If you are planning to start a business, it is important to understand “why” you are doing so. Each venture has its own “why” and mission. However, some reasons are the wrong ones to begin with, and I will talk about 3 of them in this piece 

The motivation to start a business vary for each founder or founding team. You may be seeking to offer an innovation, improve an existing process, or fill an existing market gap. 

However, as a consultant, I have noticed a new wave of “aspiring” business owners who are seeking to become entrepreneurs. Yet, their reasons for doing so are shallow and lack a valid commercial basis. 

Some of the common themes among these wrong reasons are:

1. Not wanting to have a boss 

The mindset of starting a business so you can not have a boss to answer to is a dangerous one. 

You are indeed in charge of everything and there is not a superior that you have to be accountable to. 

Nevertheless, I learnt that even as a business owner, your customers and other stakeholders are your boss. These are parties that you must keep happy and be accountable to. 

Thus, the idea that by being a business owner you will forfeit accountability is incorrect. 

2. Getting rich quickly

I am not denying that businesses are commercial entities. Hence, making money is the primary motive. 

However, entrepreneurship should not be viewed as the gateway to getting rich quickly. This is unlikely to happen rapidly in the case of most businesses and it will take time, risk, resources and patience. 

If you are unwilling to invest the abovementioned into starting a business and are looking to make a quick buck, you may be in for disappointment. 

3. Ego and vanity

Lastly, if starting a business is a tool to stroke your ego and “show off”, you are in for the wrong reason.

My philosophy is that the first step towards starting a business is to drop your ego and adopt the mindset that you know nothing. 

These are 3 common wrong reasons for starting a business. Before doing so, make sure that you have a clear “why” and emphasise the commercial context of starting a business. 

About | My name is Sohrab Vazir. I’m a UK-based entrepreneur and business consultant. At the age of 22, and while I was an international student (graduate), I started my own Property Technology (PropTech) business, StudyFlats. I now help other entrepreneurs, such as myself, with their businesses, and mainly with obtaining endorsements from the endorsing bodies.