Andrew
Andrew is an in-demand Coach and Speaker focused on helping startup and fast growing company founders launch, fund and grow their startups across the globe.
I speak to a lot of entrepreneurs and people who would like nothing better than to be entrepreneurs.
These are people who have an itch, a gut feel and for some, its a physical demand that they put on their big person trousers and get out there with their own idea, their own concept and start their own business.
Sometimes people are running towards something – maybe it’s at a DNA level, a cellular need for personal freedom, controlling their own destiny and those folks are about grabbing a hold of their own lives and being in control of their future and perhaps more important, their ‘present’. This kind of entrepreneur are focused on their internal needs and this need for seizing back their own lives is a passionate engine which drives them. Is this you?
Another kind of entrepreneur is all about the creative process – they have an idea, a concept, something inside them that is frantic to get out, an entity pushing to burst out from inside them and be made real. I probably fall into this group – ideas appear in my mind like bursting fireworks in the sky on 4th July. For me they’re numerous and rapid but sometimes, one of these ideas DEMANDS to be made real. That’s the one that becomes a new product. No choice in it – sorry. Are you this kind of entrepreneur?
Some people fall into being entrepreneurs, life happens and they don’t have a choice but to start out and start their own company – maybe their life long companies, companies they had dedicated themselves to, decide they were excess to requirements, or their group, section or division got relocated, ‘offshored’ to some cheaper location after an expensive consultants came in to boost efficiencies and shareholder value. Its no surprise that the number of startups and entrepreneurs grow during a recession – these folks are not necessarily entrepreneurs by choice but more because life throws them a curve ball. Does that mean they make crappy entrepreneurs? The data doesn’t back that up. Are you in this camp?
The fact is there are many different reasons why some people set out to walk the path less traveled and begin their own company rather than walking in lock step with the employed many. If I had my way, everyone who wants to start their company should have the resources, guidance and support to make a success of their hopes and dreams. To start that process off I’d like to be a small prick and, before my friend smirk and comment – I mean the kind of prick that bursts bubbles, myths and just plain screwy ideas.
So lets get started. Why do people WAIT to start the company of their dreams?
There are a whole range of reasons but a few in particular tend to be most popular…
So if you have dreamt of starting your own business ~ if some of the things I’ve written so far make you sit up and nod, then let’s see if I can continue to hit the mark.
One of the main but totally WRONG reasons why people wait to start their dream business is ~
Money!
It’s true – most people tell themselves they need to wait for a better time to start their business because they don’t have the money. That is a crappy reason. Yes…CRAPPY!
If you have been pounding the streets looking for cash for months or years then this point is not going to make you very happy. But your long lost British Uncle is here to make you a promise – I’ll never bullshit you, lie to you or tell you what I think you want to hear. My purpose in life is not to make you feel better and reassure – my goal is to help real entrepreneurs start freaking amazing companies that make the world a better place – if you want someone to make you feel nice, get a puppy.
RANT OVER – back to the point – there are many people within 50 miles of where you sit who would love nothing better than to own a piece of a rapidly growing company that’s about to go into the stratosphere. There is plenty of money to put into new, young and not so young companies. If you don’t have any of that money despite looking – its because you don’t know how.
So YOU not having any money is not a good reason for waiting to start your company. There are literally tens if not hundreds of people in your neighborhood who will give you the money you need to start you company if you know how to be ready to ask them and then How to ask them.
Two pieces to that puzzle – you need to be READY to ask them for the money and know HOW to ask them. Get those two pieces right and you can get the money you need to do your dream company Today instead of next year (which won’t happen) or when you retired (which really really won’t happen). Anything smell like BS to you so far?
What’s another reason why born to be entrepreneurs (B2BE’s) are sitting doing a job and waiting for the perfect (will never freaking arrive) perfect time?
Security. These folks put off their lives, their dreams, their needs to some future perfect time because they need the security that a job provides.
Who says a check that you write to yourself from a bank account with investor money in it is any less secure than a wage check that arrives from a company?
Make no mistake
When you are surplus to requirements, when you piss off the wrong person, when they offshore your office or you get too expensive, unless you have a strong executive protector then you’re secure job is just a dream you’re telling yourself because the truth is just too damn scary to be honest about. That’s friends is relying on your ability to blend in with the wallpaper, hoping no one notices you and that everything will stay exactly the same so you can keep making those payments.
This is going to sound harsh but that’s NOT living, that’s hiding and your mortgage, car payments and school fees can’t be covered if the worst happens. Putting your future in someone else’s hands is not security – its a gamble.
But, and here’s the kick in the pants, everything’s a risk – security is a state we look for but rarely truly exists. However, you can get CLOSER to security when you control your own destiny – when you are the one writing the checks for yourself and others because its your company. That’s still not 100% security because you’ll always have a boss – be that customers, a Board of Directors, Investors but the fact is, if its your company, you control the puppet and that is a safer position than being the puppet. If that metaphor does’t work for you then don’t quit your day job security is a state we look for but rarely truly exists.
So these are two BIG reasons why people push off starting their own companies and frankly, they SUCK as real, legitimate reasons for NOT starting your business.
Few other reasons include
1) Being scared of Competition
2) Not having a Unique or any Good Ideas.
These are moderately decent reasons but thankfully they are VERY easy to solve, so if one of these is the reason why you haven’t event attempted to test out a new business, sign up for the next update. And that is the last important point of this blog – YOU can test out a new business idea, validate whether it will make a growing income for you, for a few hundred or for under a thousand bucks. You do not have to QUIT your job, cash in your 401K and throw the dice to see if your idea will work. Test it, get some proof and then get investors – its actually VERY possible to start a business and keep a salary.
