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The Truth for Everyone Who Wants to Be an Entrepreneur

by Michael D. Jensen on September 6, 2011 in Business, Entrepreneur with No comments

Would it surprise you that 75% of the US workforce wants to be entrepreneurs?

A recent survey by AFLAC revealed this statistic, along with the reasons why so many people want to be entrepreneurs. I know why people want to be entrepreneurs, I love it. I feed on it. But its definitely not for everyone. My experience as an entrepreneur isn’t necessarily like everyone else’s, but it has given me insight and experience that I enjoy sharing with budding and potential entrepreneurs.

According to the survey, what is appealing to most people are the following:

  1. Set your own schedule
  2. More time with family, hobbies
  3. No commuting
  4. No boss or office politics

(Side note: One thing I found interesting was what wasn’t on this list, money.)

When I tell others I work from home or work from myself, almost everyone responds with some comment of how glamorous or ideal that must be.

While these can be niceties of the life as an entrepreneur, there are other aspects that are overlooked that may oppose or offset what is so attractive about being an entrepreneur.

Set your own schedule

  • If you set your own schedule, that also means when you’re not working you’re not growing your business
  • Be ready to work more hours and with more intensity BECAUSE you are working for yourself
  • You never leave your work at the office when you work at home, you will find yourself working at all waking hours if you’re not careful

More time with family, hobbies

  • See above for setting your own schedule
  • Only the hobbies that you truly love will be given attention, and even then it will be hard to leave the to do list for the hobby list

No Commuting

Assuming you are working from home…

  • You will find yourself looking for good reasons to get out of the house. I recommend finding a friend or two to have lunch every week or every other week to bounce off business ideas with
  • Be prepared to “train” the spouse and kids that just because you are at home doesn’t mean you are available
  • You’ll need to be sure you have a hobby so you force yourself out of the house
  • Sometimes bring your laptop or just a notebook to a cafe for a few hours once or twice a week is what you need to break the routine and get new ideas

No boss or office politics

  • You come up with the ideas
  • You motivate yourself
  • Steady income is not guaranteed
  • Benefits like health insurance and pensions are do-it-yourself
  • Be ready to fail, a lot. If you’re not failing, you’re not succeeding.
  • You need to be willing to wear many hats and learn new tricks. Until you build things up to a certain level you will need to be the accountant, do taxes, put together contracts and agreements, register your business, build your website, setup email and phone systems, etc.
  • You may encounter “spouse politics”. Being an entrepreneur can be stressful for spouses especially in the early years. Use open communication and show that you are working hard.

 

Being an entrepreneur sounds grandiose and wonderful at a glance, but there are some realities to it that people should be prepared for. It takes a lot to be an entrepreneur, it is no “candy and lollipops” easy life. But despite all that, it really is rewarding. Its a challenge that gives back the fruits of a good challenge: growth, enjoyment, and the desire to keep at it.

3 Critical Lessons for Entrepreneurs Learned from the Startup Genome Project

by Michael D. Jensen on August 31, 2011 in Entrepreneur with No comments

The Startup Genome Project is now on the list of my top things to share with other budding entrepreneurs (that list sounds like a good post…forthcoming). Essentially they are gathering tons of data from new startups and then releasing the findings of the data, showing relationships between important aspects of startups.

These 3 critical lessons come just from the “Summary of Additional Findings” page, so I’m not even hitting the main findings of the Startup Genome Report. So you’ll need to still study the report, but at least I’ve pulled out these nuggets for you:

1) A successful founder is…

“Founders that learn are more successful: Startups that have helpful mentors, track metrics effectively, and learn from startup thought leaders raise 7x more money and have 3.5x better user growth.”

2) Complementary co-founders a plus

“Solo founders take 3.6x longer to reach scale stage compared to a founding team of 2 and they are 2.3x less likely to pivot.”

“Balanced teams with one technical founder and one business founder raise 30% more money, have 2.9x more user growth and are 19% less likely to scale prematurely than technical or business-heavy founding teams.”

3) Keep it small as long as you can

“Premature scaling is the most common reason for startups to perform worse. They tend to lose the battle early on by getting ahead of themselves.”

UPDATE:

Just been reading more and I’m amazed at more amazing data. Like this one:

“Companies that are tracking metrics average a monthly growth rate that is 7x companies that are not tracking metrics and are 60% more likely to raise funding than companies that don’t track metrics.”

SEVEN TIMES the monthly growth rate. That’s not like 10%, 20%, that’s 700%. Wow.

Poke the Box – Just Start It

by Michael D. Jensen on August 9, 2011 in Books, Entrepreneur with No comments

Seth Godin, I’m a huge fan. I’m amazed at what Seth can do with one phrase (the title of each of his books). One of his most recent books, called Poke the Box, is a book all about “starting”. It’s a book I’ve recommended a number of times to others, including today to a good friend looking to start his own business.

The main message is to just start something. Don’t worry about failing, failure is good. If you’re so worried about failing you’re never going to start something enough to not fail.

Another part I found interesting was that we have a “duty”, a social responsibility to start something. If we have the idea, and the ability, not starting it is like hiding our talent. If we don’t start it, how can we expect to be given more ideas that we aren’t going to do anything with.

Buy it, it’s $7 on Amazon.

If you don’t start now, when will you?