The Five Delusions of Entrepreneurs...

The True Ingredients of Success....

I have been fortunate, with my wife Lynn I  have started Five Companies - from scratch. Two of them we passed over to other shareholders as they weren't playing nice, another one we closed and our currently we have two which are going really well...

All of them have been successful; they were profitable and and achieved growth. The one we closed was only because we moved continents...


In my experience there are FIVE DELUSIONS that Entrepreneurs either choose to ignore,or get surprised at when they actually happen, and it's about time they were brought into the open...

1. The Business Plan Delusion.

A Business Plan is written for one reason only - to get the Bank to say yes to a line of credit. The reason that a Business Plan needs an Executive Summary is because;

a. The Bank Manager doesn't understand Business Plans - having never run a business...
b. If he does understand he can't be bothered to read the whole document anyway...

Once you have the money you will never read it again, and even if you do, you won't achieve it because when you wrote it it was only a guess - and you had been drinking either too much alcohol or caffeine for it to make any sense anyway...

2.  Work Life Balance Delusion.

You may have left your job because you were working for an idiot - well now you are working for a complete psychopath; you are working for yourself.

There is no such thing as Work Life Balance - that is just some myth cooked up by soft centred socialists who actually believe that weekends and holidays exist in the universe that we call Entrepreneurship. 

They don't, for at least three years after starting up; if they do you're not trying hard enough. Work and Life become the same, if you are looking for balance, go and get a job.

3. The Money Delusion.

Business is hard and demanding - your friends will think you have made it because you have business cards with the title "Founder & CEO" printed on them and the fact that you have managed to lease a BMW. The fact that you can't afford the tyres for it, so have to drive a Fiesta at weekends, is not apparent to them.

Money does come - but only when you have earned it. Get used to living on Tesco Value baked beans, spaghetti hoops and soups. You will juggle credit cards, and ask for money for Christmas just so you can fill the BMW with fuel.

Do this for around two years and you have earned the right to be successful, quit too soon and you will never know what you could have achieved.

4. The Overnight Success Delusion.

95% of Start Ups do not achieve the results that were expected - forget looking to Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet for "helpful hints and tips.."

Your business will take twice as long and need three times the cash that you thought it would when you handed your fancy Business Plan to that shiny new MBA qualified Bank Manager.

When success does arrive it will be such a relief that you can actually buy a decent bottle of wine again and not resort to Meths and Brasso as cocktail ingredients - that you will probably simply cry out of gratitude to the client whose cheque turned up the day before the BMW has to go back. But to the outside world of course - it all looks easy...

5.  Promise of Work Delusion.

Before you start your new venture, or very shortly afterwards, a number of people will suggest that you call them to see what you can do together, suggest "partnerships" or even explore "alliance agreements" with you to help you get started.

These are 96.73% useless - they are false promises of hope that will build your spirits and cause you to relax, thinking that a "contract" is in the bag. It is not and was never going to be, ignore all these offers, they are just people who think that being nice means they should offer you the prospect of work. 

Worst of all it causes you to sit back and think you have made it; when in fact you need to buy some more Value Baked Beans.

It makes them feel good, but I can guarantee most will come to nothing - decide who you want your clients to be and get marketing and selling yourself shamelessly. The best clients are those you work to win.

The oldest profession in the World is not Prostitution - it's Marketing & Sales. You have to do a deal before you can provide any service - so get good at them both. Remember, it's not Prostitution; the pay and conditions aren't that good.

Is it worth it...?

Yes - but only if you stick at it and get through the tough times. I see so many people who get the Car the office and the Laptop / IPhone before they have any clients. They go to Office World and get multi packs of Post It Notes, paper, pens, paper clips and Tippex in the vain hope that these comfort toys will attract clients.

The first thing you need in your business is not a BMW Lease Car - we still have the 21 year old Laguna we started out with and I use it to go to networking events and meetings even now - its CLIENTS; get them first, then if you must, get the car. Although when you can afford it, trust me, the appeal goes.

When we started this business, I would travel alone because we couldn't afford hotel expenses and the cost of kennels for the dog - it was tough and scary, but I wouldn't change a thing.

Enjoy the Journey - to your success...