The Founders Motivation of a business plays a key role in its success or failure
If your motivation to create a business is to make money, to be your own boss, to do what you love doing or and to create jobs, you are doomed to fail. These is not your classical feel good, get out of the rat race kind of article and Ok, it may not be what they told you but is the truth!
The key question you should ask yourself is, can someone in their right mind pay me to do this? I am sure the last time someone paid you just to have money was when you received an allowance from your parents, even that is iffy! Most people had to put in time in household duties to EARN an allowance.
It’s well known fact that, he who pays the piper calls the tune. It’s therefore not possible that anyone who cannot pay themselves would think that other people could pay them so that they could become their own bosses! You can only become your own boss if you win a lottery and have good money management skills or you are a trust fund baby with good and benign trustee!
Doing what you love doing is called a hobby, few people are lucky enough to find others willing to pay for them to do their hobby at their own pace. In most cases as soon as your hobby attracts sponsors, the pace and routine of the hobby must adjust to the requirements of the sponsorship!
The only entities that can generally tax a population and go into business to create jobs for the unemployed are government. They don’t need to generate income from their activities, their scoreboard does not need that, it just need to show social order! Creating jobs is not a business need, job seekers do not have money to pay hence a business cannot exist specifically to serve them! Jobs must arise from a need in society that people willingly pay for.
In my work, I talk to prospective business owners. it’s interesting to hear what they think and what they cannot pay others to do! A business must generate money to survive but society cannot pay the businesses just for the businesses to survive.
Perception and motivation affects how a person performs. They both affect the presence in which business owners relate to their customers and run their operations. The only way to start a successful business is to solve a problem. Now that we have agreed that the only way to start a successful business is to solve a problem, we now look at how to identify the problem. “It’s a lot better to solve a problem everyone agrees that they have, versus building a solution to a problem that you see clearly but have to explain to other people that they actually have” Stan Hanks.
A problem that everyone agrees that they have will have many people trying to find a solution and you will be in a race to be the first to find the appropriate solution. The market will be ready but competition will be right behind you.
A problem that you see clearly but have to educate the market require persistence but gives you first mover advantage.
It’s generally stated that 80% of small business fail within the first five years. If the following are the reasons and percentages of the motivations for starting business, could this then explain the failure rates?
- To make money 20%
- To be my own boss 20%
- To do what I love 20%
- To create employment 20%
- To solve a society problem — 20%
a) A problem everyone agrees that they have 10%
b) A problem you see clearly but have to explain to others 10%
Now you see where this is going, let me know what you think. If you need help working through your business ideas or you are a founder in the maze of business formation, we should talkDavid F Amakobe 2016
This article was originally published LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/founders-motivation-business-plays-key-role-its-amakobe-mba