Meaning of Entrepreneur
An Entrepreneur is an individual who starts their own business, shoulders most of the risks by themselves, and enjoys the rewards by themselves too. The process of setting up the business and the entrepreneur is commonly seen as a creator or innovator. In ant economy. Entrepreneurs play a very important role as they not only usher in new ideas and concepts but also help develop the economy and create jobs.
Defining Success
Starting a business is risky and requires a lot of active decision-making and quick thinking. Success is indeed a very great goal yet it is not reached overnight. So the entrepreneur must be aware of the delusions and assumptions that they possess and rectify them at the start of their journey as otherwise, it may affect their ability to make a good decision.
Assumptions Necessary for an Entrepreneur when Starting a Business
The following is a list of assumptions that an entrepreneur must make while undertaking any new venture.
1. There is no straight logical path to success
A lot of events can affect the path to success. A sudden shoutout by a well-known influencer can cause your sales to rise while rushing to complete one’s target can lower the quality of the product or service. There will be peaks and troughs in the path to success and it is a continuous process-even after achieving success one will have to make smart decisions to maintain it- so the best bet that any entrepreneur can do is to hire good staff and plan long term.
2. The market will not care about the product
Every Entrepreneur must assume that the market is not interested in the product. A very common fallacy among Entrepreneurs is that they overestimate the market demand. Now, though there may be some demand generated naturally, the truth is that in a world as busy as ours, most people will not care and thus the Entrepreneur must make them want this product. It will be wrong to assume that people visiting your website or social media platform will be instantly won over most will move on and some will want to try it. Now, among those who wish to try it, many will look for reviews and experiences of other customers. So, the most important thing that an entrepreneur can do is convince the people that they want it and allow honest interactive reviews of their service or product.
3. There is no steady fit for any product
A very common misconception among entrepreneurs is that the product that they are selling will simply click into place once they can decide the right kind of font, design, etc. That is far from true and it has been observed that the most successful products are those which have been improved and modified over time. Now, many may think that tinkering or modifications imply venturing into new fields but that is not so- it is simply improving the existing product or changing it a little to bring in some variety to keep individuals interested.
4. The “Lone Visionary” founder concept is nothing but a clichéd myth
Most successful Founders don’t work alone and often a business having multiple founders is stronger than that with a single founder, The narrative of being alone wolf-like Bezos or Zuckerberg is extremely misleading. Such narratives can make the entrepreneur extremely unwilling to change their “vision” according to a changing market or can make them burn out and fail at a small failure and not be able to test the practicality and strength of their ideas. Successful entrepreneurs generally bring in a lot of individuals who are efficient at their work to grow the business.
5. Ant Entrepreneurs must assume that they will require more support than they initially thought at the start
The best thing that any new entrepreneur can do is keep tight control over their money and time management. Putting in too much money in aggressive ad campaigns or too much time is indeed a very grave mistake. The point is to stay in the game in the initial rounds and not get knocked out. Now, early success is rarely guaranteed and so it is important to ensure that the losses endured, if any, are as minimum as possible.
6. The path to success is long and arduous
Most individuals don’t realize the amount of effort and work that went into any successful business and that the point was never not to fail but to minimize the impact of failures and be consistent in the efforts for success. Success does not arrive overnight and it does little good to give up as soon as one encounters failures, success requires consistent and active decisions to help grow the business.
7. No profit or minimal profit for the first few years
There will barely be enough profit generated in the first few years and the aim of any modern entrepreneur must be to break even to keep themselves afloat. Any entrepreneur is sure to make a lot of mistakes in the start and that will always entail a cost and thus it is important for the entrepreneur to focus on breaking even rather than generating profit as it is not a feasible way to run a business.
8. The Employees will most likely not care
It would be a safe assumption that most of the employees that one hires will not care much about the business. Employees have no other incentive other than the paycheck and so, assuming that the work is getting done while one turns a blind eye is a mistake. The point is to provide better incentives and motivate the employees to work more efficiently and that takes time. It is also important to get rid of bad employees as soon as possible as it can not only hamper the professionalism of others but may also give the business a bad reputation. A new business in a competitive market cannot bear a bad employee.