Many people want to work for themselves and be entrepreneurs. I’ve written before on how to build businesses, on how to run them, and the mindset required to be successful.
However, there are some people who simply aren’t cut out for this game. This is why half of all businesses fail within the first five years. It doesn’t always matter how much funding you have. Sometimes, what matters the most is how you run it.
How do you know if you have what it takes? To be perfectly honest, you don’t. It’s not something you know until you try.
How do you deal with failure and rejection? If you ask someone out and they turn you down, how do you react? Do you politely leave the person to their business or do you throw a hissy fit in front of them and everyone around? Do you see what I’m getting at here?
Here are 4 Signs you will fail as an entrepreneur, so keep reading.
1. You Make Excuses
This is a tell-tale sign you aren’t cut out for owning a business.
One of the most important aspects of being an entrepreneur is accountability. If something is your fault, you need to own it. A long time ago, I wanted my best friend to go into business with me. I wanted to rise through the ranks and hold the world in my hand and I wanted her there with me every step of the way.
But she wouldn’t do it.
Every time I asked her about one thing or another, there was always an excuse as to why she couldn’t or wouldn’t go into business with me. I even called her out on her excuse making, to which she promptly made more excuses as to why she was making excuses.
She still works the same dead-end job to this day. I’m not the only one who has offered her opportunities. And just like with me, she always gave excuses as to why she couldn’t push forward with her life. Is she still my best friend? Of course. That kind of bond isn’t broken easily. But I no longer look back as I’m pushing forward. I can’t.
Which brings me to my next point.
2. Coats and Their Tails
Entrepreneurs need to be leaders. They need ideas. And they need to push forward with these ideas and plans.
If you’re the type of person who can’t do anything unless someone else is doing it, entrepreneurship might not be a good move for you.
As an example, let’s use movies. If there is a movie out that you really want to see, what do you do? If you call your friends and no one can or wants to go, do you just stay home and watch Netflix? Or do you go by yourself?
After all, you really want to see the movie, right? Who cares if anyone comes with you?
The same goes for business. If you believe in yourself and your company, then you owe it to yourself to push forward, even if your friends and family don’t believe in you. I believe that when it comes to business, there are two types of people:
- Those who wear the coats
- Those who ride on the coattails
If you aren’t the one wearing the coat, you’ll struggle to grow your business, no matter how awesome your ideas are.
3. You Aren’t Willing to Learn
You can’t possibly master every skill required by your company. You can’t be the head of marketing, the head of HR, and man the phones of the customer service department. You need to have at least an inkling of Marketing, HR, and every other department. Check out this site if you want to learn more.
But what you can do is gain the knowledge required to know how to make your services better. You don’t have to work in the customer service department. But you need a basic knowledge.
Part of your job is to constantly be learning how to make your business better, and how to make it grow. If you aren’t willing to learn new things and techniques, there is no way for your business to grow.
This isn’t the same as trying to do too much. You need to know what to delegate and what to do yourself. This is an experience thing. The longer your company is around, the more you can learn about yourself as well as how to scale your company.
4. You’re Crippled by Fear
What do you do when you are afraid. Fight or flee? If you go into a haunted house, how to do you react when people jump out at you? When you watch a scary movie, do you jump and freak out? When you hear noises in the middle of the night, are you paralyzed by what might be in the dark?
The easiest thing to do when the going gets tough is to tuck tail and run. When you’re an entrepreneur, you don’t have this choice. You cannot run or back down.
If you can’t make big decisions, then you won’t be successful in business. If you can’t move forward with ideas because of what everyone else might think, you won’t be successful.
It’s ok to be afraid, though. Starting a company, especially when it has the potential to ruin you, your name, and your credibility, can be incredibly scary. But you can’t be controlled by fear. Nor can you let it influence your decisions.
The Takeaway
There is nothing easy about starting and growing your own business.
But you can’t let fear stand in your way. You have to be accountable for your own mistakes and willing to do whatever is necessary to live the life you want to live.
As your business grows, there will be employees counting on your leadership. You have to constantly improve yourself and your business, not just for you, but for everyone involved with the organization.