Category: Entrepreneurship

New Webcomics series brought to you by #entrepreneurfail and GetEntrepreneurial.com. Enjoy!

Poll any entrepreneur – new, old, successful, flailing, product-focused, service-focused, solo or with a team – and they will all say the same thing:

“What I thought, was definitely not what I got”, each one would scream in unison.

We’ve rounded up some of the commonest misconceptions and surprises about entrepreneurship for you below. The list may help you be better prepared for the journey.

What entrepreneurs thought, before launching their ventures:

1. “Money will start pouring in.” -Guess what, it only actually trickles!
2. “Customers would be clamoring for my product and I have to be prepared because my servers may crash.” -This is actually a great problem to have – alas it never happened.
3. “I can handle it alone.” -The reality is that no one can.
4. “I am in control.” -Nope, you’ll have to deal with the unforeseen everyday.
5. “Job satisfation is a given since I’ll be working on what I want.” -It’s not a guarantee.
6. “I’ll be an overnight success” -The definition of overnight can be 3,4,5 or more years!
7. “I’ll use all my knowledge from my Big company and MBA.” -My previous learnings weren’t really applicable.
8. “I’ll just get online and do some social media outreach to grow my company.”           -Digital marketing is a science and an art, not just a few posts slapped together.
9. “Cheap labor is great for my small budget.” -You get what you pay for.
10. “I’ll be ready to deliver in a week.” -It’s always at least 3x longer than anticipated.
11. “I’m launching my own business to be happy, not for money.” -Try being happy when your business isn’t sustainable. 

Did we miss any in the list? Let us know “what you thought, and what you got” in the comments below! 

This post and comic were originally created by Kriti Vichare for #entrepreneurfail: Startup Success.

New Webcomics series brought to you by #entrepreneurfail and GetEntrepreneurial.com. Enjoy!

I recently volunteered as a business plan coach for high school students through the National Foundation of Teaching Entrepreneurship, and was impressed that each and every student (in a mandatory class) was excited about their potential ventures and significantly improved their skills during the session. Is it possible that every child has the potential to become an entrepreneur?

Scientists have always wondered what characteristics are innate, and what traits can be molded based on upbringing. Are there some indicators of future entrepreneurial success? Seems like the jury is out on that question. There are many successful entrepreneurs that started a proverbial lemonade stand and newspaper route, but there’s also a good share of them that launched their first venture in their ripe middle ages.  And MBA programs are teeming with students hoping to learn the nuggets that will help them endeavor into entrepreneurship.

We’ve all heard the tales of massively successful startups and their humble roots in a garage, or a dorm room. What if it has even humbler roots in a baby’s crib! Many experts claim that although some traits are inborn, others can be learned. In a recent TEDx talk, Cameron Herold talks about how to raise kids to be entrepreneurs. Perhaps some of you current entrepreneurs can relate to the stories he tells and perhaps future parents can plan their activities accordingly!

Also, let’s not forget that recently, Entrepreneurship Barbie was launched, helping girls envision a life of fashionable shoes and new ventures. It’s the age of the “kidpreneur” scream many gurus, and here’s a telling infographic to help in that goal.? All in all, the one trait that is truly a deal breaker is experience. I think every child and adult has the potential to become an entrepreneur if he/she has the desire to test, try it, and learn from it at least once.

Were you a kidpreneur? Or at least showed the traits early on? Or did the bug come and bite you later in life? Let us know in the comments below.

This post and comic were created by Kriti Vichare and adapted from #entrepreneurfail: Startup Success.

New Webcomics series brought to you by #entrepreneurfail and GetEntrepreneurial.com. Enjoy!

Climbing the good ol’ corporate ladder is a tried, true, relatively predictable, yet slow way to reach the top. Heeding the speed limit and traversing the dotted lines can get frustrating, as there is no magical formula for ascension. And cracking the office politics and favoritism codes can be a mystery.

This is a reason you may have pursued your own venture: so you could declare yourself the boss. Good luck with that! Sure the org chart will be leaner than in a corporation, but you are never actually your own boss. You are actually reporting to your customers, vendors, suppliers and your investors. They drive and dictate your promotions, pay raises, perks, annual leave, and responsibility. Welcome to your organization. It’s the flip version of the corporate org chart. You are barely hanging on, as it grows larger above you. Be ready to draw it as you go. 

Are you your own boss? Or do you report to your customers? Tell us about your experiences in the comments. 

This comic and post were originally created by Kriti Vichare for #entrepreneurfail: Startup Success.  It can be found in the book Cheating on Your Corporate Job: A Comic Look at the Startup Dream.

New Webcomics series brought to you by #entrepreneurfail and GetEntrepreneurial.com. Enjoy!

Whenever I speak to entrepreneurs who have left the corporate rat race to pursue their own ventures, their experiences always echo my own. Sure, new small business owners expect additional flexibility, less bureaucracy and longer hours. However, those who leave the corporate world in search of greener pastures in a startup will realize that the job satisfaction trajectory between the two is very different, neither being a clear winner.

At the beginning of a corporate job, or a role within any large organization, there is a sense of pride that comes from the brand, the paycheck, and the responsibility. With time (and, of course, there are exceptions) the satisfaction decreases a bit, and plateaus out. The probability of this happening is consistently high because soon enough the reality of red tape and repetition sets in.  This is when some try to make the leap to a startup.

At the beginning of an entrepreneurial venture, the sentiment and satisfaction is uncertain and riddled with fear and budgetary constraints. The level of job satisfaction is consistently changing: variable but often in a positive trajectory. The stress often can result in more confusion and change in direction. With time there is potential to reach a high level of success and job satisfaction, but the probability of that is extremely low.

This quest for extreme job satisfaction is an #entrepreneurfail.  We all hear about the success stories and the glamour of starting a venture and the shackles of a corporate role but the irony is that neither is fully true.

The most recent count of failed startups is too high to rationally think about. However, we’re a risky bunch, so we think it’s worth the leap!

Did you leave a corporate role to job a startup? How did your job satisfaction change? Which factors affected you the most: salary, time, interesting work or colleagues? Let us know in the comments below.

Pursue your passion…and you’ll never work on your passion a full day in your life…

Wait…that’s not how the old adage goes, is it? Isn’t it true that you if you work on something you love, your’ll never work a day in your life? What’s this about not being able to work on your passion?

Well the truth is, while there are benefits in pursuing your avocation as a vocation – you’re not going to have too much time to work on that passion when it becomes a business. You don’t get paid for just pursuing your hobby! You get paid for distributing and selling your passion.

Freelancers know this all too well. Say you have a talent that you want to share and monetize: Baking? Web Development? Design? As you start offering your service, the most of your time will not be working on your expertise. The reality is that business development, marketing, sales, finances, tech support, and other day-to-day activities will take a longer portion of the day than the actual skill you are offering to clients. Also, many solo entrepreneurs have a side job to help make ends meet as they are growing their businesses.

For bloggers, Derek Halpern from Social Triggers says most spend 80% of their time creating content and 20% promoting it; these proportions are exactly the reasons why most bloggers fail. He claims that the most successful bloggers don’t spend most of their time blogging! In fact they spend 20% of the time creating content and 80% of their time promoting it.

All in all, the thing to remember is that starting a business involves MUCH more than just your skill set and yes, you will have to wear many, many hats and serve as a jack-of-all-trades for a while.

Did you pursue your hobby as a business? What was your experience? Did you get to spend enough time working on your talent?

This comic has been adapted from an original post on #entrepreneurfail: Startup Success.