7 Ways to Overcome Your Fear of Business Failure
You’ve made a courageous decision to start a business but you are still afraid. Fear is a powerful emotion that stops, paralyzes, and even kills businesses along with their visions and dreams.
Whether the fear is real or imagined, not all fears are valid. Fearing to walk down a dark alley at midnight is certainly a valid fear and should not be taken lightly. Fearing to give a speech in front of a small class even though you are fully prepared, is not necessarily valid.
There are many that fear failure because of past experiences or because they feel that they just don’t measure up. These feelings can easily spill over into your business.
In the following are 7 ways to beat fear so that you can successfully move your business forward.
1. Know what you’re getting into: Most fears are based on the unknown but if you understand what you are embarking upon, then your fear will lessen. Research the pros and cons of your business endeavor and then make a list of each. Also research solutions for potential problems that may arise so that you’re not taken by surprise. There’s no such thing as a trouble free business but your preparedness will make things a lot easier.
2. Don’t reinvent the wheel: Follow the patterns of other successful entrepreneurs in your arena. If a healthy diet is part of their success regimen, then implement a healthy diet. If getting up at 4am is part of their success regimen, then implement getting up at 4am. Follow their patterns and what they did to get to where they are. If they did it, then so can you.
3. Face it: What is the worst thing that could happen? What do we have to fear except for fear itself? What do you have to lose? Money? Pride? If you have answered any of those questions, prepare a detailed plan B in case of unexpected events. This will cause you to feel more confident about what you are doing. Also, set up or revamp your business to limit the extent of your personal liability.
4. Believe in Something Bigger Than Yourself: Believe that something or someone bigger is leading you and helping you to succeed. Find the core of your spirituality and rest in it. Call on the creator for guidance and the way will be shown to you. Change your focus from fear to faith by realizing that you don’t have to do this alone.
5. Vision Board Your Success: Alter your current feelings of fear and failure with a vision of success. Create a poster board of success photos. What are your desires as an entrepreneur? Post pictures of desired clients, desired revenue, desired appointments, desired locality, etc. After your board is finished, meditate on these desires at least 15 minutes a day. This practice will cause your fear to be replaced with faith.
6. Keep Things in Order: Make sure your business is organized. Do you have insurances in place, maintenance on deck, emergency paperwork in tact, a financial cushion, a trusted chain of command, etc.? Not having things in order will certainly keep you up at night and cause you to be fearful.
7. Eliminate Procrastination: Putting tasks off until later will cause feelings of fear to get out of control. Often, people procrastinate because they are afraid of the discomfort that the task at hand may cause. They hope the matter will go away or take care of itself if they just wait a bit longer. Fear says “Turn away, don’t do it.” Faith says “Go ahead. Take care of it. It will be alright.”
Remember, you are a powerful being with the ability to manage your fears and your emotions. In spite of how you may feel, your success is in your consistency to move forward.
Cheryl Lynn Smith
IMpowerment & INcrease INnovator