How are you?
We’ve been through (and are still going through) a bit of an ordeal. There has never been such an opportunity to really examine our lives and decide what is most important to us going forward.
Are you happy to return to life roughly as it was before, or have our recent experiences made you think about a change, especially in the way that you work?
You may have been forced into a different work situation, lost your job, and would love to consider running your own thing.
6 reasons that stop you from being your own boss:
1. Fear
2. Lack of confidence
3. Lack of financial security
4. Competition (someone else already does it, and likely better than I could)
5. Lack of business know-how
6. Change of personal identity (fear of success)
And here’s how you might overcome them:
Overcoming Fear
Everyone feels fear when they decide on a life change, will you let fear define you, keep you small and safe, or are you willing to live with an element of fear while you step up and say yes?
Standing up and saying out loud – buy this thing from me is daunting and scary and feels too difficult.
You just have to take a leap of faith.
Try something smaller at first. Think up something you feel a bit scared of doing or trying and do it. Notice what happens afterwards. How bad was it really? Do you now feel a sense of achievement? Even if it didn’t achieve what you hoped, you faced a fear and stepped up?
Building Confidence
The only way we can ever build our confidence is to stretch our comfort zone. If what you are doing now is not serving you, then you need to change the routine, try something new or different and get a little uncomfortable.
A test I use is TV. I may have been super-busy for a period, really stretching and growing and I need a bit of downtime. I’ll allow a bit of trash TV, late afternoon quizzes, etc, and will switch on to watch around 4/5 pm. At first, it’s a bit of a treat, to chill and take my foot off the pedal. Then I notice I start to get bored and twitchy.
That’s when I know it’s time to step up again and get creative or do something more productive or I will start to lose confidence. If tackling this alone feels too hard, check out my building confidence programme.
Financial Security
Do you have financial security with your job? Is your job safe?
Have you considered that you might be able to do both – keep your job and build a small business on the side?
Can you ask for reduced hours at work, a part-time contract so that you can have some financial security while you build your business?
Sometimes we have to believe that anything is possible to free us enough to get creative and dare to explore our business ideas.
Putting a huge financial strain on your new business is always going to affect how you perform. Try and get creative with your finances and think about possible ways to support your new venture (taking in a lodger, creating and space to let in your home via AirB&B, a part-time job on the side).
Competition
How many independent coffee shops do you have near you?
They didn’t let the fear of competition stop them from getting started, they understood that there was a market for what they had to offer and jumped on the bandwagon.
You choose to support the ones you like the best, your friend you meet in the coffee shop may have a different favourite to you, so you meet there sometimes too. People choose to buy from you because of the same reasons you choose to buy from others. There is something about what they have to offer that appeals to you, the ambiance, the vibe.
Once you build a following, you build a reputation through offering the best possible customer experiences and you gain word-of-mouth recommendations. In other words, people buy YOU and there is no one else out there that does you.
Lack of Business Know-How
Say you’ve been in nursing or teaching all your life and you tell yourself that you don’t know the first thing about business, so you’ve dismissed running your own.
Hello! Your life experiences are totally transferable. The juggling, management, caring, and creativity are all fabulous assets for a business.
It’s the fear of what we don’t know that can make something feel insurmountable. This does not have to be true. It’s just a story we tell ourselves (and why you might invest in training to learn the bits you don’t know and fill in the gaps).
Fear of Success
I did a poll not that long ago asking people if fear of failure or a fear of success would be the biggest factor for them. Fear of success came out as the more scary option.
Do we find that surprising? Think about yourself and your role in your family/society.
Everyone you know has put you in a pigeon-hole of some sort. It may be related to the work you do, your position in the family, etc. If you suddenly say you are going to do this or train to become that – those close to you can struggle. They may experience fear of losing you, you changing, not having time for them perhaps.
You do this too. We have our version of ourselves and believe we need to stay that way to fit in with what we know, what others expect from us.
Are you willing and able to be successful? Do you deserve to turn your new business idea into something credible and enjoyable?
What about the service or products you offer? Do your customers deserve to interact with a business that is going places and future-proof to look after their needs.
Help Yourself
As you can see most of the fears/worries we will encounter require us to shift our mindset and dare to try what might be possible.
We only have this one life, you decide.
Procrastination, overwhelm and fear will come along for the ride. I run a free Creating Magic Challenge where we can explore what might be possible. Pop over to Facebook and find out more.
These might help – what business is right for you, 5 business ideas to start tomorrow.