I see many with romanticised notions about being a business owner. The legacy they will leave behind, the yacht they will buy. Many are so in lust with the idea of starting their own business that they forget to take off the ‘rose tinted glasses’ to see the reality.

There are many myths around, let’s touch on a few that I carry with me each day:

• “the entrepreneurial myth”: that most people who start small businesses are entrepreneurs.  An individual who understands the technical work of a business may successfully run a business that does that technical work
• Starting a business is the best way to get rich
• You need to take a lot of huge risks
• Spamming people on social media is a good marketing strategy

 It makes sense to set up a business in a field where you have experience, it makes you more bankable. However, this alone does not guarantee success.  A successful business owner should have a grasp of the key functional areas of business:

 – strategy, sales & marketing, finance & accounting, human resources, and operations. 

As a business owner, you do not need to be an expert in all of these areas, but you should understand the basics of each.

There are many more reliable and less risky ways to achieve financial independence than starting your own business – e.g. investing in yourself to learn a new skill (coding – AWS), getting a well-paid job (leverage your network), saving intelligently…. You CAN get rich in business, but know it is not the easiest or most guaranteed way.

The myth that asserts you need to take a lot of huge risks. I don’t mean be gung-ho with your decision making!  Make calculated bets and take smaller risks – this is what lean start-ups are built around.  Taking smaller risks and hedging against loss helps you stay around for a lot longer… and gives you the time to place a lot more calculated bets.

The final myth, that one sees each day is that spamming people on social media is a good marketing strategy. We are becoming increasingly time poor.  Emails can be a big distraction, taking your focus away from what matters; that being starting and growing your business.  If you are to use email marketing to reach prospective customers, prepare relevant, concise content.  Tell me what value-add your proposition will bring to me, not what you are selling.