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2 Myths About Starting a Business

September 27, 2006 by Ben Yoskovitz

Entrepreneur.com has their list of 10 myths on starting a business but they’ve missed 2 important ones.

There’s no question the myths they’ve listed are true. And by debunking the myths with some real facts (particularly related to funding) they’re not just ranting and raving about the difficulties of being an entrepreneur.

The truth is, lots of entrepreneurs fall into the traps of these myths and survive to tell about it. But knowing the pitfalls beforehand is bound to help even more.

Here are 2 additional myths about starting a business that belong on Entrepreneur.com’s list:

  1. It’s all about doing what you love and doing what’s fun. It should start out being about what you love. That’s why so many people look to take a hobby and turn it into a business (which I think is a great approach.) But once the honeymoon is over and it’s time to get to work, you may be facing a cold splash of water on the face.

    Setting up a business and running one has a lot to do with a lot of things that don’t involve what you love. (Assuming you don’t actually love any of the things I’ll mention right now…) Examples include: Incorporating (dealing with lawyers), accounting, chasing clients for money, cold calling, paying bills, unhappy customers, slow vendors, etc. The list goes on and on.

    When you’re starting a business there are a million-and-one ducks you need to put in a row. And as soon as you turn away for a second, one of those quackers is waddling off on you. That’s not to say the core of what you do can’t be fun…and yes, it should be! But if I was going to bust one myth it would be this one: it ain’t all a song and dance.

  2. You can do it alone. This is the second myth. Simply put, you can’t be successful alone. That doesn’t mean you need a 50 person consortium of partners (cause partners bring their own headaches), but you’re going to have to rely on others. In a recent episode of The Great Big Small Business Show we talked about delegating. In particular, Becky McCray talked about ways of delegating without hiring…forcing family to help you, for example (kidding!)

    I’m reminded of Leonardo DiCaprio’s words in Titanic, “I’m the king of the world!” Well…we all know how that ended up. Wanting to conquer the world is fine, but don’t assume you can do it alone. You’ll need a dedicated team of people to help you with a wide variety of things.

So there are two more myths about starting a business…adding to Entrepreneur.com’s list of 10.

Care to add some more?

Filed Under: Entrepreneurship

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Ben Yoskovitz

Founding Partner at Highline Beta, a hybrid venture studio and VC firm that works with large, ambitious companies to identify new areas of opportunity through internal and external innovation.

Previously I was VP Product at VarageSale and GoInstant (acq. $CRM), and Founding Partner at Year One Labs.

Angel investments include: Breather, Spoiler Alert, SendWithUs and others.

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