Take everything you think you know about starting a business and throw it away: these all-too-common misconceptions about what it’s like to start your own business could actually be your undoing! writes Alan Manly. Declaring yourself an entrepreneur will naturally attract comment. Some say it’s a yearning for financial wealth that is your driving force.

Others suggest it’s not the money but the recognition you really crave. Then there’s the belief in a need for power (expressed in polite company as a desire to be free from the wage-slave concept). Regardless of your motivation to venture into business for yourself, beware these common myths that can and do mislead the unwary!