The (Un)Glamorous Life of a Startup
The hustle is real … and so is the grind.
There were about a dozen volunteer instructors at a recent orientation session for OSU’s Ohio Prison Entrepreneurship Program. The group represented a broad swath of entrepreneurial skill sets: Product Management, funding, business operations, and more. We went around the table explaining why we were interested in helping the program, and one volunteer, a startup founder, explained:
Running a business is hard. I want people to learn from the mistakes I’ve made.
Hallelujah.
People seem to have a natural bias toward sharing successes and celebrating wins while glossing over everything it took to get there. Take a look at social media; it’s likely that you’ll read about an awesome company retreat, but rarely anything like this:
Long #meeting today to review #budget. Took a #break for lunch. All wrapped up in the afternoon! #startup #entrepreneur #adayinthelife
And that’s okay. I’m not saying we should live-Tweet the mundane. But for all of the positive press, goals achieved, and lives touched by our ventures that get all the publicity, there are hours and hours work happening in the background to support the things worth reading about.
Running a business is, indeed, hard.
I’ll try not to bore you
Similarly, for all of the milestones we’ve reached at DACA Time, we’ve had to work through everything that it means not only to start a small business but also to strive toward becoming a nonprofit. Here’s an abbreviated list of what running a business has looked like for us:
- Meetings in the evenings
- Print collateral coordination
- Incorporation paperwork
- Meetings over coffee
- Volunteer engagement
- Business banking
- Meetings over lunch
- Vendor registration forms
- Electronic payment authorizations
- Meetings on the weekends
- Event booth set-up
- By-law collaboration
… and a whole lot more.
These things aren’t bad. They’re nothing to complain about. But they’re nevertheless reality and are often obfuscated by all of the newsworthy and wonderful things you’ll find on DACA Time’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instragram accounts.
Going into SEA Change months ago, prior to the start of our cohort, we asked some previous attendees the single most valuable thing they got out of the program. One participant responded:
It made us realize we don’t have the time to commit to running a business right now.
That is a pivotal realization.
Every single person reading this no doubt intellectually understands the work that goes into forming a viable, sustainable venture, but that rationality will only take you as far as the work actually staring you in the face.
But there really is a payoff.
None of this is intended to dissuade anyone from chasing that world-changing idea or scratching that entrepreneurial itch. It’s a life-changing experience, and everyone should go through it at least once (in fact, most entrepreneurs will go through it many times).
From the initial flash of inspiration to the first real customer feedback, taking something from concept to reality is exhilarating and gratifying beyond belief — and especially so when there’s social impact in play. The experience, for us, of looking into the eyes of a Dreamer or her parents and saying, “Yes, we’re going to help you with that,” has been incredible.
It’s just important to remember that none of it is possible without everything that comes in between. It may not all be bloggable, but it gets you to the things that are.
