If you’re an entrepreneur you know it’s a great and challenging journey you’re in. Entrepreneurs and SMEs are the engines of global economies. Entrepreneuring offers also a great sense of servant value for your clients and potentially industry and society. Read further for the seven entrepreneurship myths being debunked.
Ding Neng wrote a fantastic piece on seven entrepreneurship myths:
Entrepreneurship Myth #1: Entrepreneurship is Easy.
Many people believe that entrepreneurship is easy when they see successful entrepreneurs making lots of money, but what they did not see are the hardships they gone through. When people see a successful restaurant with lots of customers, and believe that a successful restaurant just needs to have skillful chefs, tasty food, cool environment and facilities in a busy location, then they are very wrong.
Entrepreneurship Myth #2: Entrepreneurship is Difficult.
I can almost hear you saying, “What? You just said it’s not easy, and now you say it’s not difficult? Aren’t you contradicting yourself?”
Oops. Sorry to confuse you, but I didn’t contradict myself. It’s not easy, but it’s not difficult too.
Entrepreneurship, just like erecting a building, it takes time and effort. Investing time to learn how to build a business, and putting effort to apply what have been learned.
Entrepreneurship Myth #3: Failure rate is high.
Statistics have shown that 95% of businesses fail in first 5 years, and 95% of business remaining will fail in the next 5 years.
Hence, by referring to the statistics, we can say that failure rate is quite high. However, your success as an entrepreneur should not be determined by statistics. Statistics are dead and are just numbers. What determines your success is based on your performance, not by stats or probabilities.
Entrepreneurship Myth #4: High risk.
I define risk as “not knowing what you are doing”. There is risk in everything. There is risk in eating fish balls, there is risk in driving a car.
We cannot eliminate all risk, but we can minimize risk, by educating ourselves and so we know what to do and how to do.
Entrepreneurship Myth #5: I need huge amount of money to start a business.
This is not wrong. Huge amount of money is needed to start a business using the traditional brick and mortar method. Rent and renovation costs are going to be in the tens of thousands, not mentioning the supplies and goods that you have to store in your own warehouse, and employees’ salary too(if you are hiring). These are costs that you have to pay, regardless if you made a sale or not. So, this is true that you need huge amount of money to start.
Entrepreneurship Myth #6: I’m not a born Entrepreneur.
Neither is Bill Gates (Founder of Microsoft), neither is Robert Kiyosaki (author of RichDad, PoorDad) and neither am I born entrepreneurs. Many people think that people who have successful businesses, must be due to their parents being successful entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurship success runs in the blood. However, I can say that this is absolutely a myth, as millionaire entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki’s real dad is a Professor (that’s why he called him Poor Dad…)
Entrepreneurship Myth #7: You can be an Entrepreneur only when you are rich.
Alright, we may have touch on this point above on Myth # 5. Back in Myth #5, we mentioned that become an entrepreneur does not require high investment with the advanced technology today, and you can build an Internet marketing or Network marketing business, instead of a high-investment brick and mortar business. Hence, you don’t have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to be an entrepreneur. You can start an Internet and Network Marketing business with less than $200.
Read the full elaborations on each point here.
The most important I believe is number 4: High Risk.
Having a process and logic to set up a business is very important. If you simply “do something” without a proper logic behind it, not doing your homework, not networking, not doing a SWOT and much more, you take a risk that you could have avoided. In other instances I’ve also encountered a very product-centric approach by entrepreneurs. This is a pitfall that you easily can fall in to – me as well. If you’re good at something or have a product or service that you think is great, it doesn’t mean your audience needs it.
Don’t fall in love with your own business!
Have a look at the top myths infographic below. Fact or fiction?
Also have a look at the most common challenges entrepreneurs face today:
Gianluigi Cuccureddu is co-founder of Damarque, helping you to improve your commercial performance through better engagement with your employees, customers and strategic business partners.
We offer high-impact training, coaching and consulting services for professionals, teams and organizations to help improve people ánd organizational performance and innovation capability in an efficient and sustainable way.
