by Johannes Larsson, founder and CEO of www.financer.com
Have you spent the last year(s) dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur while you count down the hours of your nine to five job? Do you have a list of excuses for why you haven’t made the plunge or achieved the success you want yet?
You’re not alone. It’s human nature to make excuses to avoid the things that we’re scared of failing at. The ironic thing about this is that we’re ultimately guaranteeing our failure, by attempting to avoid it.
The first step is to break down these excuses one by one. Behind them, you might just find all of your dreams are waiting.
“If it is important to you, you’ll find a way. If it’s not, you’ll find an excuse.” – Ryan Blair.
1. “I don’t have enough money to start a business”.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of creating an endless savings pot before starting your business ‘just in case’. When in reality, some of the most successful businesses in the world were created on a shoe-string budget. Some entrepreneurs even see this as fuel to work harder, because they don’t have that safety net to fall back on.
If you have responsibilities and dependents, you will, of course, want to have some savings before quitting your job, just make this a plan instead of another excuse. Give yourself a strict time limit for when you’ll have saved three to six months of expenses and then promise yourself to start no later than that point. Alternatively, you can start your business around working full or part-time hours as many people do.
2. “It’s too risky”.
If you don’t have many entrepreneurs around you it is tempting to believe that this route is full of risk. However, if you think of all of the people who have been fired or become redundant – being self-reliant and in control of your own future doesn’t sound like the risky option at all.
Sometimes it helps to have a worst-case scenario in mind, just to see how difficult things could possibly get. For example, if your business completely fails and you’re unable to make it a success, you would either change direction to start something else with your learnings, or you could apply for a new job and be back to where you started. This exercise shows us that even in the worst-case scenario you haven’t lost anything, and instead have gained new insights and experience.
Mark Zuckerberg said “The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”
3. “I’m too busy”.
Being too busy is one of the most common excuses to avoid starting something. Between work, sleep and your social life you might tell yourself there’s no time to fit anything else in.
This is where prioritisation comes in, one of the key skills of any great entrepreneur. We all have 168 hours in a week. Subtract 38 hours for work and 50 for sleeping and ask yourself this, can you really not use any of the remaining 80 hours to make your dreams come true?
Next time you find yourself saying you’re too busy, remember this quote from Charles Buxton “You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.”
4. “I’m not ‘business-minded’”.
The first myth to clear up here is that there’s no right or wrong way to start a business because each is as unique as the person who started it. Starting your entrepreneurship journey is the only way to become the kind of business owner you one day want to be.
Never tell yourself you’re not cut out for business. You are, it will just require learning, practising, failing, networking and even outsourcing certain tasks to those more suited to them, just like it does for everybody else.
5. “I don’t have enough experience yet”.
This excuse is so common that a term has been coined for it, imposter syndrome.
Not believing you are talented, experienced or educated enough to start your business or go after your dreams is one of the most destructive myths you can tell yourself. The truth is, you don’t need to be a master before you start something – almost nobody is. More importantly, you won’t become a master until you commit to it 100% and start.
You probably won’t make millions from your first course, win an award for your first book. But without making the first one, you’ll never make the one that does.
Key takeaways.
- If you don’t feel financially ready, make a plan not an excuse
- The biggest risk is taking no risk, and not having control over your own future
- Everyone has the same amount of hours in a week, it’s how you spend them that counts
- Everyone has the capability to start a business, and all skills can be learnt
- Don’t let imposter syndrome stop you from becoming the business owner you know you can be
Johannes Larsson is the founder and CEO of www.financer.com, an SEO geek and affiliate marketing expert. He’s been practising entrepreneurship and digital marketing for over a decade and runs a global remote team. In his blog www.johanneslarsson.com he shares his expertise in SEO, affiliate marketing and finance with a wealth of resources for digital entrepreneurs. Connect with him at @mrjola on Instagram and @mrjolar on Twitter.
