This is a rant.
I’ve met so many…too many aspiring enterprises and entrepreneurs, who are blinded by their “big dreams” of “being” an entrepreneur, that they fail this most basic concept of entrepreneurship and business:
That ALL businesses and start-ups need cashflow, to survive, thrive and grow.
It’s so frustrating at times, when I come across an entrepreneur, no, let’s call these people wantapreneurs, who refuse to work a part time or full time job, as they “try” to start their business and get it off the ground.
Without blatantly slapping their faces, they have ignored the basic common sense, and hurt their own physical bodies and the relationships with their loved ones (and possibly lose friends too).
Yes, I get it, we’re tenacious, we can be downright stubborn…and persistent. Yes, those can be considered “sexy”, but please, be practical.
YOU need to have somewhat of a basic living: food and water, roof over your head, and money to pay for internet and networking and iterating in your business.
Have you considered that it’s your dumbassery and stubbornness that is KILLING your valid business idea?
It’s your fault.
…but I know and I can relate, to an extent. I was very lucky, that in times of duress when I first started my business, that I became extremely practical – I KNEW that without cashflow, the business and myself wont survive.
So when I first went into private practice, the first thing I did was to seek an agency to get me locum (freelancing) positions, which doubled my salary compared to my first job, which very importantly, gave me basic human living AND allowed me to build savings which I could invest into growing my business.
That gave the business a chance to grow, and allowed it to have the space to make mistakes and continue to keep growing, after which in summary of a lot of mistakes, efforts and successful maneuvers, I sold it for $1.8M.
There is an element of luck yes, and lots of God moments and definitely a lot of support from family, friends and network, and a damn lot of work and effort…but a good measure of practical business acumen, of which this article is dedicated to building basic cashflow pipelines.
So budding entrepreneurs and pre-start-uppers (or if you’d been stuck being unable to launch profitably for a number of months or worse, years), get a job. Your business needs it even if you or your ego disagree, dumbass.
“Just a bit more (future) fallacy”
To a certain extent, you probably are unaware and are in a vicious broken loop of “just a bit more, just a bit more.” But it’s a trick, you need to judge it clearly, because you may be too emotionally vested.
On one hand, for me, I feel and think if you’re so emotionally vested, sure, that’s amazing, but if that’s true, then why aren’t you
- going out to make sales, like actual sales?
- finding a job and keeping it to keep the lights in the start up on?
If you are, then good, keep going and iterating.
I’m writing for the dumbasses who stubbornly hold on to a “pseudo-business that isn’t profitable for more than 6 months and have no money and not willing to work” – wake up you dumbass, if you truly believe in the business then go and work to get money to fund the business.
It’s really logical and rational right?
Dont go mooching and living off your parents, spouses, girlfriends/boyfriends or someone else – you’re a leech that’s smoking yourself that “when you do well or when the business profits in the future, it’s worth it”, when you’re the one starving and strangling the business.
As entrepreneurs, the buck starts and stops with us.