I am often asked a lot of questions about what to expect from people who want to start their own company or quit their job to join the entrepreneurial world.
Usually, there is a recurring theme to my replies and I wanted to jot a few of them down for you today:
1. Your business model will change and evolve
The business you start might not be the business you finish. I think of businesses as a means to an end, not the end in and of themselves. I often get a lot of resistance when I say this. “What do you mean, I was born to do such and such?!” is usually the response I get or “what about my passion?” My answer is: these are all well and good, but the whole point of being in business is to make money. If don’t go into business with the #1 objective to turn healthy and sustainable profits then you might as well not make the jump.
In this vein, if your business is a vehicle, you may have to fix, tune-up or change vehicles altogether to get where you want to go. I don’t think this is a bad thing at all. A lot of successful companies started with one idea only to be built around another one.
2. You will have to work harder than you think
Hard work should go without saying, so I hate to waste the bits and bytes to write it. But, I find to often that people (usually) expect success to come far more quickly in their businesses than other areas of their life. I think a lot of people expect the “30 day Slim Fast” weight loss results to translate to their company.
Believe me, it’s a whole lot different to compete against a wide-open market than it is against yourself. You know what your own moves are going to be but you don’t know what your competitors are going to do next. There is an old saying that goes: “life is a marathon, not a sprint.” I would argue that business is like a 3,000 meter steeplechase race: it’s pretty fast and there are plenty of obstacles.
3. Starting a company is a much bigger deal to you than anybody else
When you quit your job to start a company, you really feel like it is a big deal. You want everyone to know what your are doing and how you are taking control of your life and your financial future. Guess what? Nobody really cares that much (outside of your spouse, perhaps). This is not cynicism. It is simply a reality that most people don’t think about you before they go to bed at night - they have their own problems to deal with. So, don’t expect a lot of high-5 and backslapping from your golfing buddies because you fired your boss. Give yourself a quick pat on the back and then a kick in the pants and get moving…
4. Your standard of living will change
Whether you like it or not, your standard of living will change when you start a company. Whether you are opening a pizza franchise or you are going to start flipping single family foreclosure houses full time, you will need to make some initial adjustments to your standard of living. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you will make less money. However, when you are first starting out, it is wise to feed your company and reinvest so you can continue making money. The worst thing you can do as an entrepreneur is to rob your company of the growth fuel it needs to put you over the top. Way to many entrepreneurs take too big of a salary or draws from their business before the business can prove the ability to sustain that.
Get it in your head that you will have to change your standard of living, at least temporarily. Reschedule those family vacations, sell your second home, get ride of your jet-ski and snowmobile. It will be worth it when you can have these things back 10 fold with a thriving business that pays for all of them and more.
5. Results are all that matter
When you work for a company, you can get good performance reviews and even pay raises and promotions for simply showing up and contributing to a project that never gets done. In the entrepreneurial world, results are the only thing that matter. Period.
The results you are after in business are profits. You don’t have to be out to create the next Microsoft or Berkshire Hathaway, but you do have to be focused on making money and running your business well. Having a relentless focus on the result will help you cut a lot of the crap out of your way that will impede your progress.
There you have it - another Tuesday rant. Read. Enjoy. Apply. Prosper.
Cheers!
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