Finding the Courage to Start Your Business
Happy Tuesday Entrepreneurs!!! I’ve been so busy these past few months being a first time mother and trying to juggle…life. Now that my son is 6 months old, I’ve slowly been able to get back into my business as well as create a schedule that works for my little family and my business. How exciting right?
I spent the last few weeks encouraging a fellow creative to make the leap into entrepreneurship. Her work was so good and she was soo underpaid at her job that I was sure that she would jump at the thought of working for herself. Alas, I was wrong and reminded about how fear can keep us STUCK and prevent us from GREATNESS.
No one can deny how daunting the leap into entrepreneurship can be, especially when questioning whether you can actually make a living from your passion. As someone who made the leap herself a year ago, here are a few tips that will hopefully give you a little courage and clarity:
1. Believe in yourself and know what you are good at.
Is your product/service something that you love and are passionate about? Is it something that you are skilled at? Will people be willing to pay you for it?
To start your own business, you must have confidence in your ability to succeed. I can’t imagine anyone being motivated to spend their time and invest their money in something that they didn’t believe in. Allow that belief to light a fire in you and give you courage to start your own business. In turn, don’t expect anyone to pay you for a service or product that you have no confidence in.
2. Prepare yourself.
Create a strategy for how you will run your business. What happens when you get your first client/customer? How do you handle unhappy clients? These questions aren’t so scary when you are already prepared to handle each situation. It takes work to run a business. There are so many areas that have to be covered: accounting, social media, marketing, and so on. Chances are that you won’t initially be able to outsource all these areas so you may spend a good bit of your time focusing on each area.
3. Set some goals.
I find that writing down your goals can give you something measurable to work towards. Setting realistic goals and the steps to be taken to achieve those goals will push you to take action. Also put a deadline to your goals.
4. Get moving.
Put your plan into action. It doesn’t matter how perfect your plan is, if you aren’t making smart steps towards the end goal then your plan will not work. Confidence comes with action. It is so easy to give up on your business before you even start it.
Some individuals are successful right out the door. Others require more work and less sleep. Don’t be discouraged! Make adjustments as needed and keep going.
5. Saturate your life with encouragement.
Surround yourself with individuals that you can provide encouragement to and in turn you can also go to them for motivation and encouragement. When we encourage others, we give them the ability to do something that may scare the crap out of them. Likewise, when someone encourages us, they give us the ability to do something we may find terrifying. Further, we are encouraged to do great things. Spending time with people that believe in you can do wonders for your mindset.
In conclusion, starting your own business takes courage and can be one of the most rewarding activities you ever accomplish. There are risks and challenges involved, but isn’t that with everything in life? The most important thing to remember is to believe in yourself, prepare, set goals, get moving, surround yourself with encouragement then take that leap into entrepreneurship.