So many people feel trapped in an unfulfilled career and want to take control of their own destiny, yet constantly procrastinating about whether to actually take the plunge and start their own business or not. It’s a huge career choice that warrants more than a little consideration but the obstacles you face are no different to anyone else who's taken the plunge. At some point, if you really do want it, the excuses have to stop.
People are continually telling me they want to start their own business... yet continue to be wanting and not doing. They are passionate about their ideas, unfulfilled in their careers and motivated to take control of their own destiny. Now starting a business is a landmark decision likely to make the most driven of individuals think twice. However, there comes a point where careful consideration turns to procrastination.
Whats holding them back? When you break it down and accept almost every small business owner has faced the same deliberations - not that much at all. Here's a list of the common reasons or excusespeople give for delaying staring their own business, and why, if they really want it, they're quite lame:
“I don't have much money.”
Stop complaining and look at it this way: millionaires start businesses and fail all the time; people with nothing start businesses and succeed all time. Start at home, start small and work with what you've got. It might take you longer, but what's the rush? Especially if the alternative is not starting at all.
“The bank won't give me any money.”
Accept it and move on. Start small, prove them wrong by generating some sales and watch how they change their mind in a year's time when you've proved you have a viable business .
“I literally have no money.”
Then start something. Inaction will get you nowhere. If you want to sew and sell quilts but can't even afford the materials, then start a free blog and start telling people about these amazing quilts you're going to sell in the future. Generate interest, an audience, make yourself an expert on quilts. Do that and you'll become an attractive proposition to someone with money who may see the business sense in helping you monetize your passion.
“I don't have time.”
Well you can't buy time so make some. What do you think everyone else running their own business does? They make sacrifices. They give up TV. They stop going to the movies. They stop socializing so much. If you really want it bad, you'll find the time. Focus on your downtime hours. What do you do between 5am and 8am and 9pm and 2am? Sleep? Read the paper? Watch TV? Pick the sacrifice that will make your dream a reality and make it.
“I'm waiting for a killer idea.”
Well don't wait forever, because it might never arrive. You don't need to have invented a sector to be the best business in it. Pioneers of new ideas are rarely those that capitalize on them. Know what you're good at, passionate about, and what you could do better than anyone else and start building it. If it's better, people will buy it.
“I'm waiting for the economy to improve.”
Why? There's never a bad time to start a great business. Are you planning to start a great business and not an average one dependent on outside factors? Nobody knows how long the economy will bounce along the bottom. How long are you planning to wait? Guess what? Microsoft started in a recession.
“It's risky giving up my job.”
What if I fail? It is risky, you could fail and there are no assurances you won't. Now we've established that, what are you going to do? Pursue your dream or sit wondering for the rest of your life what might have been? Learn to accept the risk and focus on limiting it with effective planning and by starting small.
“I don't have the skills or experience.”
Know what? You're right, you probably don't. But then often you don't know what you don't know until it's too late. Certainly, none of entrepreneurs who started today's household brands knew everything they do now when they started out. Either accept you'll learn along the way, usually from your mistakes, or do something about it. If you're not a figures person, pay someone who is or take a course. If you're adamant you need experience, offer to shadow someone or temp in the industry you're planning to enter.
“People say... it won't work/I'm too old/I'm too young.”
Whose business is it, yours or theirs? For every business that works, 10 people have said it won't. If successful business leaders and financiers struggle to pick out the next big businesses, why waste your time listening to anyone else? Believe in yourself and prove everyone else wrong.
“I don't know how.”
Stop worrying, There is so much information at your fingertips and experts readily reachable. Secondly, focus on knowing your business. If you're the most passionate, knowledgeable expert about what you do then your business will have an intrinsic value that'll afford you the time for your business knowledge to catch up.
Often we try to account for our inabilities by making excuses for them. I remember meeting with a colleague in my industry who was having trouble moving forward with his business. I asked him what he felt the roadblock was to moving forward and upward. He proceeded to tell me that he “can’t do this” and “can’t do this”… I asked him what he “can do” He had trouble answering this question. The answer is simple. Everyone can if they want it bad enough. Make a commitment and make it reality. We all have it within us. It’s part of Keeping Life Current.
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