F.F.F.

Perhaps you already run a (small) business or perhaps this is something you would like to do. Apart from the obvious worries (bureaucracy, customers, being paid) there are many benefits – being your own boss, seeing your efforts turn into positive realities and, as owner, seeing the profits get larger. So now, I’m going to destroy the dream!

Those who have “made it” in being self-employed usually say the first year or so is the most traumatic. Having been there and done it, I totally agree (so why am I doing it again?). Making, creating a product out of a “good idea” is hard work. Funding that “good idea” is even harder and many would-be entrepreneurs use the FFF approach to financing their dreams and then wonder why the dream turned into a nightmare….

Usually three sources of finance (excluding banks, as they tend to look upon small businesses as something not to be touched) come to mind:

Family – blood ties are considered an “easy touch”. Why would a family not support one of their own in a business venture. The individual is known in every detail and surely, (goes their thought process) our money is safe lending to him. But perhaps they cannot finance the project entirely, so the next phase is to “tap into”

Friends – more difficult to get money from them, so the hopeful entrepreneur has to “encourage” them by promising a good return on their investment (if it flies) or painting a picture of the future that will ensure more money comes to the venture. But even so, friends can be “miserly” when it comes to giving money to a new venture, and that is when our potential entrepreneur has to “tap” the bottom of the barrel and turn to

Fools - there are plenty around! At this stage, our entrepreneur has a beautiful “story” to tell, one that would get money out of a stone; for this group he has perfected the art of “spin” – making the project appear as valuable as an old master painting, as having the value of a wonderfully cut diamond or a bar of pure 24 carat gold. Who can resist? Certainly not the fool(s)!

Armed with “funds” the entrepreneur goes out into the wide, wicked world and…..loses the lot on a badly thought through “good idea”. The family turn their anger on him and he is virtually cast out of their circle; friends disappear like raindrops on a hot sunny day; the fools… just keep on looking for “the next big thing”.

Our entrepreneur is dismayed (to say the least) and the next time he has a “good idea”, nobody, but nobody, will even look at him.

The moral? If you want to be your own boss either make sure you can fund the project yourself, or forget it – never go down the FFF route….it’s poisonous!

Until next time (no family, friends are too important to me, don’t know any fools),

Peripatetic Scribe