原文出處：Top Ten Myths of Entrepreneurship

This is a guest post by Scott Shane as a follow up to his entrepreneurship test. He is the A. Malachi Mixon Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve University. He is the author of seven books, the latest of which is The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By. Many entrepreneurs believe a bunch of myths about entrepreneurship, so here are ten of the most common and the realities that bust them:

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   1. It takes a lot of money to finance a new business. Not true. The typical start-up only requires about $25,000 to get going. The successful entrepreneurs who don’t believe the myth design their businesses to work with little cash. They borrow instead of paying for things. They rent instead of buy. And they turn fixed costs into variable costs by, say, paying people commissions instead of salaries.

   2. Venture capitalists are a good place to go for start-up money. Not unless you start a computer or biotech company. Computer hardware and software, semiconductors, communication, and biotechnology account for 81 percent of all venture capital dollars, and seventy-two percent of the companies that got VC money over the past fifteen or so years. VCs only fund about 3,000 companies per year and only about one quarter of those companies are in the seed or start-up stage. In fact, the odds that a start-up company will get VC money are about one in 4,000. That’s worse than the odds that you will die from a fall in the shower.

   3. Most business angels are rich. If rich means being an accredited investor –a person with a net worth of more than $1 million or an annual income of $200,000 per year if single and $300,000 if married – then the answer is “no.” Almost three quarters of the people who provide capital to fund the start-ups of other people who are not friends, neighbors, co-workers, or family don’t meet SEC accreditation requirements. In fact, thirty-two percent have a household income of $40,000 per year or less and seventeen percent have a negative net worth.

   4. Start-ups can’t be financed with debt. Actually, debt is more common than equity. According to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Small Business Finances, fifty-three percent of the financing of companies that are two years old or younger comes from debt and only forty-seven percent comes from equity. So a lot of entrepreneurs out there are using debt rather than equity to fund their companies.

   5. Banks don’t lend money to start-ups. This is another myth. Again, the Federal Reserve data shows that banks account for sixteen percent of all the financing provided to companies that are two years old or younger. While sixteen percent might not seem that high, it is three percent higher than the amount of money provided by the next highest source – trade creditors – and is higher than a bunch of other sources that everyone talks about going to: friends and family, business angels, venture capitalists, strategic investors, and government agencies.

   6. Most entrepreneurs start businesses in attractive industries. Sadly, the opposite is true. Most entrepreneurs head right for the worst industries for start-ups. The correlation between the number of entrepreneurs starting businesses in an industry and the number of companies failing in the industry is 0.77. That means that most entrepreneurs are picking industries in which they are mostlikely to fail.

   7. The growth of a start-up depends more on an entrepreneur’s talent than on the business he chooses. Sorry to deflate some egos here, but the industry you choose to start your company has a huge effect on the odds that it will grow. Over the past twenty years or so, about 4.2 percent of all start-ups in the computer and office equipment industry made the Inc 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. 0.005 percent of start-ups in the hotel and motel industry and 0.007 percent of start-up eating and drinking establishments made the Inc. 500. That means the odds that you will make the Inc 500 are 840 times higher if you start a computer company than if you start a hotel or motel. There is nothing anyone has discovered about the effects of entrepreneurial talent that has a similar magnitude effect on the growth of new businesses.

   8. Most entrepreneurs are successful financially. Sorry, this is another myth. Entrepreneurship creates a lot of wealth, but it is very unevenly distributed. The typical profit of an owner-managed business is $39,000 per year. Only the top ten percent of entrepreneurs earn more money than employees. And the typical entrepreneur earns less money than he otherwise would have earned working for someone else.

   9. Many start-ups achieve the sales growth projections that equity investors are looking for. Not even close. Of the 590,000 or so new businesses with at least one employee founded in this country every year, data from the U.S. Census shows that less than 200 reach the $100 million in sales in six years that venture capitalists talk about looking for. About 500 firms reach the $50 million in sales that the sophisticated angels, like the ones at Tech Coast Angels and the Band of Angels talk about. In fact, only about 9,500 companies reach $5 million in sales in that amount of time.

   10. Starting a business is easy. Actually it isn’t, and most people who begin the process of starting a company fail to get one up and running. Seven years after beginning the process of starting a business, only one-third of people have a new company with positive cash flow greater than the salary and expenses of the owner for more than three consecutive months.

他們自97年MacWorld的視像會議後再沒有同場出現過（當時我記得是Bill Gate在銀幕上出現宣佈對Apple注資，和在MacOS上推出IE），今次兩人由1977年一直談到2007年，絕對是一個當事人現身說法的珍貴紀錄！

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid452319854/bctid958475626

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Kenneth Cole不是最頂級的名牌，但我就是喜歡Kenneth Cole - 不是因為產品的表面，而是因為其內涵。

Kenneth Cole的產品，都附帶他的創業故事的小卡片，而能夠看到他親口說出來，更加感受至深。

在此以後，凡有人再提起創業，都係得啖笑。

看本地大學，大部份學生都想畢業後找家大公司打公，女/男朋友、家人，都會鼓勵打工，絕少鼓勵創業。99年中港大、科大和中大為畢業生設立了http://www.hkitea.org IT創業培育計劃，搞五年，只有寥寥十來間公司參與，也許是審批嚴緊，而大多數計劃書都不及格，才造成這個局面。

這個計劃到2004年已正式結束，要尋找支援，只有找其他機構。

香港政府在特首施政下，曾撥款50億元作為 http://www.itf.gov.hk 創新科技基金，推行創新科技，也撥款興建科學園，推動本港高科技產業。科學園後來和工業科技中心、生物科技研究院等合拼，改名為 http://www.hkstp.org 香港科技園公司，這兩個機構，是IT創業者的重要支持。

（九龍塘達之路Inno Centre)

創新科技基金主要提供資金，科技園則提供設施，例如免租辦公室及其他運作上的支援等，也曾有數間在此培育計劃下的公司成功上市，科技園的支援，重要性其實不比創新科技基金的現金援助為少（還有，創新科技基金，在公司賺錢後，要每月攤還的 - 幸好蝕光則不用還…）

其次就是工業貿易署的幾個資助計劃，不過主要都是貸款或資助開銷，剛起步創業者多數未夠資格申請。

香港管理專業發展中心設有一個「創業發展中心」，其網站包羅了幾乎所有有用的網址連結，有興趣者可參考以下連結：

http://www.hkbsc.org/onestop.htm

（2004年11月01日）

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2006年9月加按：

除了「i」、「e」等字，2006年居然連「3G」都out了。只怪未推出前吹得太大，國內又由2001年說會發放3G牌，到2006年還未批出，現在國內最hot的topic是WiMAX, WiBro和4G了。

港府除了以上所說的支援外，近兩年還推出了「數碼港數碼娛樂培育暨培訓中心」（...好長的名字），提供免租辦工室與其他企業培育服務，如果大家有心開設與「數碼娛樂」有關的公司，可以考慮一下這個計劃，但提醒大家，那個office是在數碼港的....

另外就是從是設計有關的公司，近來亦有支援計劃。位於九龍塘又一城側的Tech Centre，現而改名位Inno Centre，為設計有關的新公司提供免租和培育服務，我更聽過有IT公司轉行做design參與此計劃.... 有興趣的趕快申請吧！

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