How To Get Over The Fear Of Starting A Business
Starting a business of your own is drastically different from working for someone else’s business. It can be comforting to have the stability of working for someone else; you know what to expect, when you’ll get paid, and you don’t have to handle the taxes or legal hurdles that a business owner would have to deal with. However, you miss out on a lot of perks when you don’t take the plunge to strike out on your own and run a business firsthand.
Working for yourself and starting your own business can certainly be an intimidating task, and if you’re anything like me, you didn’t know left from right, up from down, or blue from green when it came to starting a business. It felt like learning a new language. Building a business from scratch has its challenges but once you get started, the pros far outweigh the cons.
When you work for yourself and run your own business, you get creative freedom over every aspect of your job, you get to set your own hours and take time off whenever you need it (arguably, you’ll be the best boss you ever have), and once you’re established you get to brag a little bit about being a “business owner”, which just sounds so cool.
I didn’t know much when deciding to quit my stable, long-term career in education to start my own business, but now that I’ve been doing my own thing for awhile, I can’t see any other way of life.
There were a few things that I reminded myself of regularly while I was in the business-building-blocks phase that helped me overcome any fear I had of starting my own business and I hope if you’re considering branching out into your own business, these tips will help you conquer that fear as well.
Believe in Yourself
When venturing into uncharted territory and starting your own business, there will probably be at least a handful of people trying to discourage you or talk you out of taking that route. Hopefully, those discouraging words are coming from a place of love as your friends and family just don’t want to see you put in all that work only for it to not be successful.
There is a considerable amount of safety that comes with working for other people, but a little risk makes life exciting.
You may need to be your biggest fan when you’re starting out on this journey. After all, if you don’t believe in yourself, how do you expect anyone else to believe in you or invest in your business? Remind yourself that you CAN do this. Something that I always told myself in the first few months of building my business, especially when I felt stressed out and overwhelmed was, “A lot of people are business owners. A lot of people start from scratch and if they can do it, I can do it.”
Hype yourself up and get ready for the success stories to roll in, because you WILL make it!
Believing in yourself and adapting a “fake it till you make it” attitude will at least get you through the business-building process and hopefully carry you through your first few sales or clients. As you gain experience and knowledge as a business owner, that mindset will stick and transform into an “I’m making it because I made it” attitude.
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Plan Ahead
Building a business and making the decision to work for yourself shouldn’t be a decision you make overnight. It also shouldn’t lead to impulsively quitting your job the day after because you’re so excited about the ideas you have and the potential of your business. Take it slow and take the time to set yourself and your business up for success.
A few ways to do this is by preparing a solid business plan with all of the proper documentation and supplies you’ll need to run your business the right way. Learn what you need to learn, jump through all the hoops, and build things up to a point where you’re ready to launch them into the world. Once you have all your business ducks in a row, make sure your personal life is in order too.
Have a safety net saved up to help you get by while getting your business off the ground. Having a few months of bills saved up will also give you some grace if things don’t go as smoothly as you hoped; you won’t be at a complete loss then!
Let Go of Perfection
Sometimes it takes a few tries to get things right and you’ll learn through trial and error what works for your business and what doesn’t. Running a business is a constant learning process and if every business owner, designer, writer, or artist waited till they were 100% satisfied with their work, nothing would probably ever hit the shelves.
There’s something to be said about producing high-quality work that consumers will appreciate but there’s also something about creative-minded people being perfectionists and needing to let go of the outcome of their projects.
There’s always going to be one more edit you could make, one more element to add to a design, or one more display rearrangement that would make things just right; but sometimes you just have to let it be.
Coming to terms with the fact that not everything you do will be the best thing you’ve ever done will take some of the pressure off. It will also help you learn to respect and expect any backlash you get on your business. Inevitably, if you’re on the internet anywhere, even if your business is fantastic, some snide comments may sneak through the seams.
Bottom line: It’s okay to not be perfect, even as a business owner.
If starting a business is something you want to do, maybe it’s a lifelong dream or something new you’re dipping your toes in, it should be something you pursue if you’re passionate about it. Living a life full of your passions is a surefire way to a happy, healthy, fulfilling life. Plus, life is too short anyway; start the business!
Related:
How a freelancer business coach can help jumpstart your business
Alternatives To Quitting Your Job in the Post-Pandemic Great Resignation
Meet The Writer!
Allow me to introduce myself! My name’s Katy Duncan and I work as a freelance copywriter. I specialize in topics regarding health and wellness, fitness, and beauty, on my website, www.eudaimoniaeutopia.com. I offer an array of services including blog posts, blog management, social media management, product descriptions, press releases and editing expertise and I can be contacted through my website or on LinkedIn. When I’m not creating engaging, captivating content for my website or clients or contributing to communities of writers, I’m working on producing a fiction novel from the comforts of my quiet nook in the Pacific Northwest, where I reside with my feline friend, Merlin Magoo and many prospering house plants.
