Business is fun! Until you start your own…

Nowadays media is full of startup success stories, articles about millionaires, business books and magazines with one simple message — START YOUR OWN BUSINESS, IT’S FUN TO WORK FOR YOURSELF, YOU CAN DO IT! And I see more and more people who believe this crap, dive into that “freedom” and then bump into hurdle after hurdle, eventually doubting their decision in the first place. So this article is about business reality.

My story, in the making

Currently I’m in process of switching from being a web-developer to running my own business of web-development. And no, it’s not the same. It’s not even close! Here’s why.

When I used to be a developer, I was writing code, creating websites and launching projects for clients. Basically, I was a craftsman.

Now, as I started to hire other freelancers, I ran into totally different world:

• Hiring and finding talent;
• Project management;
• Being a middle-man between a client and developers;
• Finances: income, expenses, payroll, taxes, VAT, revenue/profit etc;
• Strategy for company growth and finding “right” clients;
• Finally, company culture — whatever it is.

And neither of these are related to any coding or web-design or any “creating” process — it’s all about running a business. And that’s the whole point — if you want your business to be successful, you need to almost forget your craft, you have enough headache just to keep the business running.

Now, I won’t lie to you — I still do coding when the situation requires it, if a project is more urgent or colleagues are too busy. But whenever I do that, I feel that the more time I spent on coding, the less time I spend on finding new clients and growth, which means less money for the business. As simple as that — my coding time is not profitable anymore.

Not even that — in business you have much bigger risk. As an employee in some company, you earn your salary, and if you quit or they let you go — you just lose your salary for a while, until you find the next (possibly better) job. In business — you’re not only at risk of going bankrupt and earn zero money, but you’re also responsible for your employees and colleagues and their financial future! And their families!

My example is in IT but applicable to almost any field: if you are an expert at something, you’re good with some craft or skill, it doesn’t guarantee at all that you’re good in business of that field. In fact, the better you are at your craft, the worse you will be as a business man.

You just have to work hard, they said

Another common myth in business is that you can achieve any results you want, if you work hard enough. Get up at 4am, work on weekends, skip all your children’s birthday parties, just work.

This is a thought process of a craftsman. If you try to build a business just by working hard, admit it — it will be a job. With longer hours. And with possibly smaller salary. Do you really want it?

The whole thing of entrepreneurship is not about working hard — it’s about working “smart”. As a business person, you basically need to take something as a “material” (it can be workforce or capital), then build something from it, repackage and sell for more money. That’s it — whatever your business field is. So the smarter you turn around with that buying-selling process, the better results you have. So it doesn’t have to be 60-hours a week, nobody’s telling you that. Actually, the less you work (while producing good results), the better entrepreneur you can consider yourself.

So, you need an MBA?

You’re probably reading and thinking — ok, so a person needs to be a business man, skilled in that environment and have a business degree. Well, no, I didn’t say that.

That’s another part of people not fit for modern business. See, traditional education and offline business is so different from current IT-based environment, that old-school theories often hurt, not help.

Look at the best business people in IT — “Zuckerbergs and company” — really low minority of them have any business degree. So why they succeed?

What’s most important in business

This is what I think after seeing succeeding and failing businesses, the schema is pretty simple:

• You have to offer people something they really need and, what’s more important, want to pay for.
• You have to be visible online — whatever form of marketing you choose: social media, content marketing, video/audio, Adwords/paid ads etc. People need to know that you exist — otherwise you’re still a craftsman. Important note: you have to be visible to the right audience — see above.
• You have to learn how to sell. Not only that — you need to like it. OMG OMG — how can you LIKE selling? Is that even possible? Yes, and I will tell you how — read the next point.
• You have to genuinely want your clients to succeed — basically, you just have to care. To give a shit. It’s not about selling stuff to people — it’s about them actually using it, benefiting from it and then telling their friends about you. But that happens not at the moment of purchase, it’s all about being happy after actually using the product or service.

Basically, that’s it. Just four of those are a powerful combo that can get your business quite far.

Finally, should I? Could I? (start a business)

So yes, your own business is fun. Well, it can be. But if you think that these articles in “Inc.” or “Entrepreneur” magazines motivate you enough to start your own business, don’t be in a hurry to do that.

First, ask yourself if you really want to forget about your craft and dive into meetings and email for the whole day. And finally, I would advice to talk to actual people from your network who recently started their own ventures. They will tell you about reality.