Ng: Starting a business for wrong reasons

By Wilson Ng
Wired Desktop

SCHOOL FOR BUSINESS. I am continuing to share my thoughts on entrepreneurs, whom I believe have been given a lot of emphasis in view of the Presi-dent’s goal to create millions of jobs by supporting entrepreneurs in the next few years.

One of the better schools that I know that teaches entrepreneurship is the Academy for Creating Enterprise, which is located in Banilad.

This is a school founded by an American foundation, Called2Serve Foundation USA, and most of the funds are raised by Mr. and Mrs. Steve Gibson, who are from Utah.

The school gives a two-month intensive, live-in and hands-on course on entrepreneurship, including actual working on a business plan, which allows you to discuss various aspects of the business. It is headed by Jose Antonio “Tony” San Gabriel, an MBA graduate of the Asian Institute of Management.

Most of the students they are currently training are chosen from returning missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The school has been there for four years, and several students have started businesses that run to six or seven figures in annual sales.

It was Tony who gave me one of the better books that you should read on entrepreneurship, which they also use in their academy. This book is “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael Gerber (the E means Entrepreneur), and the author attempts to paint a different picture of the entrepreneur and what a person needs to succeed in starting a business.

MISCONCEPTIONS. The author tries to change popular misconceptions about entrepreneurs, and presents his views on how to start and grow a business.

The author’s view is that entrepreneurs are really ordinary people, not like the perceived risk takers, geniuses or innovative people that they are painted out to be. They just happened to start a business, and all for the wrong reasons—they don’t like their job (that is a very wrong reason to start your business!), or they know the technical side of the business. They think they know the business, which is actually two different things (thus, a very good accountant goes into accounting consulting, or a good programmer starts a software company, a person who cooks well starts a restaurant business etc).

In fact, the author believes that knowing the technical side of the business can be a handicap because then the person will focus on the technical product instead of growing the business, which can mean more focus on the selling, marketing, financial and human resource aspects of the business.

Contrary to the perception that most entrepreneurs are enjoying their life of financial freedom, most entrepreneurs who go into business for the wrong reasons or without adequate preparation or experience are working harder than before, and many lose hard-earned money and spend sleepless nights trapped in the entrepreneural nightmare of having a business that is in dire financial straits or going nowhere.

While it is true that small business success will propel the economy, we have to be careful in encouraging this.

In most countries, and I reckon also in the Philippines, half of the businesses started fail within the first two years.

We hear many overseas workers sending money back and encouraging their families to go into small business to enable the family to enjoy financial independence. They hope they can return when that is successful, only to find that the business just ate up their savings.

If you are interested to start or grow your business, get the book.

Check out the Internet. There are huge resources there on teaching you how to start and manage a business. A great site is www.sba.gov, which is sponsored by the US government. Enroll in a good course. Try to learn as much as you can before plunging in with your hard-earned money.

Moderator's Note: This is an old article that I came across in a local Cebu paper and provides insight that the community is taking notice of the impact that the Academy is doing and gives good advice.