Entrepreneurship is more appealing than this!
Yesterday, I met up with some friends at a pub here in London. As we were ordering our meals, a chap named Teddy who was sitting with us ordered fish and chips. Teddy was easily 30 pounds overweight and it was obvious that he was slightly embarrassed by his meal choice, as everyone else had ordered healthier items.
After placing his order he announced to the table that he was begining a diet on Monday. I had never met him before, but I know what was going through the mind of every person at that table: yeah right, like hell you’re going on a diet on Monday. One person congratulated him on his choice, most people ignored the comment or rolled their eyes. One guy at the table, who was a few beers ahead of the rest of us, said aloud what we were all thinking: “of course you are, you fat ass.”
Why didn’t Teddy start his diet right then and there in the pub? It was too hard to say no to fish and chips. It was too easy to make excuses why he should put off his planned diet. I’m sure Teddy was thinking “one more fish and chips won’t hurt,” “all of my mates are here and I want to enjoy a few pints with them and fish and chips are a good base for drinking,” “I want to research diets more” or “I’ll be mentally prepared to start on Monday.”
What do you think is going to happen on Monday? Teddy’s mates are going to invite him out to the pub and he’ll put off the diet once again. Before long it will be holiday season and Teddy will postpone his diet until after the holidays. The diet will only get harder as Teddy gets bigger.
The reaction we all had to Teddy’s diet plans is the same that most people have when you say you’re going to start your own business someday: “of course you are, you employee.”
Most wannabe entrepreneurs (and dieters) delay the starting a business (or a diet) by telling themselves that it will be easier to do in the future. The fallacies that cause entrepreneur-hopefuls to never take the first step is that one day they will
- Have enough experience to start a business
- Develop a unique skill that is valuable to others
- Create a product people will buy
- Think of a great idea
- Have enough money to start a business
- Have enough time to start a business
I’m always astounded by the faith which people have that one of these six events will one day magically happen. An MBA graduate may be an athiest, but he still has faith that someday he’ll have enough experience or money to start a business.
We see how ridiculous it is to wait to start a diet when you want to lose weight, why is it any less ludicrous to wait to start a business when you want to be an entrepreneur?
Let’s address the typical excuses.
1. I don’t have enough experience to start a business
You do not need experience to run a business – just balls. If you saw someone choking would you wait around to see if someone was more experienced with the Heimlich maneuver? No, you’d use what you did know and try to help. Look at your business experience the same way. You need to be willing to venture into the unknown and gain experience along the way. Admit when you don’t know something, bullshit when you can, and find creative solutions to customers needs. Where you’ve got a gaping hole in your capabilities, outsource that skill to someone who has the ability to pick up your slack.
2. I don’t have a unique skill that’s valuable to others
Can you swim? That’s a skill that’s valuable to some people. Start a swimming school to teach people to swim. Can you sell? Start teaching people to sell or go sell someone else’s product through your own business. Can you write? Go on Elance and start bidding for writing projects. No matter what skill you have, there is someone who does not have that skill and is willing to pay for it. But you must find those people – if you can’t find those people, outsource your marketing.
3. I want to create a product for people to buy
You’d rather sell a product than a service? Find a product you can buy wholesale and then sell it retail. Want to create a new product? Even if you have a basic, incomplete idea, you can hire a firm to complete the idea and create the product – just do some research to find the right company to hire. Once you have the product, you only need to worry about selling. If you can’t sell – outsource sales.
4. I don’t have a great business idea
A great idea isn’t worth a dime. Implementation of an idea is what really makes the difference. Zappos and Amazon were both initially criticized as being crappy ideas. They may still be crappy ideas – but the ideas were successfully implemented. If you can’t think of an idea, use someone else’s idea and implement it in a new way.
5. I don’t have enough money to start a business
Welcome to 2009. Businesses are online. You don’t need more than $50 to start an online business if you’re creative and frugal. You can get one hell of a business up and running for $2,000. If your idea is too expensive, it’s likely that your failing in your implementation. Outsource and defer costs to a later date. Find cheaper solutions for expensive problems. I guarantee you that by the time you have “enough” money you’ll be spending it on something other than a business (I’ve been told that a wife and kids can be quite expensive).
6. I don’t have enough time to start a business
Seriously, no one has the time to start a business. They just do it. If you want to start your own business work harder, sleep less, and quit whining.
I’m sure a lot of you are making these excuses. You aren’t lacking in anything other than the motivation to pull the trigger and start your own business. If the only thing stopping you is having money, send me an email and I’ll loan you $50.
See, you’ve got no excuse. If you want to be an entrepreneur, start today. In the words of Ramit Sethi, “it’s never easier than now.” You will always be able to meet your friends at the pub – would you rather meet with them at 5PM after a day of being an employee or at 9PM after a long day of working for yourself?
What’s your excuse?
Share it in the comments and let’s help you overcome it!
Image by malias.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
hmmm
Awesome post! I struggle with one of these quite a bit, the one about not having any skills that people would value. It’s really held me back a lot in the past. I think the way for me to help people right now is through my blog while I try to build up an income. Also, your section on not having enough money to start a business is dead on. The internet is so cheap so there is really no excuse when it comes to that area.
Inspirational read. Nicely said, Brian!
@ Nate – I’d imagine the problem isn’t that you don’t have any valuable skills, but that you question or under value your abilities. I’m sure that you’ve got skills that are valuable, you just need to figure out who will pay for them! Let’s talk; I bet we can identify your skills and find a market pretty quickly!
Excellent read really… most people I talked to think that it needs either a big idea or lots of money to start business and it can’t be more untrue. I think with most people the biggest problem is that they plan a lot rather than directly jumping into it. It is similar to learning to swim, you can’t read/plan/think too much for it without entering into the water. The other aspect I have seen with folks is they want to make business successful while working as an employee in some company… business can’t be a timepass and still succeed. BTW another point you forgot to mention is that people think “starting business is very risky”. With so many layoffs happenings, I would say working in a job is more riskier
@ KM – I couldn’t agree more with your last point! If you work for someone else, you could get fired at any moment, with no contingency plan in place. I think that everyone should be trying to develop a business plan that can provide a secondary source of income. Even people who are comfortable with their current job can simply stash away cash made from a side business, creating a nice emergency fund.
In regards to your first point – we love information overload, but it just leads to more questions and a desire for more information. At some point you actually have to start the damn business! Reading another blog post or taking a class isn’t going to change a thing. I addressed this in my most recent post – http://bit.ly/8jJzxU
{ 1 trackback }