Last year a mom jumped out of a moving vehicle because she a saw a spider! But it gets worse. Her 9 year old son was still in the car. So he did what any 9 year old would do. He jumped into the front seat and tried to press the brake, and like any 9 year old, he hit the gas instead. Hitting a school bus. Seriously. I’m not making this up. Fear controlled her life. The big question: Is entrepreneurial fear costing you money? Let me share how you can overcome entrepreneurial fear.
Don’t Deny That You Have Entrepreneurial Fear
The fact is we all have fears. Don’t deny it; embrace it. Once you get clear about how the fear is stopping you, you can address it.
- Success-Are you afraid of being successful or are you afraid of the work that being successful will require of you? It’s usually the latter. People aren’t afraid of success. Who’s afraid of financial freedom? Who’s afraid of quantity and quality family time? Who’s afraid of making their own schedule? No, people aren’t afraid of success, they’re afraid of work!
- Hiring- Successful businesses aren’t built alone, however, hiring employees or building a team is one of the major fears of entrepreneurs. The secret is to start building your team with virtual assistants. I think one of the biggest fears is hiring the wrong person. By starting with a virtual assistant you are not committed to a long term agreement. You can “try it” before you “buy it”.
- Spending Money- It’s true that it takes money to make money. Whether it is spending money on building your team, purchasing necessary technology, or hiring your first coach, there are many fears about money that stop businesses from growing. You have to learn to look at the return on investment; the team member gives you more time to focus on income producing activities, the coach helps you to build your business quicker. Also my experience has been that as I’ve spent more money, I’ve also made more money.
Did you see one of your fears in that list? Now here’s what I want you to do about it…
Suck it up
Every entrepreneur has fears, but the successful ones aren’t letting those fears control their business. For example, people would rather face death than stand in front of their peers and speak, and I used to be one of them. The first time I spoke as a business coach, I was so nervous, but guess what? I sucked it up and I made $2000 that day. I can tell you money was a very powerful confidence booster! Making money will pull you out of the trenches of fear in a heartbeat. Yes, you’re afraid and sometimes you just have to suck it up.
Just Do It
The number one excuse entrepreneurs give me for why they can’t (fill in the blank) is, “I’m just not ready”. I don’t care if it’s their website, blog, speaking, or writing a book; the response is always the same “I don’t think I’m ready”. How do you get ready? You take small steps.
Sometimes just taking the smallest step will help get you going enough that you overcome the fear. For example, you know you should be blogging and maybe you aren’t because you don’t know what you would write about. Start by doing a 3 minute brain dump. Set an alarm and for 3 minutes write down every statement that pops in your brain about your topic. At the end of that 3 minutes you will have a list of plenty of topics for blog posts. That one action will get you closer to blogging. What would the next step be? Pick one topic and write 500 words about it.
Put these tips into practice, face your fears, and avoid the embarrassing, counter-productive results that come from making decisions out of fear. In my book Take The Risks or Get A Job I share more on the topic of fear and the other two problems that are stopping entrepreneurs from having the business they desire. Click here to find out more about Take The Risks or Get A Job.
