Are startups soul sucking? Is entrepreneurship the only route to success?
Startups are hard. Entrepreneurship is hard. You spend all your days working on something hard, which has a 90% chance of failure. How can you ensure you enjoy the process? What are some alternatives to entrepreneurship and also being ultra successful?
Hey there - I work with entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley but mostly with what I call the Big Dreamers - people that would never be able to hold down a job, but can go out there and do something magical with their unusual talents. I am working on 2 books with different people, marketing their products with them and coaching Executives.
Startups suck, man. Teams don't work, engineers don't stick around, you need connections for money and yes, it is risky.
So what should you do?
Three words: Online Home Business.
Many examples exist of regular people - Dads, Moms, even teenagers - that started up a blog/website/social media/youtube channel with a passion of their own and posted fun, fresh, unique content regularly building an audience over time and making a tidy income - more than by driving for Uber or having a retail job. The best ones cross six figures and more with a little luck and good timing. I knew an example where this young man loved Disney and all things related - so he built a Disney fan website and got all this ad-click money plus affiliate marketing money and before he knew it he was on the news.
So what's your burning interest? Let me help you figure it out and position yourself in a spot where you can actually still spend time with family and friends but live a comfortable lifestyle. I can help you understand your talents and how to relate them to the wide world out there!
Call me and we can get started right away!
Sincerely,
Arjun Buxi
As a wife, mother of 3 little ones under the age of 6, and growing two businesses (non-profit and a for-profit) it comes down to priorities and passion. I love helping people discover new ways to solve problems and I love to create. My businesses are on my mind 24/7, it is a matter of choosing what to focus on at the time and be present. When I am with my family, I make it a point to be present with my family and tune everything out. I live for organization and setting boundaries for my time. Time is your biggest resource.
Write down your "why" your purpose for starting the business in the first place. If you are doing business to just make money, I feel you will eventually burn out because you don't have the passion and motivation to push through the hard times when everything is slow and you are not seeing results. When it is your passion, down time means you can create new solutions, come up with new marketing or write a book about your topic. There is always something that can be done to advance your message.
Be flexible and ready to take advantage of every moment you can to get done. I'd love to talk more about strategies to help make all that hard work last and be a little less stressful.
Well, if you're a successful entrepreneur that means you've built a business and not just a job that sucks. If you're working 90 hours a week for little to no money, you're not a successful entrepreneur.
Successful entrepreneurs have cash flowing businesses and design companies where the tasks and responsibilities are delegated to people holding defined roles on an org chart.
So yes, It is easy to have work life balance when you're a successful entrepreneur.
If you need help getting to that point, request a call or maybe invest 3 hours into the program I put together to tackle this very issue. You can find it at www.EasySmallBizSystems.com
Cheers.
David C Barnett
Breaking out of the employment mentality is a BIG part of this. You know, "This is how it's always been." "This is what you do." "This is what you *have to* do."
People get things in their heads that they do things because they have to. But you don't.
You don't have to grind yourself into the ground when you own a business. Yes, there's times when you will have to do those 10,000 little things that pile up and deal with the kind of crap that your employment-minded friends and family will never ever understand. But you don't *have to* create this unintentionally unenjoyable process.
People are so used to the idea of just working all the time when you have your own business, or a job that's high in the pecking order, that they take it with them when they strike out on their own. It's that Protestant work ethic BS people have been brainwashed with from Day 1.
Entrepreneurship isn't a monolith though. It doesn't have to be forming the perfect startup and getting venture capital and putting in 80-hour work weeks so you can cash out on an M&A or IPO. Nor does it have to be this big brick-and-mortar startup that provides hundreds of local jobs. Of course, those are options.
But you have other options. You can be a solopreneur who works totally alone save for a couple other hustlers you contract stuff out to when you need it. You can grow to just 1-2 employees and you'll have happy, engaged, and loyal workers if you offer them the same kind of work-life balance you yourself are seeking.
You can create passive income through digital products like e-courses, e-books, games, memberships, and so much more. You can retain ownership of these things or always sell them off to a company who's interested in buying them from you and all without having to go through the arduous process of getting an investor and making that company YOUR LIFE.
My line's open if you want some ideas. I make a comfortable living in digital media and am not beholden to any investors, and have a sweet work-life balance.
