With conditions in Australia becoming more favourable, entrepreneurship is an increasingly popular career choice. Consequently, the demand for all sorts of start-up related advice is booming.
However, a lot of the popular advice is often irrelevant or just outright wrong. In some cases it’s presented as a universal rule while, in practice, it should be applied in certain situations only. Here are a few of these “tips” that are often misleading.
1. You Need a Novel Idea
“If I could just invent the next Facebook or come up with something new and original…” This common belief is popularised by business concepts such as ‘first mover advantage.’
Rarely does an entirely novel idea or ‘first mover’ succeed. For immediate success, you need an established market and, for novel ideas, there rarely is one. Your start-up doesn’t need a billion dollar market, but should be big enough for you to run a sustainable business.
Something to consider Peter Thiel’s 10X Rule: if you want to be extremely successful, you can’t operate like everybody else – take an idea and do it 10 times better than anyone else. Google, Facebook, iPhone, and Tesla; none of these was a first mover nor an invention. They were an innovative take on an existing product in an existing and a fast-growing market.
2. Passion is all you need
Being passionate about what you do is crucial to succeeding. It keeps you going when things get tough. And you need to surround yourself with a team that’s just as passionate about your idea as you are.
But passion alone is not enough to run a successful business. There has to be substance behind what you’re doing. If you can combine your passion with a strong business model, you’re on the path to success.
3. Embrace Failure
There’s a notion which has come with the lean start-up movement that failure makes you somehow better. As a result, entrepreneurs are often advised to give up and ‘pivot’ to something else. After all, ‘failure is a valuable experience.’
A Harvard Business School study, however, showed failed entrepreneurs are no more likely to succeed next time they try.
A better course could; Don’t give up if you have evidence that you can succeed, (such as paying customers). The only time you should pivot, is when you have twice as many customers waiting at your front door begging to buy a pivoted version of your product.
It’s up to each individual entrepreneur to recognise what’s valuable and what isn’t – evaluate the source of advice, their track record and understanding of your situation. Most importantly, make sure you focus on building a strong team and executing your idea in the best possible way.
Source: www.brw.com.au