10 Genuine Facts About Life of an Entrepreneur That You Must Know
This post is not for the faint of heart
Disclaimer
If you’re someone who’s not gifted with the strength to read the brutal truth about the life of an entrepreneur, this post may leave you with a lot of (metaphorical) scars.
But then, asking me, it’s a lot better to be exposed to these scars metaphorically than to experience them and live with the trauma, in real life.
Who should not become an entrepreneur?
Every person who refuses to deal with any of the points stated below should stay away from becoming an entrepreneur.
Why not?
Because all the points stated below are not an exception, but a rule, a rite of passage if you may in the life of an entrepreneur.
If you can’t handle the heat, it’s best you stay away from the kitchen.
Because it's just a matter of time and every entrepreneur worth their salt will have to deal with all of the challenges mentioned below, and on a “good day”, they would have to deal with at least 2-3 challenges simultaneously.
Don’t even get me started with what a bad day in the life of an entrepreneur looks/ feels like.
10 things you will have to live through if/ when you become an entrepreneur
Without further ado, let's dive into all the points, one by one!
01. You can never afford to not be enthusiastic about your business/ product
As an entrepreneur, you can’t have a bad day publicly.
You’re the lighthouse that everyone depends on, and there’s no getting out of this.
You’re supposed to be the guiding light, the visionary, someone everybody will lean on for guidance, direction, help, support and more.
So, if you drop your energy beyond a particular level regarding your business/ product, you won’t just have to pull yourself up, it will be on your shoulders to pull everyone up with you.
02. Being customer centric is not a choice
There are all sorts of customers in the market.
You don’t choose the customer. The customer chooses you.
Yes, you can shortlist/ filter the kind of people you have to work with or sell to, but you will inadvertently deal with customers who would not be the most pleasant people.
Irrespective of the nature/ character/ temperament of your customer, you will always have to be courteous, polite, forgiving, empathetic towards the customer and the situation.
There’s nothing worse for a business than the wrath of an irate customer.
And what’s even worse, today it's easiest for someone to leave an unfavourable review.
You will have to work your way, request, follow up for a positive review, but a bad review comes easy, and leaves a long-lasting impact (depending on the clout of the customer).
03. If your product doesn’t stand out (and keep up), your business eventually will
You’re a business owner?
It’s your responsibility to make something new.
Find ways to make something existing better.
What? You figure out
How? That’s your business, go do your homework.
You worked for years, and the competition replicated the idea within weeks (if not days). Too bad. That’s how business works.
What do you mean you haven’t upgraded your product in the last 2 years? The customer/ market expects a new version, a new update, a new iteration every 2 months (sometimes 2 weeks, if they can get away with it).
04. Be okay with countless social and personal sacrifices
This is pretty self-explanatory.
Detach yourself from the idea of parties, vacations, holidays, weekend trips, hiking, etc. at least for a couple of years.
Your business is as sensitive as a baby, and until it reaches a stage where the team is responsible for processes, YOU are responsible for everything.
Don’t like the sound of this? Guess what, we are not even at the halfway mark, yet.
05. The work never ends
Let’s keep this short, because you have work to get back to.
What do you mean you don’t have anything on your plate?
Show me an entrepreneur who says they have less than 50 things on their plate, and I’ll show you a liar.
06. You will have to enjoy the process
Not having a bad day (point 01) and this point may seem similar, but they aren’t.
When in business, enjoy the process.
“Process of what?”, you ask.
The process of making vendor payments, team salaries, paying all the bills on time.
The process of setting up the processes to get everything done. Then train the process to the team, and then something breaks, so fix it, and then someone quits, so find a solution.
Because if you lose steam, how will your team get the energy to keep going?
07. You will have to empathize with everyone, selflessly
The customer is unhappy!
The buck stops at you.
Empathize with the situation and find an appropriate solution.
A team member is demotivated!
How did you allow that to happen?
Figure out what’s wrong!
Now multiply this with multiple team members and multiple customers simultaneously as your business grows.
08. Learn to stop counting the number of times things break down/ failures occur
Things break.
Systems fail.
Vendors don’t deliver the materials on time.
The price of the most essential raw material will increase suddenly.
The availability of the most non-essential raw material could cause a breakdown that could cost your business loss of revenue….
All of this is not about how or if.
These situations are a matter of when.
Enough said, I guess.
09. The team wins every time, and you lose with every failure
You know why?
Because when you deliver a perfect product/ service, the customer may not even give you a smile of gratitude, because you’ve just done the job that was expected from you.
You will lose money, customers, processes, projects, and you will have to learn to be okay with it.
In the life of an entrepreneur, every win is a team win, and every breakdown/ loss is felt and dealt with, by the business owner.
10. You will always be the last person in the line
The business owner is always the last stakeholder to get rewarded.
The customer gets the product/ service as delivered.
As soon as the revenue comes in, the government gets paid a tax amount.
Then the vendors will be paid for the raw materials that were supplied.
The team members will get their salaries.
Rent, electricity expenses, all the other miscellaneous expenses come next.
After this, whatever is left is the piece of the pie that is used to pay the salaries and share of profit to the business owner.
This never changes.
But, once the business becomes profitable, even if you’re the last person in the line to get rewarded, you still manage to get the biggest slice of the proverbial cake.
Why go through all this?
First things first, I salute your dedication, courage and your resilience.
Just by reaching this part of the post, you’ve passed the first test because I’m sure a large percentage of people who started reading gave up a long while ago.
Maybe they were scared, maybe they didn’t resonate with “the negativity” of this post, maybe they feel I’m over exaggerating.
If you’re wondering why would a human in the right frame of mind get into business, if every business is full of so many challenges?
There’s only one answer to that question.
For the hope of a better future, and for the vision.
Maybe I’ll discuss that in the future post(s).
Your Thoughts?
By no means do I claim that I’ve shared all the challenges from the life of a business owner.
However, tell me your thoughts on what you’ve just read?
What other major challenge do you feel I missed out?
What would you like to add to the list?
Do you think I exaggerated any of the points?
Let’s continue this conversation (or ask your questions about the post) in the comments below.
Keep Going Keep Growing 🚀
Thank you for reading the full post. Since you read this till the end, it’s safe to assume you found value in the content.
Have I earned your share?
Please consider sharing this post with your audience on social media. You may end up helping someone who’s struggling in their career/ business because they don’t understand the importance of building their personal brand.
I’m sure if you think hard, you will easily come with a few names who you know must read this.
Share this with them, help them and earn your blessings.
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Prompt used to create the image for the note
P.S.: Image made on Meta AI using the prompt, “Imagine an entrepreneur who is working on a pitch deck presentation on his computer screen burning the midnight oil working in office on a Saturday with a box of half-eaten pizza on the table”