The harsh truth about entrepreneurship revealed by an experienced entrepreneur
Starting a business is not an easy job, and building it, is even more challenging. A great idea alone doesn’t make a great entrepreneur; until you start working in the arena with hard work and a clear vision. Also, most startups are unaware of the harsh truth about entrepreneurship and facts about running a business.
Thus, to help upcoming entrepreneurs and startup enthusiasts get better prepared, here is my take on the harsh truth about entrepreneurship.
1. The early stage of business is one of the toughest phases
The early stage of a business is the most crucial phase of an entrepreneur’s life. You don’t have a team of experts, proper resources, and experience to handle contingencies in market dynamics. The harsh reality of the early stage of a business is you only have vision, idea, and passion to survive in the competitive business landscape. Your friends turned business partners may not have a similar vision and perspective as you, and this may lead to conflicts. In the end, it is your zeal to work for your dream to make it a reality.
2. Failure is an inseparable part of entrepreneurship.
Every entrepreneur faces failures on his/her path to establish a business. Lacking holistic business understanding, failing to select skilled and trustworthy team members, not being able to gather the right resources, choosing wrong business partners etc. are failures that an entrepreneur experiences. Yes, failures are heartbreaking, but responding smartly to the lost opportunity or bad decision is what makes a great leader. You can learn a lot from your failures. Don’t quit as each market is full of possibilities.
3. Challenges and responsibilities grow with the growing business
As an entrepreneur, when I started my journey, I thought that things will become easy once my company becomes a renowned brand and this is what most people think while starting a business. A successful entrepreneur is often misunderstood as a rich person in the glamorous world. But the truth of entrepreneurship is your responsibilities and challenges grow with the growing business. Running a high revenue company is much harder, as you need to keep your loyal employees, retain customers, maintain the brand reputation, and stay ahead of your business rivals. No doubt success in business brings a lot of joy, but it brings a huge set of duties and efforts along with it.
4. Tough times test your leadership skills
You have to patiently collaborate with your team to create stability by working in accordance with team values. Here is what you should do in tough times:
a. Take responsibility for failures, and inspire team members to take chances to succeed.
b. During tough times, it is important to create an encouraging environment. Let the failure remain in the past, and ensure your team that success is on your way.
c. Motivate them with clear plans and individual goals. Let them know their role is important, and their work really makes a change.
d. Start celebrating the small wins to boost the confidence of your team. Manage your team in tough times; otherwise, you are going to fail as an entrepreneur.
5. Not everything works according to our plans
No matter how great and fact-based is your plan, there is still a probability that it may fail, let it be any case in our daily life or business. I have experienced that it is wise to make plans to achieve business goals, but it is wiser to have multiple plans to make things work. The market is changing rapidly, and business plans don’t often work as expected. If Plan A doesn’t work, go with Plan B. For me, a successful plan does have predicted risks, as well as include tactics to minimize those risks.
6. Entrepreneurship demands special efforts
My journey of entrepreneurship is full of ups and downs. My failures have taught me the best lessons for business success. What most of us have assumed about entrepreneurship is that you survive, you win, and you celebrate your victories. But the harsh truth about entrepreneurship is that the road map of business is full of failures, challenges, and demands special efforts.
I have learned that entrepreneurship is your journey to make your dream (idea) work. I partnered with people who have different thoughts about doing business and didn’t agree with my vision, and conflicts for achieving business goals resulted in staggering growth of the business. I believed in myself and parted ways to remain true to my business idea. The success of FATbit is proof that it was the right decision, and I think I am doing well as an entrepreneur.
7. [Bonus tip] For budding entrepreneurs
The world is full of opportunities for people, who want to start a business. But before you launch your business, make sure you have analyzed the market trends, have sufficient resources, and learn your customer behaviours.
Make a formal business model and consistently work on it. You can’t do everything alone, so find people who believe in you, work for you, and are in harmony with your vision.
Most people fail as an entrepreneur because they are not willing to accept the risk of failing at their business plans. Don’t quit just because you are not getting expected results. Business growth is a steady process, so, wait patiently for the results, and stay true to your idea.
So, what do you think about these harsh realities of entrepreneurship? Share your thoughts below.
A passionate entrepreneur, he is leading Fatbit Technologies along with eCommerce platform, Yo!Kart. He is an entrepreneur with more than 14+ years of experience, with the achievement of completing 5000+ projects worldwide and leading a tech expert team of 100+ people. Also, he is a professional business writer, who has been featured on top publications like The Telegraph, EntrepreneurIndia and SEMrush.
