Today Sean shares the 5 main myths he hears from people that keep them from starting their own business. Remember, these are EXCUSES people use that prevent them from starting a business!
Today we’re talking about the five myths that prevent people from starting a business.
It’s the beginning of the year and people are excited about making resolutions. A typical one has always been they want to start a business. I’m constantly talking to people that share with me their desire to start a business and the conversation always goes in one of two directions.
First they ask me how I’ve started more than 20 businesses. I tell them: One at a time.
And then they’ll shift to why they haven’t started a business. Without fail, the reason tends to fall into one of these Five Myths.
Myth 1: I need a lot of capital
My first business I started for about $1.8k. The second business I started with sweat equity, really no money at all, and made a million dollars. The third business I put in about $2k and that has made me millions. I’ve yet to put more than $10k into any of my start-up businesses.
You need to think like a pup tent. You’re not building a dream house. All you’re trying to do is get your business up and running and if you don’t have a lot of capital, you’re basically going to start a business that will profit from day one. I am not keen on waiting years to make money. I genuinely expect every business I’m involved in to generate money day one and to be profitable within ninety days.
I grew up poor so I’ve never chosen a business where I needed a ton of capital. There’s so many that just don’t require it.
Next, think proof of concept. All you’re trying to do is put enough money into it to know and to believe that your idea will work. Great, ideas attract money.
So the idea that you need a ton of capital is not true. You can boot strap. You can absolutely make it happen.
Myth 2: I Need to Quit My Job
I’ve never quit a job yet to start a business. Eventually I quit after becoming successful on my own.
I sold cars when I was when I came to where I live now, to start a business, and I did so well, I didn’t have to stay very long. When partners come in and they also have a job, I tell them to stay with what they’re doing.
In my magazine business, one of the people that I brought in was a golf professional. He loved what he did. I would have never been able to attract this person by saying, “Hey quit what you’re doing”.
I instead told him, “We can work around your schedule”. His wife didn’t work. It would have been a horrible decision to quit that job.
Read the book, The Four-Hour Work Week. You’ve got 168 hours in a week. You can make it work if you work eight hours in a day job and have two-thirds of the day left to fit in time to work on your business.
Myth 3: I Need a Big Idea
No, you need a profitable idea. You don’t need a big idea. I still haven’t had a big idea but I’ve had a few million dollar ones…and they start to add up.
You know, you know how every big business starts?
As a small business.
They rarely start full-scale. They start as small businesses.
Myth 4: I Need a Business Education
I didn’t get one. I think no profession needs less education than running a business. I speak at collegess and I have yet to sit down with a professor in any of my speaking engagements that I would pay for my son to sit in their class and learn business from.
I’m shocked at the curriculum they’re using. I’m shocked that the person who’s teaching it has never started a business in their life.
I would tell those students…take $2k, and start a business. I Come up with five $2k business ideas over a two-year period and you’re going to know more about business than you could have ever learned in a business class. And statistically, one of those are gonna work. They say the second one is typically the one that does the best.
No billionaires ever go back to school.
Mark Zuckerberg, he never went back. Bill Gates never went back.
They get specialized education. They get mentored. They bring a team around them to help them in areas that they lack.
A business education is the last reason why you wouldn’t start a business.
Myth 5: It Needs to Be Perfect
It’s never going to be perfect.
In all the businesses I’ve started not one has gone the way I thought it would go. Somewhere in the first year, we had to adapt, change course, or do something that I didn’t see coming that I could not have prepared for going in.
If I knew I was going to face that struggle, I may not have even started it. So I’m glad that I didn’t know.
So if you’re waiting for the perfect time to start a business, it doesn’t exist.
What you need to do is take action. Do something, today.
That’s the best advice I can give you. If you want to start a business, start it today.
