Repeat After Me...

Starting a business takes more time, energy, and money then you originally anticipate to become successful. Hell, starting a business takes more time, energy, and money then you originally anticipate to simply become breakeven.

Listen, I'm just as guilty and points 1 and 3 (time and money) but even though I do get burnt out from time to time I think I had a pretty good idea about how much energy was involved. But to be honest, my thinking about how long it would take and how much money it would not only take but also yield seems to have been much closer to the mark then almost all the entreprenuers in my immediate circle. Just a few examples:

1. A dear friend who is incredibly smart and far more business savvy then me thought that her business would be kicking off $50K in profit that she could take as a salary. This is with next-to-nothing invested in marketing and only two years in business. Needless to say, she's highly demotivated right now realizing that it's going to take far far longer to reach those goals.

2. Someone in my workspace who started up one business and then bought a second business a few months later can't understand why she's so burnt out. She's running both businesses simultaniously and told me today "I thought it'd be so much easier to make money." My guess is that if it were that easy the previous owner likely wouldn't have sold.

3. I heard a rumor today that is decently substantiated that the couple who owns my workspace (I lease time from them) are tired of owning/running the space and they want out. Apparently we're to learn this at the Workspace Meeting next week. That should be interesting! They've done a pretty lousy job of hiding the fact that owning/running the workspace has taken more time and yielded less money then they expected and they're tired of working so hard. I guess an idea is floating around that they want to try and turn it into a co-op situation which just sounds like an utter disaster to me (what happens if, for example the person I highlighted in #2 just gets so tired of her business that she quits which would leave all remaining partners to split her share of expenses in addition to one's own expenses).

So repeat after me folks - starting a small business is going to take far more money, far more time, and far more energy then you expect. Do yourself a favor and when you write out your business plan include a plan for the worst-case scenario. One in which the business loses money and nobody likes what you make/do/offer. If you can stomach that scenario then you might be ready to jump in. But if you think you're going to be making $100K right off the bat (with no venture funding) then I wish you luck. And if you do manage to make $100K right off the bat then please please please drop me an email and let me know how the heck you managed to pull it off!