According to various estimates, up to 80% of new businesses close within the first two years. The reasons vary: some did not take seasonality into account, some started without financial reserves, some miscalculated their model or chose the wrong partner. But failure can be avoided — if you approach the business not only with an idea, but also with an understanding of what knowledge and skills are needed to be an entrepreneur not only in name but also in essence.
Does an entrepreneur need to study theory?
Becoming an entrepreneur is not the same as registering a business, renting premises and starting, for example, baking cakes, teaching English or fulfilling orders from marketplaces.
Entrepreneurship is the ability to manage uncertainty, money, and people. In practice, I have had many acquaintances who were excellent specialists in their field, but not all of them were able to become entrepreneurs.
You can do your job well, but not everyone can build and manage a business. Therefore, to increase your chances of success, it is advisable to understand financial, marketing, and legal issues before launching a project. Mistakes in these areas are not always immediately apparent, but they are almost always fatal.
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Voltage Bet online.Finance
At the start, you don't have to become an accountant or a financial director, but you do need to understand the basics of finance. Revenue, margin, profit, cash gap, break-even point, basics of taxation — these are the things you definitely need to be familiar with.
Sometimes a business closes within the first six months to a year because there is no clear business plan with financial calculations. Often, novice businessmen do not even take into account the minimum — rent and utility bills for several months in advance, believing that they will be able to earn enough in the first month to cover the next. But this is not always the case.
Therefore, before starting a business, I would advise taking courses such as ‘Financial Director’, mini-MBA or full MBA — this will help you navigate the financial management of the company.
Marketing
If you plan to develop and scale your business, you will also need to learn the basics of marketing. How does the audience behave, how is the marketing funnel structured, how much does it cost to attract a customer, how to test hypotheses — you need to understand all this in order to build marketing strategies.
Of course, you can and even should entrust everything to a marketer — but that comes with time. At the initial stage, it is better to delve into marketing issues yourself. This way, you will understand what the marketer is offering and why, and whether it makes sense.
What you can't learn without practice
In my opinion, the main skills that cannot be learned until you start working with a real business are sales skills, flexibility, and the ability to work in conditions of uncertainty.
Sales skills. Until you get your first money, you don't have a business — just an idea. For example, you can know perfectly well in theory how a sales funnel is built, but still not be able to bring yourself to call your first customer. Many beginners are afraid of sales: they can debug their product endlessly, but they don't start actively selling it until the very last moment.
But until you try to sell, you won't understand how your audience reacts, which techniques work and which don't. And you can't learn this in a course, only in real life.
Flexibility. No matter how thoroughly you prepare to launch your business, mistakes and force majeure are inevitable. But the question is not about them, but how you react to them.
For example, if a supplier lets you down and delivers defective goods, what will you do? Stop sales or quickly find a replacement? Many will choose the first option, but the second is much better for business. And this also comes only with experience.
The ability to work in conditions of uncertainty. Let me explain with an example. Franchise businesses are often considered more resilient to crises — franchisors have already made all the mistakes and can help franchisees avoid them. Of course, there is a rational grain of truth in this, because a franchise is a stable business model.
