“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” – Mark Twain
More and more small businesses are emerging in the market. A survey by Small Business Trends showed that nearly 70 percent of entrepreneurs start running their own business from home. While the idea of being your own boss sounds delightful, to actually achieving such a goal could be more challenging than you might think. The survey found that more than almost half (40 percent) small businesses have to deal with failure.
The top five causes of failure are: no market need, ran out of cash, not the right team, got out compared, and pricing or cost issues. Such a huge number of businesses facing failure indicates that young entrepreneurs today might not be ready for dealing with challenges in the business environment. They are blinded with the idea of freedom and authority of being their own boss but are not ready for the risks and challenges ahead.
See also: Things to Remember When Starting a Business
Flavian Mwasi, a business advisor and author of 100 Ways To Earn 100 Dollars Per Day Online, cited that there are some mistakes young entrepreneurs are doing wrong, such as they are too rushed to run a business and pay little attention to the hurdles. According to Mwasi, here are mistakes young entrepreneurs, maybe including you, do.
Mistakes #1 – Keep listening to the same old mantra
The most common mistake young entrepreneurs do is that they keep holding onto the same old mantra like, “be a good student and you can find a good job” or “study hard so big company will hire you” which will affect their mindsets when they become an entrepreneur. Consequently, after they fail in their business, they will remember that being an employee is much better rather than chasing or building something uncertain.
Mistake #2 – No proper education
Young entrepreneurs often get into entrepreneurship without even bothering to educate themselves about entrepreneurship knowledge. No education means not enough knowledge about how to build a proper business. Eventually, it leads to one failure after another which often results in negative comebacks such as depression, disappointment, or desperation to go back to the old same job.
Mistake #3 – Fail to realise opportunity is in entrepreneurship
As mentioned, depression and desperation over a business failure often make people want to just go back being an employee again. This is a big mistake.
Not many new entrepreneurs know that being your own boss cannot be achieved overnight. It needs more than 100 sleepless nights and 1000 more efforts.
They fail to realise that jobs are created by entrepreneurs just like them, who persevered for years to pursue a dream of controlling their lives and enjoying financial freedom. Therefore, if there are fewer entrepreneurs, there will be fewer jobs available and employment opportunities.
Mistake #5 – Fall for shiny object syndrome (SOS)
Entrepreneurs are back in business but they probably have lost taste and time after failing from job to job, or business to business. Then, they make a mistake like falling in the shiny object syndrome. This syndrome happens due to lack of capability entrepreneurs make when trying out their business.
For example, you continuously lose streak because you never unlearn everything you know. You still believe that the knowledge you learn in entrepreneurial college is enough. It is not. Although you are wiser and more knowledgeable about business now, you should not ignore the old wisdom of entrepreneurship and learning.
Mistake #6 – Fail to understand the success formula
At school, we are taught that failure is unacceptable. However, in life, it happens the other way round. Business is just like diving deeper into your life. So, you should know that failure after failure will result in success. According to Mwasi, many young entrepreneurs make an ultimate mistake: “They fail to take another risk.”
Mistake #7 – Tired of believing their own capabilities and abilities to success
After every mistake young entrepreneur makes yet success still seems to be so far away, young entrepreneurs might lose trust in what they are doing and are not willing to listen to wisdom from the experienced individuals. For example, a classic book like “Think and Grow Rich”, “How To Win Friends and Influence People”, “The Art of War”, and “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, will not make sense any more. “As a result, young entrepreneurs end up not believing in themselves and fail to build the important qualities of patience, persistence, discipline and focus,” added Mwasi. Yet, once you find out what the mistakes are and why these hamper your success, you can identify new step to fix these issues in an effective way.
Read also: 5 Useful Advices for New Student-Run Startup
The post Lesson Learnt: What Do Young Entrepreneurs Do Wrongly? appeared first on StartUpJobs Asia Blog.
