Blue Elevator Blog

Business startups are just that – business startups

There are multitudes of business startups and you want to join the fray.  You have a great product or service and you can’t wait to make your first sale.  Yep – that’s you.  This is what America is all about.  You can make your own way.  Names like Ford, Carnegie, and Jobs are as recognized as America’s former presidents.  Ideas born in garages are parlayed into vast empires burgeoning with promise.

The challenge is that, for every success story, there are multitudes of failures.  Didn’t they all start with the same hope, the same dream, and the same energy?  Is it talent?  Is it working capital?  Is it that big break or the proverbial, “It’s not what you know but who you know?”

Business startups need the tangible

There are countless articles written about what you need to start and manage  successful business startups.  Appropriately, you will see a long list of necessary things the successful entrepreneur will need.  These would include, but are not limited to, the following: working capital, a business plan, accounting software, a website, a brand name, etc.  The list goes on and on.  All of these things are important, but what is the most important?

Business startups and the most important thing

Recently I had the the privilege of going to an event where I heard a notable consultant, Larry Ransom, speak.  Larry had a lot of great insight, and he made several provocative statements.  Here is one of them: “Your business is a perfect expression of who you are as an owner.”

Business startups will be a perfect reflection of their owners – warts and all.  This means that all of your positive attributes will manifest themselves into your business, and all of your negative traits will also manifest themselves.

Notwithstanding this fact, there is an inherent limitation that all of us have as humans.

Business startups and their owners can’t truly see themselves

If a business is a perfect expression of its owner and owners can’t truly see themselves, then an owner can’t truly be objective about his or her business.  The human existence is an interesting one.  We were meant to live in community.  We were meant to provide for others and be provided for.  We were meant to help and be helped.  The reason for this is that we have limitations.  We are endowed with certain gifts and talents and we lack others.  Enough said.  I will submit to you that no person is a self-contained capsule of everything you will ever need to be successful in business.

One of the most interesting phenomenons I have come across in business is the self-sufficiency of the entrepreneur.  We’ve heard the phrase that he or she is a “self-made millionaire.”  What if I told you this was a myth?  I’m sure we can come across a person or two who would like to claim “self-made” status.  My belief is, that by and large, a far greater majority have had some help along the way.  Let me refer to this interesting video by Steve Jobs.

There is a sense in each of us that if we ask for help, we are somehow deficient or incomplete.  It is a physical fact that none of us can truly see ourselves.  We can see portions of ourselves, but we can’t see ourselves wholly and completely.  Not only in a physical sense, the same holds true of entrepreneurs and business startups.  The second any of us become involved with something, we lose some level of objectivity.  Have you heard the saying, “that’s a face only a mother could love?”  You get what I mean.

Business startups and owners don’t see 20/20

Even if we could see ourselves, we don’t see ourselves the way others see us.  You have heard the saying, “perception is reality.”  What we “see” may be entirely different from what others see.  How about “mirror, mirror on the wall?”  Have you ever felt compelled to tell someone what they wanted to hear because it was easier than telling him or her the truth?

The single most important thing to you and your success is your willingness to seek and implement qualified advice.

We all have limitations: physical limitations, skill limitations, temperament limitations, and experience limitations.  The key to your success will be in getting a vantage point outside of yourself to help you steer and navigate your business.  Are you willing to do that?  There are plenty of reasons to avoid doing that.  Usually, a lack of finances is the reason solo entrepreneurs give for not getting professional help.  It is a safe excuse.  People will understand.  And notwithstanding the reality of limited finances, it is usually easier than the truth.

My belief as to why business startups have such a high failure rate is due to the owner’s unwillingness to ask for and get the right type of help.  This doesn’t read very well.  It’s easier to say that the economy was bad, there was a lack of working capital, bad debt, etc.  Let me submit to you that these are likely symptoms of an underlying systemic failure: going it alone.  So, if you are brave enough to seek the help, what’s the next step?

Business startups need trustworthy advice

We also need the “right” people to help us see.  When it comes to business advice, there are actually two slices of this truth.  On one hand, you need to engage people that are trustworthy.  We need people who will tell us what we need to hear.  There is the saying that says, “There are only two people that will tell you what you don’t want to hear: an enemy and a trusted friend.”  Consider the following proverb: Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses (Proverbs 27:6).

Business startups need professional advice

The other take is this: If you are interested in seeking advice (and you should), then seek advice from an expert.  If I have a medical question, should I asked a trusted friend who runs a bakery?  If I have a question on why my car doesn’t start, should I ask a hairdresser?  There is something in us that wants to avoid asking the right person the right question.  Could it be the F-word?  Fear? You see, our tendency is to ask people who will tell us what we want to hear – not what we need to hear.

Business startups need experienced advice

We need someone who has been down the road to help us steer clear of avoidable obstacles.  Doesn’t age come with experience?  Or does experience come with age?  If you were going on an ocean voyage, would you want to go with someone that is 20 years old and has been sailing for 5 years, or would you want to go with someone who is 40 years old and has been sailing for 25 years?  Get advice from someone who has “been there, and done that.”  This experience has likely been gleaned from things done well and things done not so well.

There you have it.  Find someone who is trustworthy, who knows business, and has years of varied experience.

Oh, and there’s one more catch …

Business startups need to be willing to accept AND implement the advice

If you go to the trouble to find someone trustworthy, who knows business, and has the necessary experience, then decide in advance that you will hear and follow the advice.  You may challenge the advice, test the advice, try the advice, etc., but you have to take ownership and run with it.

You also need to stick with it.  In a prior article, we discussed the need to have and exhibit “entrepreneurial energy.”  Business Process Consulting: A Primer.  To be sure, you will need to have the resolve to stick with it when things are difficult.  It may not have been easy learning to ride a bike for the first time, or swim across the lake, etc., but we had someone show us the ropes and cheer us on (and maybe even help us get up when we fell).  There are no silver bullets or quick fixes: just good old-fashioned “elbow grease” (that means hard work for you younger people).

Summary

All of us have limited experience in life and in business.  Accordingly, you interpret and evaluate opportunities and problems based upon your own “limited” set of experiences.

The long term viability of business startups has no bearing upon getting started.  With a little bit of training, you may be able to taxi and takeoff in a jumbo jet.  But, if you don’t have enough fuel to get you to your destination or you haven’t obtained years and years of experience “flying blind” in turbulent weather, yikes!

This article also applies to those of you who are already on your journey.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help.  Your best chance for success is to obtain trustworthy, business process consulting – and then follow it!  Are you ready?