Is it easy to be an entrepreneur? The main myths and legends that must be dispelled ...

Exactly four months as we are in independent swimming on waves of own business. We are more than ever feeling "in the saddle" and experiencing a great emotional elation. However, there are difficulties that a startup has to overcome; I want to tell about them and about my personal experience.

Many myths and ideas about how "simple and easy" to do your own thing have collapsed. Anyone who starts his business is full of bright hopes and expectations that he will soon become a millionaire and will easily lead a large team, employees will be extremely motivated and their motivation will be as strong as yours, and you will only accept correct and timely decisions. And, probably, it will be like this, but not immediately. On the way, you can break on the rocks of disappointment. Calm drift in this situation will not save you, because others strive to be ahead, and you also need to sail in full sail. There is very little time to think. In this situation, it is very important to understand the reality at the start. About the main myths, I suggest to talk now.

Myth 1. I will create my own business and will be completely free.

This is one of the worst myths. Personally, I myself fell for it. On the free schedule and work in "convenient" time will have to forget. At least until you can hire enough people you can trust and who are as competent as you are. Most likely, you will not find such people soon, if not to say never. You will have to work 12 hours a day, your wife and children will forget how you look in the daylight, your friends will decide that you are arrogant, and the New Year holidays will be a way for you to deal with the accumulated affairs "in a calm atmosphere." This situation is not particularly like wives. There will be misunderstandings at home, sometimes quarrels. In fact, you have become a hired employee with an irregular working day, with the only difference that you yourself hired and the quality requirements of your work are extremely high. That which is easy to say goodbye to others will sharpen you constantly. You will become irritable and lose good sleep. You will remember with envy those times when you worked for your “uncle” 8 hours a day and at the beginning of the seventh, with a light conscience, you got up and went to drink beer, forgetting about work until 9 am the next day. Taking sick leave or going on vacation will be the same unrealizable dream of winning an American green card in the lottery or learning Spanish using a self-instruction manual. In general, there is nothing to say about the personal freedom of a private entrepreneur - these are just dreams.
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Myth 2. Starting to work for myself, I will gain financial independence.

Absolutely it does not matter whether you are doing business with your own money or attracted. No independence: if you did not have it, it will not appear. The first time you will only invest, invest and invest, until you go to self-sufficiency, and be happy if you succeed. Most companies die without receiving a “money sip”. If your goal is to create a serious business, and not something to maintain your pants, then you will invest all the money you earned again in business, increasing your momentum. The more money will be "spinning" in your business, the greater financial responsibility you will begin to experience. Your head will start to hurt that you need to pay office rent on time, pay salaries to your employees, because everyone has families to feed. To delay a salary means to lower the motivation and level of trust in you, which will certainly affect the production results. The last one who will receive a salary, if the money for it remains, will be you. But, most likely, the first time will have to work at all without money. You and your family will have to accept this. For a long time, your employees will receive a salary higher than you. It will seem unfair, because you work together with everyone, you work better and more than anyone, and you work for lower wages or without it at all. You will not be able to feel any results of your work at first, it is very demotivating. It is quite difficult to get rid of the thinking of a hired employee, as you have been for many years, and start thinking as an owner of a business that knows how to lead, inspire and lead people.

Myth 3. I create my own business to realize all my experience, knowledge and skills.

Almost everyone who starts his own business believes that he will finally make his own decisions and will be independent of the regulations and stupid bosses. This is true, because you yourself will become such a boss. This is the catch. Even if you were an excellent professional in some of your fields, now you have to do something completely different, you cannot afford to do only what you know how to do. Various organizational issues, communication with employees, fiscal authorities, accounting issues will take away most of your valuable time. You cannot entrust it to anyone, because you already value your business too much, in which you have invested so much nerves, time, and money. How can you entrust something to an employee who will surely spoil everything! Such thoughts sooner or later visit any start-up entrepreneur and it is very important to overcome these barriers, not to break on them, not to slide towards one-man management in an attempt to control everything.

Myth 4. If this is my business, then I set the rules.

(My employees are forbidden to read this item. :) As an entrepreneur, you will need to hire employees. And here you realize that the law is not on your side at all: the law protects not the one who organizes workplaces and pays taxes to the state, but employees who sometimes do not want to work at all, but only demand higher wages, social guarantees, 8 -m hour working day, two weekends a week, paid sick leave, full 24-day vacation, training at the expense of the company, etc. At the same time, they do not bear any responsibility, the result is not guaranteed, they often get sick, or even go on maid. You, as an entrepreneur, must comply with all requirements of the law. The law establishes the rules of the relationship between the employer and the employee. The employee is required almost nothing. You need to understand this situation and try to motivate your staff so that it shares your goals and works not for fear, but for conscience.

Instead of conclusion

Of course, these are not all existing myths, and not everything is as bad as I described above. Otherwise, I would never trade the quiet life of a clerk for the prospects that open up to bold and desperate guys like us.

“Everyone chooses a woman for himself, religion, the way ...” Everyone chooses for himself what life is more to his taste. But the decision must be deliberate, balanced and deliberate from all sides. There can be no right or wrong decision. At each stage of the life path for each person the right decision is his own. We went to our choice for a long time, and we made it. And do not regret!

And how do you sow swede?

^{PS
Several articles on Habré that inspired me to write this topic. Highly recommend: 1 , 2 , 3 .}