This article is a featured guest post from Louren of Powepinoys.com. I have come to know Louren’s work and realised that we share a lot of things in common; one of which is to share to our readers the value of starting a business! Today, he is going to share the 5 Common Fears you Need to Conquer in Starting a Business. Read on and enjoy!
It has been a common topic of conversation for people in the corporate world to talk about what business are they going to put up for their retirement. Many people get excited when they talk about these things especially the idea of having a money that works for you. Exciting as it may seem, still, not all people are exerting efforts to actually put their business ideas to life. Why? That’s what we’ll be talking about in this post.
5 Common Fears you need to Conquer in Starting a Business
One of the major reasons that holds people back to start running their own businesses is the Fear. In this article, we’ll talk about the fears people have and the things we can do in order to overcome them.
A lot of people perceive fear as something bad or negative, well, not really. Fear is a natural thing not just in us humans but in animals as well. It is a way to protect ourselves from dangers. Without fear, we will do dangerous things without any caution at all. So basically, fear, in its nature is good. In starting a business, there are fears that you are going to encounter but you need to overcome these fears in order to progress.
1. Fear of taking risks. In many business, there is always risk involved. Whatever business you are in, whether it be as simple as selling ice candy or franchising, joining network marketing, or any other investment schemes, there’s always risk involved.
You might ask “So what can I do now”?
Since we cannot really eliminate the risk involved in any business, what we can do is to manage the risk. There are actions you can take in order to minimize the risk in your business. You can do some research and feasibility studies then create your short-term and long-term plans. Don’t just dive into things you don’t even know how to handle. There’s a big chance of failing in the business if you’re not able to create any plans. Just like what many other successful people say, failing to plan is planning to fail.
Another good thing you can do to lessen the risk is to do partnerships with other people or search for investors who are willing to fund your business. You can also protect your business from unexpected accidents, loss, or damages by applying for an insurance program.
2. Fear of not being good enough.A lot of people oftentimes don’t take actions because they think they’re not good enough yet. A lot of them wanted to have the perfect plan, perfect tools, perfect people, and perfect everything before they will actually dive into the real thing. To tell you honestly, it doesn’t work that way. There are a lot of people who wanted to start their businesses get stuck in that kind of mindset. Most of them end up doing nothing so beware.
You don’t need to strive for perfection, aim for improvement! You might start with little knowledge at first but as you keep on running your business, your skills get better, your strategies get finer and you’ll learn many things along the way. Again, don’t waste your time perfecting your plans.
Just create a plan you can execute immediately and from there, you’ll be able to develop the skills you need in running the business. Just test fast, fail fast, adjust fast.
3. Fear of failing in the business.I hate how this fear has been planted in people’s minds because I strongly believe it’s so wrong to fear failure. Many people think that when you fail, it’s the end of the story, you’re a loser, and you can’t do anything about it. Wrong, wrong, WRONG!
“I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 things that do not work.” – Thomas Edison
Repeat reading this and put this into your mind: Through failures, we learn. Failure is a vital part in the process of achieving our goals. Failure should not be feared, it should be understood. You need to understand why you fail and find resolutions for your next attempt. Failure is needed for continuous progress and without it, we cannot enjoy the best of the technologies we’re enjoying right now.
You gotta love failure. Period.
4. Not knowing where to start. People get scared because they do not know where to start. This shouldn’t be a big problem. You need to take care to not just simply imitate somebody else’s business who’s already out there and get lost along the way. If you’re just starting out on your business, focus on your strengths. List down the things you’re good at and assess which one can become your business.
You can also search and list down the businesses that you think you’ll be able to love for long term and do some elimination process. Once you’ve picked one, from there, start doing your research and planning then execute.
5. Fear of being different and being rejected. One of the things people fear about is getting rejected by their friends and even their families. Since most of the people are accustomed to go to school and do employment, the idea of running a business seemed to be disregarded.
One of the greatest hindrances in pursuing your business are your parents. They cannot easily grasp the ideas and opportunities businesses can give compared to staying in corporate world. My sister and I took the courage to not listen to our parents to pursue what we want. Our parents want us to stay in the companies because what they want is “stable income”. Good thing, just less than a year, we’re able to earn more than what we had from our previous jobs.
So that’s it. I hope through this article, I’m able to help you conquering your fears in starting your business. If you find this helpful, share it to your friends, co-workers, and loved ones!
About the author:
Louren is the founder and the publisher of PowerPinoys where he writes about finance, entrepreneurship, business, and other topics related. He is a web developer who focuses on real estate and e-commerce websites.