What Entrepreneurship is Not

Although making money is the main reason people start businesses, there are certain reasons you shouldn’t start a business. We name five of them

Young people are killing it in business and in their careers. I have read about millionaires as young as 23 who made a fortune from following their passion. With many accelerator programmes and funding organisations dedicated to helping young people start their businesses there really isn’t any reason why you shouldn’t turn your dreams and ideas into a reality. No entrepreneur will tell you that it’s easy running a business, they’d be lying but they will all agree that nothing fulfils them than doing something they are passionate about, while creating employment and making money from it. Sure, many people attach materialism and money to success, but in essence it’s about doing what you love. Since Rome wasn’t built in one day, neither is any business or brand. If you are considering being your own boss you should do a lot of introspection before diving into the deep end. Whatever your reasons for starting a business, below are five things that entrepreneurship is not:

It is not an easy way to make money: Social media and a lot of music videos shouldn’t be your reference to what success means. Unless fraud was part of it, there’s no easy and quick way of making money. Nothing worth having has ever come easy.

Entrepreneurship is not about always about soaking in the sun while employees work on your business: That can be one of the long term rewards of your hard work, but if anything hard work, tears and sweat are what keeps your business afloat.

It is not a mere office job: Unless you have clients to offer your services to from either a home or rented office you simply have no business. Entrepreneurship is all about creating and maintaining good and profitable relationships with people. You need to go out there, network as much as you can and sell your solution to a need or a gap in the market.

Entrepreneurship is not glamorous: You have to roll up your sleeves and put in the hard work. It’s not glamorous working tirelessly on business proposals, setting up meetings, having doors shut on your face or not making money while employees have to be paid. Some of these hurdles are what entrepreneurs have in common, but persistence and passion is what keeps their doors open for business.

It’s not for the faint hearted: It’s not easy being a business person, but what, in life is easy if you really think about it? Not everyone is born to be in business but that’s an honest conversation you need to have with yourself before you consider starting a business.

What other misconceptions do you think people have about entrepreneurship?