10 things to know before becoming an entrepreneur

Ready to go build your own dreams instead of someone else’s? Looking to switch from a corporate job to pursue the path of being self employed? Having the freedom to do what you like? Pursuing your passion? Making a difference?

These are definitely feelings that many of us go through. To help make the transition easier, I’ve put together some things I’ve learned as an entrepreneur for you to consider before pulling the plug on your job.

1. You are your toughest boss

We’ve all had bosses that don’t allow us to reach our own potential. They micromanage us daily, don’t let us work on projects we might want to try and seem to have no empathy whatsoever. This can definitely be something that is hard to face day in day out. The thought of having no boss hovering our head can be very liberating. However, when you run your own business, you will be the toughest boss you’ve ever had for yourself. You will keep striving to do more, achieve more, never feel fully satisfied and feel constant pressure. The reality is you will take on the role of your own boss till you have investors, a board and other members to which you will also then be accountable to.

You are never really free of a boss as long as you are achieving difficult things.

2. You are always on

As an entrepreneur it can be really liberating to work from home whenever you want, travel more often and manage your own schedule. However, the reality is that with that freedom comes an obligation to always be switched on. If a customer wants a reply and it’s a Saturday, well you’ll get back to them on Saturday and not wait till Monday. It is your business’ reputation at the end of the day and you’ll go to every length to rectify issues with urgency.

3. Uncertainty is constant

Embrace the idea that you don’t know what your business will be like in a year from now, or even a month from now, especially in the early days. Things constantly change, your business might pivot and change the way it sells or your customer might change. At every stage there will be a level of uncertainty and questions that don’t yet have answers.

Be laser focused on the tasks you can achieve today as they get you to the bigger picture that is tomorrow.

But don’t expect to know everything about your business right away.

4. It is not cool but incredibly lonely

Being an entrepreneur can be an extremely lonely path. From not having a swanky office you may be used to stocked up with snacks and fellow colleagues to chat around with, to not knowing what to work on when first starting out. The media glorifies startup life and the exciting aspects of innovation and entrepreneurship. The reality is most of us don’t know if our businesses will still be around in 5 years and we feel immense pressure to figure it out when we set foot on this journey. Our friends and family often find it difficult to relate and can never truly understand what we are going through unless they’re also entrepreneurs.

5. You will grow the most you ever have in your career

Entrepreneurship has taught me so much about myself, my own expectations from life and the art of patience. I believe it makes you build grit, resilience, perseverance, courage, empathy and so many other admirable qualities. Being an entrepreneur will make you grow as a person even on your personal side as you face extraordinary struggles to achieve your vision. No task is too small for an entrepreneur, we always roll up our sleeves to help the team along — distributing flyers in the early days, gathering customer feedback and picking up pizza for the team. There is no space for ego or entitlement. Entrepreneurship will give you a new perspective on the world around you and teach you to practice gratitude for small wins.

“…Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

— Robert Frost

6. It takes a long time before you get paid

As an entrepreneur it is your focus to manifest a path for the business to achieve profitability by having a laser focus on generating revenues, whilst also managing costs. Taking a salary is not an option in the early days and every dollar taken out of the business could be an investment that could grow the value of the company. Even if you have investors from day 1, be prepared to take the very minimum to sustain yourself. The main difference between your corporate salary and your income at your business lies in the fact that the majority of what you are worth is in the value of equity you own in the business. And as per the pecking order, whenever it is exit time, you’re usually last to get your share of the pie!

7. Kill perfectionism, MVP everything

If you’re someone that likes to build everything exactly right and then try selling it to customers, chances are you will have limited success. You cannot know how a customer will react, you may think you know what a customer wants but often you don’t. The idea with a startup is to get products or services out there fast in their most basic version, test them with early adopters, refine and keep following this cycle of continuous improvement. A MVP (minimum viable product) keeps costs lean and allows startups to test their hypotheses with limited resources. Get used to thinking about everything you create this way even if you are trying to write a book. Test small pieces with your target audience and see how it resonates and then improve.

An entrepreneur always lacks enough resources whilst always trying to achieve extraordinary outcomes and so keeping every initiative lean is very critical to survival.

8. Have a long term perspective

Building a business is a long term plan. We choose to risk current income to create something bigger and better long term, which will be of exponential value. This is a choice. If you want to think short term then running a business is not the way to go. The reality is most successful businesses have taken nearly 10 years to get to where they are today and “overnight successes” are strictly fantasies painted by the media. So be in it for the long haul. You’ll burn out if you don’t cultivate that attitude.

9. Build a plan to profitability

It’s easy to get caught in the trap of wanting to be huge and taking a whole market and burning tonnes of resources on the way to acquire a whole market. The reality is, very few businesses are going to be Uber or Amazon and so for all practical purposes, think like a traditional business and see how fast you can make it to being profitable. Focus on growing your revenues and keep your costs under control. Be a stickler about ROI for every additional dollar spent.

“Ignore the hype of the startups that you see in the press. Mostly, it’s a pack of lies. Half of these startups will be dead in a year. So, focus on building your business so you can be the one left standing.”

— Jules Pieri, Co-founder and CEO of The Grommet

10. Fail fast

Failing is inevitable, in fact expect it to happen. The key part to remember is that if any idea is not working or if you have to pivot, do it fast. Don’t take time, sitting around hoping for things to change or fall into place. This can waste a lot of time and resources and get you nowhere.

“You have to see failure as the beginning and the middle, but never entertain it as an end.”

— Jessica Herrin, founder and CEO of Stella & Dot

I hope this will help you better predict what’s next as an entrepreneur. It can be a hard but extremely rewarding journey to create your own future. I wish you every success!