Ask any of your friends if they want to start their own business someday and a lot would say yes. There’s a certain enigma to starting a business that a lot of people associate it to risk-taking and entrepreneurial individuals who overcame huge obstacles in their journey from rags to riches. While this may be true for some, starting a business is not always as rosy as it sounds.
If you are one of those few lucky souls who want to start your own business someday, you’re up against all odds.
They say 9 out of 10 businesses fail in their first 5 years. And out of those left standing, 9 out of 10 would have failed after 10 years. That’s the reality you have to overcome if you want to see your own business see the light of day.
Have you ever felt that your dream of owning your business is already over even before you get started? That’s what I felt when I heard the sobering statistics.
But why really do most people haven’t started their own businesses yet? Their most common excuse? Not enough capital.
The interesting is…not only is this a myth, it is a blatant lie. It may be by far, the biggest obstacle you have to overcome if you ever want to start your own business one day.
For one, if you need a lot of money to get started, then no one would have been able to grow their business from rags to riches. Jollibee didn’t start out in day one as 100 stores! Not even Henry Sy is good enough to have an SM Megamall when he started. How did they start? They started small. Jollibee started as a small ice cream parlor. SM was small shoe store.
Most people who make the excuse of not having capital to start their own business is making a disservice to themselves. It’s plain old excuse. It’s as if it’s the only thing they need to actually succeed in business. It could be the farthest thing from the truth. If you want to succeed, having a lot of money may even be detrimental to your business’ growth.
A lot of starting a business is solving problems. If you have a lot of money, you have to go against the temptation of throwing money at your problem. Without money you are forced to be creative in solving that problem. Your creative juices is nurtured like a muscle going for an exercise. The more you exercise, the more you become good at it. The more you become good at it, the more your business will grow.
One rags to riches story I remember from the Truly Rich Entrepreneur’s Workshop I attended last month was about a young guy who started with PhP 100, fought against all odds and became a Multi-millionaire. He didn’t have a lot of things, but one thing he had was his passion for cars.
One day, after having little success at school, his parents gave him PhP 100 as his last allowance. With his back against the wall, he thought about how to start a business using only that PhP 100. Because he was passionate about cars, he thought of opening a business around fixing cars. The only problem, he didn’t know how to fix cars.
How did he solve this problem? Simple. He asked his friend who knew how to fix cars become his business partner.
With a new business partnership formed, the next problem he had to solve was to look for clients. To solve this, he went out to the parking lot of a mall, looked for high-end cars which needed fixing. He used a portion of his PhP 100 to come up with a flyer and slipped them into the car’s windshield. Out of those flyers, 5 people called him up and he was able to close a deal with 2 of them. He and his friend used the remaining money from the PhP 100 to go to their client on board a taxi.
Left without any money, they had another problem — they didn’t have the necessary tools to fix the car. Solution? They asked for a down payment from the client and used that to buy the tools. And the rest as they say is history. He was able to franchise the car fixing business system and now earns PhP2 Million peso from that business alone.
You see, it takes a lot more than just capital to start your own business. You need passion. You need specific skills most especially sales and marketing. You need a brilliant team around you to help you achieve your business goals.
I am not saying having money is NOT good. What I am saying is that you need to stop making excuses and start doing what needs to be done if you are really serious about starting your own business.
Stop reading. Go do something. Starting your own business cannot be learned from reading books alone. Like riding a bike, you can never learn it watching by the sidelines. You have to actually ride on your bike, fall a lot of times, and get back up to try again..and again. And once you learn and able to balance yourself, it will be the greatest feeling you’ve ever felt in your life.
P.S. If you are searching for a home-based business you can start part-time with minimal risk, CLICK HERE to email me.
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