Entrepreneurs develop their expertise often as they explore their business idea and as they try ideas and products out on real customers. Then they hire the experienced industry experts and seasoned managers once they enter the rapid growth stages. What enables most entrepreneurs to be successful in their new ventures is their adaptability, their flexibility to change. Starting a new business is like jumping from rock to rock up a stream rather than building a bridge from a blueprint. Once companies seek outside investments is the time when they develop the tightly constructed business plan.
All entrepreneurs rely on venture capital to fund their businesses.
This perhaps is the most deceptive myth. Venture capital companies only fund a very small number of businesses each year, about four thousand in total. Most entrepreneurs start with their own money and money from friends and family and only look to venture capital when they need to capitalize on their successes, usually in the later stages of growth. Where this myth really takes root is in examination of Internet and biotech start-ups where the cost of entry is very high. Many of these businesses need venture investments from the very start.