The More You Know About Something, The More You Might Do It. Interesting Insights On Entrepreneurs
The more you hang out with entrepreneurs, the more likely you might become one.
Our biggest challenge in life is lack of information. Because, inherently, once we learn something, we may no longer fear or avoid that thing. It’s as common as overcoming a fear of public speaking…by public speaking. Once we overcome that fear, we can’t stop talking. The same might be true about entrepreneurship. The less we know, the more it seems like we could never be an entrepreneur. But if you hung out with entrepreneurs all day, traveled with them, ate meals with them, you would start to see entrepreneurship in a new light.
There is an interesting article by NorthOne, a business banking platform, that compiled a wide variety of statistics and insights on entrepreneurship that you might be interested in. This author will only cover a few of the interesting highlights from that article.
There are more entrepreneurs than you think. On a global basis, there are approximately 582 million entrepreneurs. Everything from small mom and pop businesses to thriving enterprises. In the United States, there are about 31 million entrepreneurs. When you think about Gen Z’s interest in entrepreneurship, those numbers will surely rise over the next few years.
You don’t need venture capital investors. Contrary to popular belief, only 4% of all entrepreneurs raise money from investors to start their company. The rest use personal funds, a side gig hustle to generate cash, family and friends and even a bank loan.
You don’t need a college education. Only 44% of all entrepreneurs have a college degree. But a college degree isn’t a necessity for getting ahead or starting your own entrepreneurship adventures. In fact, less than half of small business owners have a college degree at all. It’s now about education when it comes to entrepreneurship. It’s about seeing a problem, creating a unique solution, the ability to get customers and then to create a profitable company. Oh, and a whole lot of grit.
Most startups fail. Not exactly true. While 42% of startups do fail in the first two years, they don’t fail due to the efforts of the entrepreneur. The problem is they should never have been created in the first place. They fundamentally did not solve a real problem for customers. So, don’t do that. Solve a real problem in a marketplace with real customers.
Well paid employees are happier than entrepreneurs. Not true. A Wall Street Journal article from 2023 stated that up to 70% of employees were not satisfied at work. Balance that with 75% of entrepreneurs who said they were happy with their work as a founder.
It’s too expensive to start a small company. Not really. It depends on your skillset and your ability to hustle and manage freelancers or contractors well. It also depends on your business model in how you provide your products or services. If it requires a lot of labor initially, think twice about this kind of company business model since labor will probably be the biggest expense you will have.
You need to start an AI based company to succeed. Not necessarily. If you look to the future and follow two trends, Gen Z with personal care and the Baby Boomers with aging, you can see there will be significant growth in the personal care and healthcare industries into the foreseeable future.
You were not born to be an accountant. Or a biotech researcher, banker, marketer, finance analyst and so on. So, what do you want to do? 60% of entrepreneurs start their small businesses because they’re inspired to be their own boss and to create something they can call their own. There are plenty of good reasons to venture out on your own and start your small business. But for the majority of entrepreneurs their reasoning is simple. They want to be in charge, own the decision making and then be accountable.
It’s not as hard as you think to be an entrepreneur. Remember, there are 31 million entrepreneurs in the USA. So, it’s not unique. What might be unique is your mindset which is currently holding you back. You need to hang out with entrepreneurs, talk to experts about something you care about and perhaps start a side gig to test something. You were not born to do what you are doing today. So, what will you do?
