7 Common Misconceptions About Running A Small Business

Not too long ago, entrepreneurs were frowned upon and viewed as individuals too lazy or eccentric to survive the regular nine to five working world like everyone else. However, thanks to some major success stories, this has all changed, with entrepreneurship recently being seen as quite trendy. Nowadays, starting your own business is easier than ever, but, with many people heading into entrepreneurship with false assumptions, running a successful company is a little tougher. With that in mind, here are seven small business misconceptions you shouldn’t believe.

1. Entrepreneurs Have More Time

Entrepreneurship means the opportunity to set your own hours and work almost whenever you want. Unfortunately, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you can or should have more free time. In fact, if anything, you’ll likely have less of it. Even if you don’t stick to the normal nine to five hours that most companies do, you’ll still need to work incredibly hard to get your business ideas up and running. More often than not, this means giving up evenings and weekends to work.

2. Funding Is Always Needed

Money is the lifeblood of the business world, but that doesn’t always mean that you need a huge pile of it to get a company up and running. In fact, if you’re waiting around for a cash injection from an outside source, you may never get off the ground. Instead of relying on friends, family, banks, and other lenders, you should find ways to bootstrap your business instead. This will be more challenging, of course, but it will be worth it in the end.

3. Planning Just Wastes Time

It doesn’t matter what type of business you’re starting or whether or not you’re borrowing funding, you always need a business plan for your startup. This will provide guidance, motivation, and stop you from making any major mistakes. Your business plan should offer insights on every area of your company, from marketing and sales to the legal setup and employees. This doesn’t need to be massively detailed, but it should be useful and make sense to anyone who reads it.

4. Marketing Strategies Are Pointless

A big part of your business plan should offer information on your planned marketing strategies. Unfortunately, many business owners fail to see the importance of this major step. Marketing is so much more than shiny leaflets and flashy ads – It’s about getting the word out about your business, whether it be with a digital marketing sales funnel, word of mouth, or any other tactic. Without these strategies, no one will know about you, so you won’t make any money.

5. A Team Isn’t Necessary

Many entrepreneurs go into business under the assumption that they need to do everything on their own. Of course, this may be the case in the earliest days, but there will eventually come a time when you need a helping hand. It’s at this moment that you need to start delegating work to permanent employees, freelancers, and agencies. You may also want to find yourself a mentor to offer their advice, guidance, and experience. Trying to do everything alone never ends well.

6. Everyone Takes Huge Risks

Most of the entrepreneurial stories you hear on the news and in magazines all revolve around individuals who risked and sacrificed almost everything they had to make their company a success. Thankfully, these individuals are in the minority. The only reason these stories make it to the news is that they’re dramatic. More often than not, business people gain their success by being smart, limiting the risks they face, and planning carefully and thoroughly.

7. Determination Always Equals Success

In an ideal world, every determined and motivated person would succeed and reach their goals. Unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world. The sad truth is that, even if you put everything you have into your company, it still might fail at some point down the line. Persistence is required to get things started and get you off the ground, but you need the right opportunities to prosper in the long run. This is why you need to assess risks carefully and limit those that you can.

Entrepreneurship is a dream for many individuals, but what they imagine business ownership to be is often very far from factual. If you want to be a success in the world of business, then you need to understand what is actually in store. The misconceptions listed above give you some idea of the reality, but there are still many going around. Instead of believing everything you hear, you need to learn to separate the facts from fiction.