ClearYourMind is our company blog about business, the Internet and everything a "web-guy" loves by Javier Cabrera, owner and principal of Emastudios, a tiny web design agency based in the beautiful caribbean-like Buenos Aires, Argentina.

April 21, 2008

Being an Entrepreneur: myths [Part 1]

Did you read all those articles about becoming an entrepreneur and how great and easy it is? well, they are all a big lie. Like everything in life, it takes long time to realize it was different than we thought it will be. But not everything is lost: being an entrepreneur can be one of the most challenging things on earth and anyone can do it by just realizing there is more out there. But it won’t be hard (as I always say) it will be HELL to go through. With luck, you will have realistic articles like this, based on personal experience and facts that will help you in the darkest times (there will be for sure) on your entrepreneurial career.

Busting Myths

There are a lot of pre-conceptions in being an entrepreneur; a lot of people actually writes articles, blogs and even books about the subject without having a real experience; they just write after reading it from another source which end up in washed concepts about how great or easy being an entrepreneur really is. I’m not here to disqualify people or to bring anyone down; just to bust myths!

You can be an entrepreneur without quiting your day job!

Try being an entrepreneur if you like; but don’t quit your day job until you get some success first!

Although it is true some people can handle two jobs, it is a fact that those jobs need to be something that doesn’t require creativity (clerk, washing cars, parking the cars after washing them…) or business ability; or even learning new skills. Trying to make it at the Bank from 9 to 6 and after that, working in your business it is almost impossible; you will end up quiting the Bank or, as many, quiting at being an entrepreneur. Is not just checking emails by night; it is hard work to go from A to Z with just a book under your arm and the head full of illusions.

Many of us got a bad experience for following this kind of advices. If you are going to do something; go %120 on it. That DOES MEAN quiting your day job, making the effort and even selling your own blood before going bankrupt. The path to the top of the hill is not easy, is hell. You better get your head on it or you will roll back to the bottom before you know it.

The good news: if you go %120 and burn your engines, you will get there without any doubt. The only ones that fail, are the ones that stop trying; and if you never stop trying it is obvious that you will never fail. Getting there is also compensated with a large amount of experience you never realized you will be acquiring at the beginning of your journey; and that my friends it is a Bonus no one ever mention. Let’s move to the next one:

It will free you from having a Boss; you will be economically free. Work the hours you want to work, pay yourself the amount you want to; go in the middle of the afternoon for a pizza and a movie: it is your time and you can handle it as you wish.

First time I realize all that was just crap I almost cried. Well not really; I’m a big boy and it didn’t happened in 2 hours, I came down to this conclusion after months being an entrepreneur. It is sort of a transition actually; in this path there are no “enlighted” ones. It doesn’t happen from one minute to the other; it takes a lot of experience (errors) to learn the lessons everyone should be talking about instead of just writing the same crap over and over again. Let’s break this one down: you are working all happy in your day job; let’s say you are a coder for example. You do great code, CSS per say. The designer handles you the JPG or PSD and you pass it on XHTML/CSS like a champ; you are very good at your work. Actually, you are damn good at it. But suddenly one day, something happens. You realize there is more out there; you are working for someone who doesn’t appreciate your work or you just know there is an opportunity in what you do that can transform your life. You think “hell, I know as much as business as my boss does. To be honest, if I were around, he will be out of business! I’m doing all the job here, he is just charging for my time and having long lunches!”

Then you go for it. You actually quit your day job and open your own business as entrepreneur.

You say “ok, it is like what I was doing before, no big deal, a customer comes in and I just do the same I did for my ex-Boss”. The horrible truth is that, it isn’t that easy. To be able to make a pie doesn’t make anyone a restaurant owner. And that’s the first thing entrepreneurs finds out when they launch their business. I know I did, and I hit the ground hard and fast as no one in town. Suddenly, you realize you need to do extra work you didn’t even knew about: excel sheets, talking with the bank (the good old days when the company accountant handled all that), paying your taxes (actually waiting in the line to pay for your taxes), answering emails, doing marketing online, talking with clients, talking with prospects and try to show them you can handle their work, talking with the internet support people 2 hours over the phone because your Internet went down without explication; going to buy groceries for the home-office, taking care of clients and their needs, listening to talk about their projects and thinking what to do with that information.

Now, you went from doing the job you know how to do in excellence to doing the job you know, plus, ten other jobs you never realized they where out there and now you need to learn.

Tricky. But it is true. And that is just the peak of the iceberg. You will realize soon enough that, that dream about being independent is just a dream and nothing more because, one thing is having one Boss, another totally different is having 6 bosses at the same time which, you may call clients. All with different needs and expectations.

The good news: you are going to be outside, alone, against everyone. There are not a single time I miss the most than when I began being an entrepreneur. Now, I’m a business owner with EmaStudios; but back then when I was at my home-office working until 4am all by myself, where the hardest-beautiful memories I have with what I do. I will not change those moments for anything. Because those moments can teach you a great deal of things; those moments will stick with you forever. The hard work, always pays back by teaching you how to work smarter; and those moments you will certainly “suffer”, will be the ones that will teach you how to pass from being all you in the back of your room at home, to have an office with 4 or 5 people working with you in-house and four more working all over the world. If you can see beyond the storm, believe me, the world is yours. And everything in it.

Conclusion and Part 2

Learning how to go from having just yourself to have outside resources working on your firm (and having a firm) isn’t something easy. But it is for everyone. Anyone can learn how to do it, and everyone can do it. No matter how stupid you believe you are, or how intelligent someone else is. The good final news is that, if you want to go there, and you actually start walking towards to go there, it is more likely; that you will end up being there. It won’t be easy, take my word on it. But that’s not the point isn’t it?

The next post I will explain more Entrepreneur myths and some facts and solutions I found in my experience from entrepreneur to business. First hand experience, no one told me the stories; I live them so be ready for them: they may become handy to you in the future!

Peace.

Javier Cabrera
From the EmaStudios HQ; Monday 10:35 PM.

Follow us on Twitter for more productivity, business and Internet posts at the "DonCabrera" tweet!

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