazine or newspaper would publish stories of failure.
An entrepreneur’s life isn’t easy, you have to know how to do a bit of everything, you have to have a job or fixed income that supports you and your project, you have to deal with those ups and downs, the moments where you think you hit the nail and after a few days you get depressed and demotivated because what you expected didn’t work out. Trying again and looking for a way that does work, but you ask yourself, how much time and effort do I have to spend on the project? What will I do if after all this time it doesn’t work?
I can tell you that the life of an entrepreneur isn’t for everyone, although most see it as the ideal life and you do enjoy many freedoms but you also have lots of responsibilities.
You must be willing to sacrifice your personal time since the business doesn’t sleep or takes holidays. If the business doesn’t sell you won’t make money. If something goes wrong, it’s your skin on the line. You get sick, you’re in an accident or something happens to you, it’s likely that your business will fall apart. As an entrepreneur you must have a lot of discipline since many times you’ll work from home where you have loads of distractions. You have to have strong willpower and balance your life. Dedicating 12 hours a day to your project isn’t healthy, you need periods of relaxation, exercise, fun and family. In fact, many times during these periods are when new ideas arise.
In order to be successful in your business and see whether or not you are wasting your time, it is necessary to face reality with honesty and without reservations, something that probably 90% of startups don’t consider.
What do I mean by facing reality with honesty? It’s about opening our eyes to see where we are standing and listening and accepting the feedback from our potential customers and the market to correct our course before it’s too late.
Up next, we will disprove six ideologies that have been instilled in us entrepreneurs and show you how to correct them so we don’t fall into the trap.
1. “You have to have an original idea”
It isn’t necessary to find the formula to create life to be able to be an entrepreneur, the search for the product or service that will change everyone’s life. You don’t have to be the next Uber, Facebook, Google, etc… Believe me, they didn’t know that they would make it and I assure you that there were many more Ubers, Facebooks that they didn’t make it due to other reasons. Reality shows us that many of the big businesses are copies or adaptations of businesses that already work, but some technological value was adapted to create a new business. An example is UBER, the private transport service that came to revolutionize the world, is nothing more than an adaptation of taxi services. There are also other revolutionary businesses like those of Elon Musk.
2. “Interview and listen to your customers”
A lot of times we believe that it’s enough to go into Google Analytics or Insights to see how many searches exist for the term or keywords. Hypotheses are important, but the most important thing is that they have to be sustained. Personally, from an entrepreneur to an entrepreneur, I recommend that you go to YouTube or the Internet and look for these terms “Product Market Fit”, “Discovery Interview”, “Value Proposition”, “Business Model Canvas”, and learn what they mean. I would suggest you start there and document your venture well before you lose any more time. I had to do it 4 years after I started because I was a bit lost.
3. “Have a passion for your project”
The main thing is to have passion, but it’s absolutely critical for your success to have a goal or objectives. This is the part where you have to be honest with yourself. I’ve read that success tends to follow entrepreneurs who have an innovative idea that they want to see come true, but who are open to change course and adapt to achieve it.
“Just because you build it doesn’t mean that it will sell”
Many entrepreneurs like me launch our products or services waiting for immediate market acceptance and while it may SOMETIMES work, it’s important to listen and maintain a close relationship with your customers to understand their needs and improve your services or products. You’re the owner and you understand why and for whom you built your product or service (If you’re not sure about this, go back to point 2), that is why it’s important that you have this relationship with the clients in order to evaluate if there’s a disconnection between your ideas and what the client is looking for. Don’t massively invest in advertising before really evaluating what your client expects. There is a technique or document that can help you called “Value Proposition Canvas”
4. “Good luck?”
Good luck as such doesn’t exist; rather it’s the synchronicity that is going to determine your success. Surely you have heard that things have to happen at the right moment, at the right time and in the right place. Synchrony, or luck, is beyond our control. You can try to see trends in the market, competition and what is happening in other parts of the world to have a tactical plan that will increase the chances of having “luck”.
5. “You’re the owner of your time”
Many of us believed that by owning our own business, we would no longer be subject to a schedule or office. Although it’s true that you will stop requesting vacations to your boss six months before you even know where you will travel to and that in most cases you won’t be subjected to a defined entry and exit schedule, your priorities will also undergo a drastic change and that work will be harder than under a work schedule, this is because most of the administrative and sales activities now depend only on you, which will lead to you losing more sleep than if you were subjected to an office schedule.
6. “To start you need money”
To open up a cafeteria you need to rent a place, put chairs, tables, a kitchen, buy supplies, all this as an initial investment. You need money.
However, there are many businesses that can start with a minimum or deferred investment over time. Personally, I prefer to start a business that doesn’t have the commitment of having a recurring fixed expense such as the rent of a local or office. I prefer to invest my time and use the free resources that I have available. Only invest in what is necessary like the phone and some software or application that will help me to better carry out my business.
