Starting your own business and turning it into a profitable enterprise is a fantastic way to grow your wealth and build your life around the things you love doing.

Unfortunately many people are put off, often because they don’t believe they are cut out for the world of business ownership.  Perhaps this is the result of so much airtime going to media-savvy entrepreneurial exhibitionists, whose flamboyant publicity stunts and tough talking drives television ratings.

Seeing these 800lb gorillas of the business world in action can leave us meekly asking ourselves self-doubting questions, such as:

If I am not an extrovert like Richard Branson or a tough talking Dragon, can I really make it in the world of business on my own?

However the answer to this is simple – Yes you can, and just to convince you, lets start busting some of those popular entrepreneurial myths.

Myth 1 – Entrepreneurs are born, not made

So you didn’t run the school tuck shop or sell lemonade to your friends and neighbours at the age of 8.  And you weren’t buying and selling cars, property and planes by the age of 18?

Shame on you – well because of your failure to demonstrate an entrepreneurial flair in your youth, you must now spend the rest of your life working for other people!

This is perhaps the biggest entrepreneurial myth going, but it is absurd to think that it is actually true.

Entrepreneurs are shaped by their surrounding environments and everyone has the ability to adapt and change according to the circumstances in which they find themselves or the goals that they want to achieve.

Nobody sets out to become an entrepreneur just for the sake of becoming an entrepreneur and very few do it just for the money.

Businesses and social enterprises are started by people who want to make an impact or make people’s lives easier.  If you happen to find this calling later on in life, there is no reason why you cannot develop entrepreneurial skills to respond to it.

Myth 2 – Entrepreneurs take big risks

Yes, you often hear about entrepreneurs betting the farm on one single event that changed their lives and yes to become fabulously wealthy you have to take bigger risks, but these are stories concerning a small minority.

Most successful entrepreneurs are very risk-averse and will do everything they can to avoid losing money.  That is why the are successful.  They will do their homework and weigh up the risks of each situation, before fully committing themselves to it.

There are also many types of businesses that can be started with very little up-front investment, significantly reducing the risk of losing money.  For example using your knowledge and experience to start your own consultancy will cost you peanuts to set up, but can be incredibly profitable.

Alternatively taking on a franchise with a well established brand, business model and well thought out systems & processes can also help to lower the risk of losing your investment.

It is also worth considering the risk of not starting a business.  No job is ever safe from the threat of redundancy and from a non-financial point-of-view, staying in a job that you dislike rather than pursuing your dream could leave you feeling very miserable indeed.

Myth 3 – Corporate employees and civil servants don’t become entrepreneurs

Employees who have spent the majority of their careers working in large organisations may feel that they do not have the skills or wherewithal to adapt to the beg, borrow or steal mentality of entrepreneurial life, but once you start your own business it does not take long to pick this up (minus the stealing part, obviously!).

And in fact, large organisation employees will have learnt many excellent skills during their careers, such as presenting their ideas, networking, managing systems & processes and managing projects.

All these skills and experiences will be very valuable to them as they grow and run their business.

Myth 4 – Entrepreneurs go it alone

Entrepreneurs cannot be good at everything and behind every great entrepreneur there will be a team responsible for getting the best out of every single area of the business including sales, marketing, operations, IT and finance.

Even solopreneurs operating one-person businesses, will rely on their accountants to keep the books tidy and outsource other aspects of their work to specialists when necessary.

For people who are really worried that they lack one or two key business skills, maybe it is worth partnering up with other entrepreneurs to start a new business.

Some of the best businesses are those founded by small teams made of individuals with different, but complimentary skills sets.  One partner might excel at sales & marketing, whilst another is responsible for operations & delivery, whilst a third might take the roll of finance director and makes sure the business is profitable.

Myth 5 – You need a lot of cash to start a businesses

As I mentioned beforehand, successful businesses can be started on a shoestring and still generate a decent profit.  In addition to this the financial discipline developed from starting a business on a very limited budget will help to ensure greater commercial success in the future.

Back in the day, just before the Dotcom crash, technology start-up businesses constantly had cash thrown at them by the bucketload.  Some of these businesses are still around today, but too many spent their start-up funding on plush offices or hiring non-essential staff.  Perhaps had they bootstrapped better, they might have been stayed in business for longer.

From a personal point-of-view it is a good idea to build up some cash reserves in the bank to cover 3 to 6 months of living expenses before you quit your job to start your own business; but even if you are not in a position to give up your full time job there is the option of starting a sideline or weekend business and testing it to see if it will make any money.

So what is stopping you?

Whilst we all love to hear stories of brash, fast-living, outrageous people who have hauled themselves out of poverty and made their fortune, the truth is that these types of entrepreneurs are fairly few and far between.

Most business owners are regular people who just want to work for themselves.  Some are loud and extrovert, others are quiet and introvert, some are good with money and others are good at selling.  They might own shops, be one-person consultancies or run lifestyle businesses, online businesses, factories or a fleet of taxis – but they are all entrepreneurs.

The question is when are you going to join them?

Photo from: virginmoney-uk