Becoming an entrepreneur has become a goal for many aspiring young adults. It’s no surprise; the image that our era has painted of entrepreneurship is one to be admired. Most of us have this idea that starting a small business is the best way to live your life; after all, why would you waste your time, energy, and ideas working for someone else? Why work a 9-5 job when you can have the day to yourself, live freely, and work whenever you want, all while making 6 – 7 figures and have them all to yourself? You’re the business owner after all, aren’t you?
It is, indeed, a pretty and quite appealing image. But here are some of the harsh truths about starting a small business that most aspiring entrepreneurs are oblivious to:
1. Forget About The ‘Freedom’ Fairytale
Forget everything you’ve heard about the freedom of living as an entrepreneur; it’s only a fairytale. You’ll realize how true that is once you look at any successful entrepreneur; they’ve devoted their lives, resources, and everything they can – and can’t – to their business. They’ve made sacrifices, some of which they’ve paid for dearly in blood, sweat, and tears. Starting your own business means you’ll give up sleep because the business won’t run itself. You’ll have to take on any roles you can until you’re able to hire someone else to do it. The only way you can make it is by living every waking hour investing your life into this business; otherwise, it’s not for you.
2. Success Doesn’t Happen Overnight
You won’t wake up one day with the 6-figure income you’re dreaming of. You’ll have to work for it, hard. But what’s even more important to realize is that you’ll fail. You’ll fail, a lot, and you’ll learn some really difficult lessons in the process. But that’s exactly the thing; your ultimate failure is when you decide to give up altogether. As long as you learn from your failures and keep going, then it’s only an obstacle, which you grew from.
3. You’ll Have To Make a Lot of Hard Decisions
As the owner of your newly-founded business, the most pressing issue you’ll face is funding your business. You can start with your savings and crowdfunding from your family and friends, but, soon enough, you’ll find it’s not enough. This is when you’ll have to make some hard decisions; you might find the best way to survive is to go into debt.
However difficult it may seem at first, getting a loan for your business might be one of the easiest decisions you can make. You’ll realize how simple the process is once you go through the business loan options on this URL; all you’ll need to do is fill out an application. Afterward, they’ll connect you with a network of lenders who’ll be willing to fund you, whether you’re looking from short-term, traditional-term, SBA, business line of credit, startup, equipment financing, or merchant advance loans.
4. Success is a Team Effort
Perhaps you’re tempted to start your own business for all the personal glory you’ll get once it succeeds. But here’s another harsh truth: you’ll never make it on your own. Success is never one man’s effort in businesses; it’s a team effort. Your business will only thrive as strongly as your team efforts are coordinated and nourished.
5. There’s A Lot of Unknown
You might have a solid plan, but you’ll quickly realize that real life is completely unpredictable. No matter how prepared you think you are, you’ll be faced with chaotic situations that you’d never considered. The market is going to change, constantly; your employees will leave you, even after investing too much time and resources into training them; your plan will turn out to be mere words on a document. At the end of the day, the only thing that will enable you to get through all of this is to accept this fact: there’s a lot you don’t know, and there are many things that are out of your hands. Only then will you be able to grow in the uncertainty of the chaos and find the hidden opportunities.
Living your life on your own terms can seem like such a beautiful dream, but you’ll need some down-to-earth advice before you forsake everything into starting a small business. It’s true; there is thrill and adventure in the unknown world of entrepreneurship. But then again, there are also sacrifices, hard work, difficult decisions, and a lot of knowledge, expertise, and skills you’ll need to gain and sharpen over a brief amount of time. So, do you really think you have what it takes?