I really enjoyed writing this post, because i love reading about facts and i also love reading about myths that have been debunked after years of experience and study.

Funny thing is I used to believe most of the myths that will be mentioned in this post, and I am pretty sure you believed some of them at one point in your life. Most especially if you are yet to start your business or have never started one.

By now you should have read a great motivational book, and you are super-hyped about starting your billion dollar business. But before you do, here are some facts that you probably believe about starting your business that have been totally debunked by years of experience and research.


1. You need a lot of money to start a business.

This is a fact. But it can be also be false. It generally depends on the type of business you want to start. If you want to start a business like Uber, then you would need a lot of money, but there are lots of businesses you can start with very little money or no money at all.

The easiest type of business to start with no money is a service business(like a Computer-repair or consulting business) where the customer pays you for the value and time you give the customer.

There are also thousands of businesses you can start with little money, most especially over the internet, like building a blog or web development, all you really need is a little money for your domain name and hosting space.

2. Your Business needs to be Perfect before you launch.

This is one of the major reasons most ideas never become businesses. It is good to strive to aim for Perfection when starting a business, but most times it can be a pain in the butt and you only end up seeing the errors in the business. Your business starts to fail from the moment you start noticing only the problems in the business.

Perfection is also a major problem for start-up who are entering a Niche where some big companies already have a reputation. You may end up comparing Your business with these big competitors and forget that these businesses started small too, and most of them were not perfect when they started, they had to grow to the level of reputation they hold now.

So to deal with the problem of Perfection, just make sure your business concentrates on the value it wants to give to the customer, once it can provide that value efficiently, You are ready to start.

Related:20 POWERFUL QUOTES ON SUCCESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP TO MOTIVATE YOU FOR 2018

3. You need a bad-ass website, business card, poster.e.t.c

Trust me when i say you don't need any of this, you end up chasing Perfection and never start Your business if you are looking a bad-ass website or business card.

All you need now are the right communication skills. Send the right message. Just look for a problem you can solve for a customer or a way You can add value to the customer and put the right words together to sell Yourself to the customer. You don't have to say much.

If you are someone that does web design, Just send a mail to the customer "Your website is designed poorly, and I can fix that".

4. Take Big risks to get Big results.

This is another miss conception about starting a business, because every successful entrepreneur who becomes a motivational speaker says it. But the truth is they don't really practice it.

The reality is most successful entrepreneurs plan well and work smart to reduce and manage risks in order to prevent quick business failures.

Taking big risks should be the last resort not the primary plan.

Related:If You want to be a Millionaire then stop these Five small habits

5. You must have a full business plan.

Its no more a myth that 90% of entrepreneurs who finally become successful don't know how to write good business plans. You don't need to learn how to too.

If you can, good for you. But if you can't just write a small plan two or three paged plan about the mission and vision of the business, your target customers, how you want to make money from the business, and generally how your business operates.

You don't have to start going deep into business plan analysis. Businesses like these finally end up injecting a lot of money into the business, even when they don't know how viable the business will be yet.

6. You have to hire staff.

A lot of major brands in Africa and all over the world today have debunked this myth. You can always start almost any business on your own, and when you begin to scale you can now look for help.

Hiring Staffs comes with its own perks, like how expensive it is to maintain staff, and it takes a large part of your time to manage. So it is much better to a hire a freelancer or agency that you pay off after they are done with the work.

7. You have to work 24 Hours, 7 days a week.

A lot of successful entrepreneurs work really hard, most especially during startup. You have to put a lot of hours most especially if you are just starting for your business to be successful.

But don't forget that these successful entrepreneurs are also Human beings. After some hours of work, they need to get into their bed and also get some hours of sleep to replenish their strengths. They also need to balance good sleep with good food, exercises and fun sometimes.

8. You can do it all by yourself.

This is not the opposite of hiring staffs. Don't take the fact that i said you can run your business without hiring staff as the same thing with You running your business all by yourself.

You need to delegate and Outsource some of your work to others for you to have time to concentrate on other important aspects of the business

For the best freelance portals where you can delegate and outsource work, check out this post from ConnectNigeria
6-best-freelance-portals-to-kick-start-your-freelance-career

9. You will surely get investors for a very good idea.

This fact is not true. A lot of entrepreneurs go into businesses that require a lot of capital and believe that if they can get one opportunity to pitch their idea in front of the first investor they meet, they would go home with a large sum of money to work on their ideas.

It is very difficult to find investors for your business, most especially if you are in a developing country in Africa. You can be among one of those that receives funding, but what happens when you are not, you can't just sit back and watch your ideas die with you.

That is why, You should start Your business with what You have. If you have a business idea that needs a lot of money to start, then start another business or lots of businesses with little capital and once you can manage them efficiently, You can now transfer Your Profits to Your Big business ideas.

10. You should Quit your Job before starting your business.

Its Pretty cool and heroic when you hear stories of successful entrepreneurs who quit their Jobs to start businesses. But I will advice You to stay in your Job until you are sure the business will be viable.

If You want to run a business that requires You to put in a lot of Hours, You are better off remaining in Your Job and hiring cheap freelancers per hour to help run the business. You can now take care of the important parts of the business after work.

If you know you have experience when it comes to business, you can write what you have learned after this comment.
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