10 Terrible Excuses for Not Starting a Business Today

At different times in our lives, we all have given one or two excuses towards starting something, be it a business, social enterprise, or even engaging in an extra-curricular activity. In the list below, I highlighted on ten excuses for not starting a business. It’s my hope that we get over these excuses for not starting a business and follow our entrepreneurial dreams.

1. No Money

In entrepreneurship, you have to deal with accomplishing more with less money, staff, and time. Truth be told, the available capital will never be enough to launch your business. The best thing is to readjust your plan to fit what you have. Don’t make the mistake of having “no money” though. When you start with what you have, learn the skills of bootstrapping, grow your small business with money coming from other side jobs or small hustles, and watch yourself become financially free after a few months or years. I must say that you don’t have to quit your full-time job at the business startup

2. No Time

The time available to everyone is the same. 24/7, no one has 25/8. What makes the difference is what we do with our time. The level importance and urgency of what you want to achieve will determine how you schedule your time. If you badly need your time for something profitable, I bet you’d do everything you can to find it.

3. I Don’t Have Business Ideas

Coming up with a novel idea is one of the most difficult situations in life, it could take you years, however, building on existing ideas is relatively easy, it could take you seconds to think up. This means, if you can’t think of a great idea immediately, ask questions and start your business with the aim of making an existing idea better, to address the complaints of consumers (or your complaints) over a market product or service. No one just wakes up to a great idea. And just like other skills, coming up with ideas is a skill, build yours over time.

4. I’m Scared

I haven’t heard any startup story in which the founder wasn’t scared at the beginning. It’s a matter of choosing to be held back by your fears, or taking the bold step of channeling the fear into motivation to do great. Don’t be scared of making a mistake

5. No Connections

While connections may be needed to grow your business, they aren’t exactly needed to start as long as you are going to work towards building your network once you start. By the way, what better role will social media play in your business if not to build network and connections? One thing you should know is that, some market-influential people are more accessible and responsive than you can imagine, as long as you have a good reason to need them.

6. No Skills

If you were to gather all the skills you need before starting your business, then you may never start. However, do not be deceived into thinking you don’t need any skills, you do! So, how about you start with the basic skills you have and keep developing the skills? Read books, get a part-time job or volunteer to work in a business like the one you want to start, listen to people who have worked in the industry talk, watch movies in the line of the business, ask questions, attend workshops and intellectual discourses, or you could even go for a short course etc. These ways, you can earn more skills needed to grow the business. These are small sacrifices to pay, considering the benefits you will reap.

7. I’m Late

In Nigeria we’ll say “dem no dey catch late-comer” (You cannot be punished for coming late). This applies to any business you want to start. Dangote wasn’t the first person to start producing sugar or cement in Africa, Zuckerberg wasn’t the pioneer of social media, Google wasn’t the first in the world of emails, and on and on and on. Infact, I’ve come to realise that most successful businesses build on already existing ideas, and make it better.

8. Nobody Will Listen To Me

The only reason nobody will listen to you is if what you want to say is irrelevant to the people you’re reaching. If you are sending the relevant message to your target audience, they will listen to you. You may also want to refine your message to be interesting, emotional, informative, and maybe satirical and controversial

9. It’s Too Risky

I feel like using a one liner here by saying “the only risky step you can take in life is never to take a risk”. If you don’t make a move towards that idea of yours, you may regret it when you’re gray old and out of your game. No one wants to look back and say, “I wish I had done this, or that”. Take that risk, don’t be afraid of failure, setback, or falling, these are situations you can rise from.

10. I am not a Business Person

This is the lamest of all excuses, because everyone is a business person, just that you want to remain in your comfort zone or you’re scared of commitments, risks, rejection, or criticism. Being a business person is never about your background or your humble personality, all it takes is to find your niches, and take advantage of your skills, achievements, experiences, and opportunities around you. Not all businesses have to be full-time, side hustles will do just fine

You must know at this point that you are permitted to fail, and that business of yours have a 100% chance of failing at startup, but since I like to think failure is relative, I’d say “your failure at startup is 100% success if you pick yourself after failing”. Truly great businesses go through long hard journeys of small steps, and building on mentorships, successes, failures, experiences, challenges, mistakes, feedbacks, and motivations.

How about you stop giving excuses for not starting a business, dare to try yourself on a business today with what and how you are? We’ll meet at the top

If you can relate with these excuses for not starting a business, please let’s know in the comment section below, and how you overcame them. I look forward to your comments.

#StartSomethingChallenge