Common misconceptions - Entrepreneur Video Transcripts
Video 1 Transcript
Hi Jeanette again. One of the common misconceptions that I think people have as they start a business is that they're going to do this so that they have a lot of freedom, a lot of free time, and hopefully a lot of money. Now of course those are great goals and it does end up happening for a lot of people, but that's not the reason to become an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs work harder than any of your employees. That will be true most of your career. My employees at five o'clock get to close their computers and forget about it, maybe not even answer their phone the rest of the night. As an entrepreneur there's no five o'clock. You're always thinking, solving problems, preparing for that staff meeting the next morning because you're creating the vision and holding people accountable to the vision and that never ends. So make sure that you're starting it because you love what you're doing and you want to work hard on it. Don't start it because you want to hang out on the beach. So you can do it, you can do it, just make sure that you have the right mindset.
Video 2 Transcript
Hi, David Bradford again. I want to talk about misconceptions in the business world right now. People seem to believe that if they build the really cool product or service that they're going to win in the marketplace. That is not true. You have got to have great people. 60% of the success of any company is not based on its product or service but rather its people. If you have an A product but a C management team, I'm sorry, you are going to fail. But if the inverse is true, i.e. that you have an A management team but a C product, an A management team can go in and figure out what's wrong and put you on the right go-to-market strategy. Anyway, that's a misconception I see a lot in the marketplace. You take care. Bye now.
Video 3 Transcript
I think a common misconception that people have about being an entrepreneur, especially to get started, is that you have to know how to do it all, or you have to spend time learning how to do all of it. And I just don't think that that's a valuable use of your time. If you can strategically understand what you're good at, what you can do, what you're capable of, what you are able to learn in a short period of time and do those things, and then outsource the rest, you will save both time and money and a certain level of frustration in your business as you're getting started when you're able to delegate out, to outsource, to pay for the things that you really don't want to learn that aren't in your wheelhouse, and just let someone else do that. And so I think a common misconception is that you have to do it all, and you really don't. And the honest truth is you really can't do it all, so you may as well just get that right from the start.
Video 4 Transcript
Misconceptions that it's all about the money. It's not. Money is one of the, it's probably the main scoreboard for if your business is doing well. If you're actually helping people and solving a problem, money isn't indicated that you're doing a good or a bad job at that. I've had a lot of things where I thought I was helping people and my scoreboard of how much money it was making said I was doing bad, but it's not all about money. I think you'd be surprised that once you start to make some how it's less and less about money. Second thing is people always say, I'll just kind of start something on the side. Once I'm established, I've got good cashflow. My family's in a good safe, comfortable position that I can begin to dabble into something. Never say never, but I am of not only the belief, but my experience in my life and in other people's lives is that perfect moment never exists. At some point you just have to do it. So I would list out and say, what do you really need to actually get going and then hold that standard that you write down, hold that accountable to yourself. It's never a perfect moment.
Video 5 Transcript
Another common misconception about entrepreneurship is that you have to raise capital, that you must go the venture capital route, and that is absolutely not true. The company that I started in 2009 as a newlywed, we ended up bootstrapping. That means we created our own path. We had to self-fund our business, and it made a huge difference for us to be able to self-fund the business, keeping all the ownership, and you grow slower. Sometimes you grow smarter because you're able to be really, really conscious about the money that you have, and what you're using the money for. Because when you raise capital and you don't have experience running a business, there might be a chance that you misuse those funds, just not as efficiently as you might use otherwise. So try and think of a way to bootstrap your business first.
Video 6 Transcript
All right, some of the funniest common misconceptions of an entrepreneur, being an entrepreneur, is that you can just do anything you want all the time. That means you can work, you know, two hours a day, or you can work, you know, you can just go on vacation all the time. The reality is you're probably going to work more hours, work harder, sacrifice more than any nine to five job you've ever had. Now, can you earn your right to be able to take those vacations, to be able to work less hours? Absolutely, but it takes the initial sacrifice and time and energy to build something of value that people are willing to pay for. So, one common misconception is that you're going to be on the cover of Inc Magazine. Now, that is a possibility, don't get me wrong, but really think about how you can provide for your family. What's the best thing you can do to provide?
Video 7 Transcript
A common misconception for starting a business is that all that it takes is a good idea. Great ideas are a dime a dozen. There are a million good business ideas out there. And you know what? There's a lot of good businesses you could start where you don't even need a good idea. You could just do something that works that other people have been doing where you're just willing to do the work. I call these boring businesses, things like window washing, painting, bookkeeping, accounting. They're just general chores that need to get done. And if you do a good job and you're honest and you charge a fair amount for it, then you can have a very successful business doing that. So the common misconception is that you have to have a great idea. And if you have a great idea, you'll be successful. No, everyone has great ideas. What really counts is execution. And execution takes determination. It takes research. It takes the right strategy. It takes a willingness to get up when you've been knocked down. It takes a good team. It takes time. All of those things are the hard and dirty work of being an entrepreneur. So great idea. Sure. But it's all about execution.
Video 8 Transcript
As far as a common misconception goes, you do not have to be a genius and you do not have to be the idea guy. In my case, I actually was pulled on by a good friend from mine in high school and he pulled me on to him. He was considered a co-founder at the time with the lead founder and they hired me at like ten dollars an hour to do web development. And to be honest, I had no business doing web development and so I quickly raised my hand to be the sales rep and it didn't take long for me to quote, get invited, if you will, to be a co-founder. It kind of, you know, luck was a little bit of the draw, but the reason why I was, you know, ultimately made my way towards founders because the CEO said, you know, CJ acted like a founder long before he became a founder. And so you can become a founder without being the idea guy or the genius guy.
