Ep.31: Why Getting Employed is Essential Before Starting a Business
- S1E31
- 21:54
- November 12th 2019
What’s your advice to budding entrepreneurs?
Venchito has a lot to say when it comes to starting a business. Primarily because now is the easiest time to start one. The first thing that he said was that it would be best if budding entrepreneurs go and collect experience first in their desired industry. He mentioned working for two to five years to collect both the work experience and technical knowledge.
The idea here is that these would-be entrepreneurs are given the means to save financially, while also learning and familiarizing themselves with the current processes of the industry.
Secondly, budding entrepreneurs must build up their network. Do it as much as you can because that is how important networks are. Attend seminars, learning events, and other activities that can help you meet new people.
Although you can’t necessarily use the network that you’ve built, there may come a time in which these networks, or relationships that you’ve built will become active and useful in your endeavors.
This is substantially important when it comes to referrals because it shows that your products and/or services are good enough for people to recommend you to someone else.
Lastly, entrepreneurs need to do their market research. So many times, people blindly enter the marketing industry and end up not knowing how to price their products—they don’t know who their competitors are, or what they’re going up against. You need to find your own unique proposition. Find out what separates you from your competitors and many other brands.
Why did you emphasize collecting work experience when you didn’t do that?
For Venchito, it depends on the person. It was just a coincidence that the industry that he chose focused more on self-study. It’s an industry that people can excel at while they’re still studying.
However, other industries are not exactly this easy to learn and flexible as well. There are many companies out there that need that experience and that forces you to work in a corporate setup.
Bear in mind that there are many different rules and regulations in the corporate set up. Work experience is supposed to help these budding entrepreneurs by building a strict sense of discipline in them.
Venchito admits that he struggled with discipline very early on in his career. There are a lot of distractions today. Most people think that by using social media, they’re marketing their business. However, some entrepreneurs fall into the trap of becoming busy but not exactly productive. Such is the effect of social media on most people.
What are the things that you do that allow you to reserve your time away from being a busy body and social media in being productive?
Venchito experimented by isolating himself from his social media accounts for a week. Although he failed in his endeavor, he realized that it boiled down to one question:
“Why do you have to spend a lot of your time on social media?”
Was it just because people wanted to be entertained? Or do you use it to educate yourself?
It’s up to the person at hand, whether they're going to use it for entertainment, education, or marketing.
The problem nowadays is that people use it only for entertainment which is by far one of the least productive options.
Venchito mentioned one tip from Cal Newport’s book “Digital Minimalism”, and that is for people to find an activity outside of work that requires a lot of your time. It replaces the time you might spend on social media with the time you use up doing that activity. These activities should give a feeling of fulfillment instead of stagnancy while browsing social media.
Aside from John Maxwell, who are some of the people that you look up to and read?
Venchito mostly reads books fro
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