- Listen to me. Don't start a business until you read this.
You see people on social media, on Instagram, on Facebook. You see the lifestyle of a successful entrepreneur. You see the car that they drive, they're driving the Ferrari's or they're driving a Bentley or you see the vacation spots, you see their home, you see their house and you see the life that they have and you say to yourself, I want that too, so what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna start a business just like them. Well, are you ready, do you know if you're ready to be an entrepreneur? Here are five warning signs that you may not be ready to be in business for yourself just yet. Number one and that is don't start a business if you have no money. That's correct, you heard me right. Don't start a business if you have no money. If you need money coming in like you need blood in your veins, don't start a business. Why? Because it takes time for a business to mature to generate profit. If you think you're gonna start a business and you're gonna make money in the next two weeks, four weeks, a month, that's an employee mentality. As an employee, you get a check, two weeks. You get a check by the end of the month. As an entrepreneur, that doesn't happen. It might take you six months, it might take you a year, it might take you two years. Most business owners don't make a profit until many, many, many years in. In the meantime, what are you gonna do? You still gotta eat, right? You still have to pay the bills. If you have absolutely no money right now, what do you do? You get a job. Don't start a business because a business takes time and it takes effort and it does take money to grow. I always say, take care of your cash flow needs first before you worry about building an empire. Take care of your income first. Second warning sign is this. Don't start a business if you don't understand the industry. I always ask this question before you start any business and that is, and I'm asking you right now, why you and why now? If your answer is, oh, I just wanna make some money, you're gonna fucking fail. Why you and why now? What qualifies you to be in this space right now? Not what you just saw on Facebook. Oh, that sounds like a good idea. This person, this guy is making so much money doing this, I should jump into that too. No. Why you and why now? In order to make money in any industry, you have to understand the industry. If you don't know the industry, first you have to learn the industry. Let's say you wanna go open up a restaurant. I'm not saying that's a good idea, but let's say you want to open up a restaurant. Well, is it a good idea to just go work at a restaurant, see what's the day to day operation like, what's it like to work in a restaurant, before you open up a restaurant. So you have to know your industry. Warning sign number three, don't start a business if you don't have stamina. I mean a mental toughness to endure pain. Many years ago, I had this conversation with my mentor and he asked me the question, Dan, what do you think is the number one quality of an entrepreneur? And I said many, many things. I said talent and I said team and I said good idea. I said many, many, many things and no, he said the number one quality of a successful entrepreneur is this, and that is the ability to endure pain for a long period of time. Didn't talk about the Ferrari, didn't talk about the big house. Pain for a long period of time. Is that you? What are you willing to give up? What price are you willing to pay to accomplish success to build your business? I could tell you any successful entrepreneurs that I know, almost all of them experience pain for a long period of time before they accomplish even just a little bit of success. Everybody wants to talk about the glamorous side of entrepreneurship. No one wants to talk about the dark side. Are you okay to be able to endure pain for a long period of time. Where those nights you cannot sleep, the nights where you don't know how you're going to pay off that debt. Are you okay with that? Having that responsibility, heavy, heavy responsibility on your shoulder. Warning sign number four and that is, don't start a business if you want more free time. That's right. If you start a business, you think, oh, now I can quit my job, the nine to five five days a week. Now I'm gonna be an entrepreneur, I'm gonna be a business owner, that now I'm gonna have freedom. You are dreaming. You might have freedom after working so many years, maybe a decade, then you will have some freedom. The first five, ten years, you ain't getting shit, okay. First of all, you getting paid last. You pay everybody else before you pay yourself. So if you think you're gonna get rich quick doing this, no. When you're running your own business, there's no nine to five. Comment below if you are a business owner, if you're an entrepreneur. If you agree with me, comment below. Let's wake people up. Let them know. There's no nine to five. There's no nine to nine. It is on your mind 24/7. When you take time off, you're not really off. You know what I'm talking about. You're thinking about your business, you're thinking about how to get more customers, you're thinking about your team, you're thinking about your employees, you're thinking about the cash flow problems you have and you're not gonna get more time 'cause in the beginning, if you don't have those specific skills, the learning curve is deep. It takes a few years just to get a sense, get a feeling and try to find out what works in your business, to crack the code, right, being profitable. And from there to grow, there's still a long, long way. Forget the nine to five. Forget the five days a week. It's seven days, 24/7. That's the life of an entrepreneur. And if you don't love it and if that's not in your blood and you want it so bad, you're not gonna do what it takes, you're not gonna make those sacrifices 'cause it's too damn tough. Warning sign number five and that is don't start a business if you don't know how to close, period. I don't care what it is that you do. You wanna get customers, you gotta close. You want better terms for financing, you gotta close. You want better vendors, you gotta close. You want partners to help you to promote your business, you gotta close. If you don't have the ability to close anyone anytime, if you don't have that closing mentality and you don't have that closing skill, you're not qualified to be in business, period. I don't care what it is that you do, I don't care what industry you're in, I don't care what product or services that you sell, you need to be able to close. So those are the five top warning signs.
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