The 5 Steps To Madness That All Entrepreneurs Take

You’ve probably heard the saying “You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps” This also applies to becoming an Entrepreneur.

You have to be a little bit “touched” possibly even mad to actually want to become one, here’s why:

STEP 1. Many people see rich people, or people who want to become rich as greedy. Often or not people see entrepreneurs as some kind of “enemy”. This often stems back from people’s beliefs that in order to become rich, others must become poor.

The message here is that entrepreneurs are responsible for building most places of work on this planet. Jobs tend to be created through wealth creation, thinking that all rich people are bad stems from a poor mentality, often born out from a person’s lack of success in their own endeavours. Rich people also contribute billions to charity each and every year.

YES Failure is required

STEP 2. Failure is not an option, it’s required. If your’e not prepared to fail over and over, don’t go into business. Business is risky, undertaken by individuals who are prepared to meet risk head on. It’s no place for people who are not prepared to take knocks. Entrepreneurs are not looking for safety, they are looking to improve lives, their own and their families. You have to crack a few eggs to make an Omlette and by becoming an Entrepreneur prepare for a rollercoaster ride of emotions.

Dare To Be Different

STEP 3. Prepare for a lot of eye rolling from friends and family. I hate to say this but family (and friends) can be your worst enemies at times. Becoming an Entrepreneur often steps on the toes of the people nearest to you. Long working hours can often upset family and friends, and taking risks can often put you at odds with those people as you are not as available as you used to be.

Many people try to start a business and continue living the exact same life they had before. This is not possible if you are an entrepreneur as your time in front of the TV in the evening is often replaced by working on your business.

Growing a business takes time and a lot of effort, it can take financial investment, something not everyone is prepared to go along with, however, you can’t create change by being the same. Something has to give, giving things up now for a better life down the road is why a lot of people become entrepreneurs.

Prepare For Crickets

STEP 4. Prepare for long periods of nothing. Most people do not get it right in the first few months, in fact in many businesses, if you break even in 12 months you’ve done reasonably well. It’s a fallacy that a good long term business will show worthwhile profits quickly. The Internet is full of get rich quick schemes which suck money out of will participants.

Some businesses take a couple of years or longer to take off. My own self publishing business took a year to break even and two years to show a decent profit. If you give up early on, you will be continuously frustrated by starting over time and time again and continuously giving up too soon. You can’t get rich by being a professional quitter. Good things take time, don’t quit, re-adjust.

STEP 5. Build for the long term. Data from the BLS shows that approximately 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open, 45% during the first five years, and 65% during the first 10 years. Only 25% of new businesses make it to 15 years or more. These figures are worse for internet based businesses where 95% of all Internet based businesses fail. This though is often due to unreasonable expectation.

Most people overestimate what a business can do in six months and underestimate what a business can do in 12 months or more.

Conclusion:

Be prepared to take the knocks. You’ll probably start out by doing most, if not all the work yourself. This is good as it’s wise to learn every aspect of your business. Be prepared to get it wrong more often than you get it right and stay focused on the end goal.

Don’t get disheartened when things go wrong. I lost $250,000 in a day once and I never shed a tear. I’ve become hardened to the knocks and you have to too if you want to survive as an entrepreneur.

We are a strange group of people, not everyone will like you, that’s OK. People don’t often like change or the people who are changing, but this is your life, be bold, and what’s more, be YOU.

Have a great day

Keith

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