How often do you wish you overcome your self-doubt and those self-limiting beliefs so you can move forward with your business with confidence?
Quite often I suspect.
This past week alone I have spoken with a number of clients (all women I may add) who have all told me they are doubting their abilities, feeling overwhelmed by the responsibility of running a business on their own and are lacking the confidence to be able to move forward.
Does this sound like you? Overcoming self-doubt is one of the top challenges faced when running your own business.
You start off guns a blazing with a fantastic idea running around in your head and the world is rosy. You are going to be a millionaire by year 3 – and then reality kicks in. Things don’t take off quite as quickly as you had hoped. The hours you have to put into your new venture are far longer than you anticipated. You feel guilty for not spending as much time with your family as you had hoped. So the self-doubt creeps in. Maybe you aren’t cut out for this after all. Maybe your fantastic idea isn’t quite as wonderful as you first thought.
How to overcome self-doubt
Firstly stop what you are doing. Stop right now!
Sit back and instead of thinking about all the things that you haven’t achieved and the things that haven’t worked, write down all the things that you have learnt along the way and how you have grown personally.
Look at all the things you have achieved, no matter how small. Take a blank piece of paper and let all your thought spill out into written words. Get them out of your head where they are swirling around and on to that piece of paper. Then take one thing at a time and work out how you are going to get back on track.
This may be re-evaluating a time frame for getting that event off the ground. It may be changing the way you are marketing your business as what you are doing at the moment is just not working. It may be a realisation that you need external help as you really cannot cover every aspect of the business on your own. Take some time to re-plan and regain your focus. Then put some practices in place on a daily basis to help keep you on track.
Each day, write down 3 things that you are grateful for. This will help you focus on what you do have in your life that is working well and will help you stop focusing on the negative.
Read a chapter of a motivational book each day or listen to an audio. This can be a great way of keeping inspired and finding new ways to keep motivated.
Find a mentor, whether on a professional basis or a friend you can turn to when sometimes all you need is someone to listen and hold your hand. Find someone you trust and respect and who can help reassure you in those times of doubt.
Whatever you are feeling, remember that you are not alone. Self-doubt is a normal process that happens to everyone at every level of success. Take some time out, refocus on the positive, then pick yourself up and move that tiny step forward towards your goal.
If you would like help with your mindset and motivation, access the modules available in The Small Business Kit.
One of the biggest reasons I see from other women when they are trying to build a business is a drop-in motivation and lack of energy and focus purely because they are comparing themselves to others and just don’t seem to be able to reach the dizzying heights of competitors that they seem constantly online.
Well, let me tell you something. Just this week I had an emergency call from the owner of a number of businesses. From the viewpoint of anybody looking in from the outside, this was a hugely successful person. They had a couple of very high-profile businesses. They drove the latest top-of-the-range car. They were constantly away on holiday and being seen at all the best parties.
I met with them to find out what they needed and they showed me their cash flow statement. It takes quite a bit to shock me these days as I’ve seen just about it all but I have to admit on this occasion I was surprised. They certainly had me fooled. I knew the person (or at least thought I did) but the reality behind the facade of this high-flying business person with super successful businesses was that whilst they were turning over just short of £2 million the profits were just £15,000! Yes, really!
I’ve written before about being very careful of believing the outside impression that can be created by others when the reality is a far cry from the truth. This comparisonitis can be a killer.
Many women building their own businesses that I work with feel they are not successful whilst they are showing profits in excess of £15,000. They would never even begin to compare their success with that of the business owners that I meet. But in reality, there are just as successful. What they don’t realise is that the cars, the holidays, the lifestyle etc are all being funded on credit.
Hopefully, I’ve given this particular business owner enough to work with to rectify the situation, but if you sit there at times wishing you could have the flash car when you pull up outside the school in your battered 13-year-old runaround, you wish you could have the holiday of a lifetime sitting on a beach sipping cocktails when all you get to do is take a long weekend on a camping trip, think again. Because you might just be in a better financial situation than that person you so aspire to be.
Stop. Be thankful for what you have and keep building on that. Don’t compare yourself to others unless you have access to both your bank balance and theirs.
This month in my business club, I am working with the ladies on getting into the right mindset for business. But why is this so important.
Well, it’s as simple as this. You can have the best product or service out there, you can know everything there is to know about how to market it to your ideal client, but if you don’t have the right mindset, you just won’t have the confidence to go out there and go after those paying clients.
You may well dabble a little here and there but you will get sporadic results. You will stumble when asked for a discount and may well end up giving one! You may start to lose motivation when you get rejected by someone and you find out they buy elsewhere.
Getting in the right mindset is critical and the very first thing you need to before anything else when building a business in my opinion. Forget reading up and watching more webinars on how to grow sales through Facebook until you truly believe in yourself and your product and are prepared to stand up and shout it out from the rooftops how fabulous you are.
And once you have that cracked, as fired up and enthused as you may be about creating your own business, it will take hard work, commitment and personal investment on your own part along with self-responsibility for making things happen.
There is no point sitting and dreaming about what you are going to do. You have to get off your backside and do it!
Putting it quite simply …
Action takers win
The following tip is from one of the wonderful ladies in my business group. We were talking about how it’s ok doing all your planning and getting motivated, but at some point you are simply going to have to take action.
Karen Thomas from Red Oak Coaching showed us an example of what she uses in her workshops. She held a tealight in her hand and asked everyone to close their eyes and really focus on blowing out the candle. The reality of course was that when everyone opened their eyes, the candle was still lit.
It was only when someone took action and used their breath that the candle was able to be blown out. It’s all very well having plans and dreams but basically until you get off your arse and take some action, nothing is going to materialise.
Harsh but fair.
And Karen has allowed me to share her video with you to watch.
What are you going to take action on today? Leave a comment below and let me know.
Running a small business on your own can be a scary place at times and often we find it necessary to step outside of our comfort zone.
This could be from having to cold call, contacting a difficult client, chasing a bad debt, public speaking or simply putting yourself out there to promote your product or service.
There are many ways to help overcome your fear but here is a top one I was given a long time ago and which works.
Think of someone that you admire and are successful in your industry. Get a picture of them and print it off to keep near your desk or workstation. When you get the jitters, simply look at their picture and ask yourself what they would do in your situation.
Take a deep breath and then take the action that you believe they would take.
Really try to get into the mindset of the person you have chosen if they were dealing with the situation. Think about the following:
What would they be wearing?
What language would they use, and what tone of voice – friendly and fun or assertive and commanding?
Would they be standing or sitting?
Where would they be – at their office or at the client’s premises?
What method of communication would they use – email, telephone, letter or face to face?
What would they have with them or near them– client records, a notepad, a glass of water?
By emulating a successful person that you admire, you can feel a connection with them and know that whatever step you take is going to be one step closer to becoming as good as they are.
Try it out for yourself and see if it helps you overcome your fear. Pop over to the Facebook page and let me know.
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