Entrepreneurial Myths: The Truth Behind Them

There are typical barriers that so called friends and advisors, put in your way if you are thinking of starting a business. The barriers to starting a business are built on the back of myths about the pitfalls and challenges which surround running your own business. We take a look at some of these myths and reveal them to be exactly that … just myths!

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start up myths

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If you are about to start off in business you will have no doubt heard these comments:
“So many businesses fail. Why are you doing this?”
“I hear that you need a large amount of money to get a business off the ground these days.”
“Why are you throwing away the security of your job?”

These, and more of the same, are typical of the barriers that so called friends and advisors, put in your way if you are thinking of starting a business. These barriers are built on the back of myths about the pitfalls and challenges which surround running your own business.

In this article, we’ll take a look at some of these myths and reveal them to be exactly that … just myths! Don’t get me wrong, being an entrepreneur can be tough and there are hurdles to cross, but let’s bring some common sense into the debate!

You Don’t Have a Personal Life

Yes you will! It can be hard juggling the responsibilities of running your own business and spending time with the family, but at the end of the day, you are going to have far more flexibility with your personal life, than any employee will ever have. The real issue is, do you have the time management and planning skills to get things done, thereby allowing you time to spend with your family.

You Have To Be Cunning and Ruthless To Be a Successful Entrepreneur

Ok, it may help you in the short term but this is not a sound, long term strategy. To be a successful entrepreneur you need to build relationships with both customers and suppliers who will stick by you during the rough times. Being ruthless over pricing may get you one or two good deals but you are unlikely to build a lasting and profitable relationship. Your aim should be to strike a balance between what you want and what your customer or supplier wants.

You Won’t Have To Work As Hard

Your current job may be stressful and subject you to long hours. The idea of running your own business is appealing because you can slow down and take life at your own pace. To a degree this is true but there’s no getting away from the fact that it will be hard work. Most small businesses don’t achieve profitability until year 3 and so it’s a long slog. Remember, if was easy, everyone would be doing it!

What does make the difference though, is that you are finally doing something you love and so the hours and the struggles don’t seem like hard work at all. So perhaps this myth may be true after all!

You Have To Have an Original Idea

No you don’t. Most businesses are built around a central idea. The difference is usually how it’s delivered. The core products of all fast food places are the same, as are clothes shops, newsagents etc. You can make a decent living effectively copying someone else’s idea but done in a slightly different way. Don’t be put off by the doomsayers who will gleefully point out that “it’s been done before”. Your response should be, ‘Great! That shows the idea works!”

You Will Be Your Own Boss

No way! There’s only one boss in your new business … the customer. They are essential to your success. When you were working for that large, faceless Corporation, the loss of the odd client wasn’t that big a deal - plenty more where they came from.

In your new world you have to do whatever it takes to keep your customers and keep them happy. The customer is the one who calls the tunes. You have to listen and take note, before someone else does. However, at the end of the day, when all their demands are met, then perhaps you can have some time to yourself and enjoy the pleasures of being your own boss after all!

You Need A lot Of Money To Get a Business Off The Ground

Some businesses do need a fair bit of cash to get moving but there are many areas you can go into without the need to invest in a large amount of stock, machinery or equipment. The low-capital businesses involve the use of three very cheap commodities – your brain power, your knowledge and your time.

A business where you sell your expertise, not actual goods, to other people can be cheaply set up and carry high profit margins. All you may need is a PC, a desk and a telephone line. What’s stopping you?

You Only Have To Do What You Want To Do

Unfortunately this myth is wrong. We all have areas or skills in which we excel and it’s this expertise which usually forms the basis of your business. Your dedication to paperwork, bank statements and the VAT man may not be that high, but branching out on your own doesn’t mean you have the choice to avoid these terrible tasks.

Whilst you were able to do this when you were sitting in the big corporate office, you can no longer hide. These tasks have to be done otherwise the deck of cards can start to collapse.

If you do have serious misgivings on certain areas, marketing for example, then consider taking a course to improve your skills. If it’s something you seriously can’t do, then go and find someone to do it for you – don’t hope it will go away because it won’t.

You will have seen that some of the myths not being true is good news and others not so good news! Be sensible in considering the myths which are thrown at you. See it for what they are - comments from people who don’t know what they are talking about! In the next issue I’ll have some more myth-busting ideas for you.

Do These Myths Make Your Meetings Miserable?

Surveys show that businesses waste 20% of their professional payroll on bad meetings. Gain huge savings by managing these seven myths about meetings.

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Effective Meetings, One Great Meeting, Steve Kaye, Leadership, facilitator, business meeting, facilitation, minutes, agenda

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You can hold effective meetings and become a more successful leader if you avoid these seven monsters. Here's how.

> Myth 1: Executives belong in meetings.

Although the demands of business cause executives to attend more meetings than other professionals, executives should be very selective on which meetings they attend. Top management is responsible for vision, strategy, plans, and communication. That means wise executives spend most of their time thinking, learning, planning, and communicating. Inefficient, ineffective meetings waste the time of the company's most valuable employees.

Better: Ask probing questions when invited to make sure that your presence will add value. For example, "What are your goals for the meeting?" "How will I contribute to achieving those goals?" and "How can I prepare for the meeting?" After all, you want to contribute to an effective meeting if you decide to attend.

> Myth 2: Holding a large meeting is impressive.

Actually, holding a large meeting is expensive. It can also be impressive if it is conducted properly, which means that it will be as small a possible.

Better: Invite only those who can make meaningful contributions. The likelihood of holding an effective meeting diminishes with groups larger than ten or twelve.

> Myth 3: Structure inhibits spontaneity.

This is true if your goal is to obtain random outcomes over infinite time. While this may occasionally produce spectacular results, such as winning a lottery, you can achieve predictable results faster by applying structured activities. These help people make methodical progress toward results. Otherwise, the group is attending a party, instead of working in a meeting.

Better: Use structured activities to keep you in control of your meeting and make progress toward results.

> Myth 4: People are too busy to prepare agendas.

Since there is always time to repeat a task, fix a problem, or make an apology, there must be time to take the steps that avoid such dilemmas. Overall, preparing an agenda saves time and money.

Better: Prepare an agenda or, if you are too busy, ask someone to do it for you. Then send the agenda to the participants so that they can prepare for the meeting.

> Myth 5: Minutes are unnecessary.

This is true for any meeting where people wasted time producing nothing. Effective meetings produce results that are worth documenting. Minutes serve to track action items, record decisions, and inform others. If you are planning a meeting with no results worth documenting, ask yourself why that meeting is necessary.

Better: Record key ideas, agreements, and action items during the meeting. Then convert these notes into minutes.

> Myth 6: Meetings should last a long time.

While this may be true for some meetings, most meetings can be conducted in less than an hour. Long, casual meetings lull people into lethargy. In general, people are able to focus on a task for 30 to 60 minutes. Then their attention fades and they take mental holidays to think about other things.

Better: Plan meetings where you spend time and resources in proportion to the value of the results. That is, an effective meeting should be designed to earn a profit. Also, plan short breaks every 50 minutes.

> Myth 7: The effectiveness of meetings is a low priority.

This is true if you seldom hold meetings. Of course, if you have more than two employees, you need meetings to make decisions, reach agreements, and develop solutions. Effective meetings are a critically essential activity in running a business. They harness the combined wisdom of your staff to invent products, increase sales, improve productivity, plan strategies, and create success.

Better: Learn how to plan and conduct meetings that make your business a success.

Drop Shipping Myths

The drop shipping industry's most common myths discussed and dispelled.

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drop ship tips, drop shipping myths, business drop shipping, dropship, dropshippers

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by Stuart Lisonbee

For a lot of people, drop shipping can seem like a perfect solution to start an internet business. While drop shipping has its place in the world, there have been many myths associated with it.

Myths are propagated by people who think they understand something, but don't. You may have heard many things, both good and bad, about drop shipping. But if you want to know the truth about something, you should go to somebody that actually works in the business, rather than someone who has little more than rumors and conjecture.

Having run a business using drop shippers as my product source, as well as having worked in the drop shipping industry, I have nearly 10 years of personal experience with drop shipping. Here are some of the common myths that I have often heard associated with drop shipping and drop shippers.

Myth #1: Drop shipping means big money for little work

Running a business is a lot of work! Sure drop shipping saves you from warehousing, inventorying, and packaging and shipping items. But in the end, you've still got a retail business to run. Furthermore, profit margins are thinner because the drop ship supplier takes on much of the risk involved with warehousing the products.

Myth #2: All drop shippers will be happy and willing to work with me

Some drop shippers will work with anybody. Those drop shippers will typically have a fee associated with them, or else their wholesale price is not as good. Other drop shippers have minimum requirements. For example, you may be expected to have several thousand orders per month.

Some drop shippers will even charge you a non-refundable application fee. If they decide you're not big enough to work with them, you lose your application fee.

Of the more than 50 suppliers Doba works with, several have application fees, a few have monthly fees, and several more only agreed to drop ship for us because we promised them high volume, something we can do thanks to the combined purchasing power of our membership. Fortunately, Doba does not pass along any application or monthly fees, and you never have minimum requirements.

Myth #3: It's impossible to make money with drop shippers

It is true that your profit margins will be thinner, but some of the internet's largest retailers use drop shippers exclusively as their product suppliers. If they weren't making money, then they wouldn't be some of the largest retailers on the internet.

Something that new entrepreneurs often fail to understand is that pricing is only one small part of business. If your focus is exclusively on price, then your business will never succeed because you'll be completely ignoring the many other parts of business that are required to succeed.

I once sold a product in a very competitive market. The product had an average 10-15% return rate, and the mean price was $19.95. I sold my product for $33 and had a return rate of 5%. My website also had a conversion rate about 2-3 times that of my competitors.

Why was I able to sell my product for 65% more than my competitors, maintain a higher conversion rate, and yet still experience far fewer returns? Very simply, I chose to focus on all aspects of my business, rather than just one or two like so many of my competitors were doing.

Myth #4: Drop shipping is the magic solution

Drop shipping is a specific service that fills a specific need. It is not a cure-all solution for business. Before jumping in, you should be sure that your business will benefit from drop shipping, and you should have a well laid out plan for making that happen.

Like all things, there are pros and cons to drop shipping. Make sure you understand how drop shipping will affect your business so your business doesn't end up a myth itself.

Four Marketing Myths That Steal Sales

How many times has bad advice gotten you into trouble? Yeah, everybody's saying and doing it, so you jump on the band wagon...and guess what...you get the same results as they get. Maybe it's a comfort to know that you're not the only one who played the part of the fool, but when it comes to marketing...you may not have enough leeway to count the loss and go on.

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marketing, sales, advertising

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How many times has bad advice gotten you into trouble? Yeah, everybody's saying and doing it, so you jump on the band wagon... and guess what... you get the same results as they get. Maybe it's a comfort to know that you're not the only one who played the part of the fool, but when it comes to marketing...you may not have enough leeway to count the loss and go on.

Yeah, there sure are a LOT of ideas out there about what will and what won't skyrocket sales numbers and profit margins! And to be truthful, a lot of those ideas are just a bunch of bunk. Yep, you've got to be on your toes and know the truth about marketing tales. Here are a few of the lines of misinformation that you've probably heard before...

You've Got To Have The Cheapest Prices In Town To Be Competitive

Let me ask you this...Do you always buy the cheapest product on the shelf, or always shop at the store that has the lowest prices? No, I don't either. What you and I know that these people don't is, that value counts for a lot. Oh yeah, sure... there are a few people out there who only buy the cheapest things in town, but most of us understand that the cheapest isn't always the best buy for our buck.

How does this apply to you? Here's something you can try...make it a little test to see just how true this myth is. Find a low-cost way to enhance the perceived value of your product or service, then raise the cost a little. See what happens! Don't be surprised if your sales and profits shoot up!

Advertisements Need To Be Changed To Keep The Public From Becoming Bored

This one reminds me of one of my cousins. He's famous for breaking things that are fixed. Yeah, he'll go out and buy a perfectly good running car, but every time you see him, he's under the hood tinkering with something. Before long...you guessed it...the car won't run and has to go to the garage for repairs.

It makes no sense to run a business like Cousin Jim and his cars. Hey, if it's working why try to fix it? Think about it...what's the goal for advertising? Yeah, to attract new customers. Once the new customer comes through the door, the advertisement has effectively done its job. Does that customer need to be affected by the same ad? No, so let the ad do its job for the rest of the people out there who haven't seen it yet.

Now, I'm not saying that you should never change your advertisement... just never abandon a winner midstream. A good rule of thumb is to spend 80 percent of your advertising money on proven methods, and to risk 20 percent on experimental advertisements. Keep the tried and proven working for you, while you test the waters for new ideas that might work even better.

The More Choices A Customer Has, The More Likely He Is To Buy

Yeah, yeah...they say variety is the spice of life and all that, but too many choices can lead to procrastination. We all know what happens when we procrastinate. Yep, we never get back to it!

Do you know what happens when a customer can't decide?... you lose a sale that you already had in your pocket. Yep he came in to get it, saw more options, stopped to make up his mind, then walked out still thinking about it...maybe to never return.

A tip for the wise marketer - limit your customer's decisions to either yes or no. Let them decide either yes I'll buy or no, I won't buy. Don't risk confusing them and losing the sale.

Everybody Needs My Product/Service So I Don't Need To Advertise

Hey, building a business is a lot of hard work! There aren't many free rides along the way. Chances are, your potential customers need to be convinced that they NEED to choose your service/product. Yep, finding the customer, convincing him to use your service/product, then closing the deal is a process that can't be easily bypassed. Don't be fooled into thinking you're any different! It could be hazardous to your profits.

A friend of mine owned the only dog grooming shop in her town. Hey, no competition means you don't need to advertise...right? After an initial anouncement of her grand opening, this lady did no advertising. Business slowly trickled in and barely covered the overhead. Finally in a desperate attempt to get business off the ground she began putting flyers in all of the local veterinarian clinics and ads in the local newspaper. Bingo! Business began pouring in... and most of the people said, "I didn't even know you were here!" or "Fifi's been needing groomed for quite some time. When I saw your ad, I decided to go ahead and get it done."

Let's face it, people are often....well, lazy. They don't always go out of their way to find the phone number to contact you, even when in the back of their mind they know they need to do something. Yeah, advertisements are often the little prod they need to get motivated. Don't shortchange yourself by neglecting to advertise.

How about you? Have you ever driven by a business for a long time without even noticing it? Yep, we all get too busy to pay attention sometimes.

Hey, you've learned a few of the misguided marketing myths that many people are fooled by...now you can apply the REAL marketing concepts to your own advertising campaign and watch the results!