Does fear hold you back? If it does, you may be wondering how you can still achieve success. Do you tend to stay within your comfort zone, meaning you avoid taking those important first steps?
One of the main things holding us back from starting an online business is the fear of failing.
But What Is Fear?
Fear is an emotional response that can be aroused by imagined or real impending danger, pain, evil, etc. But even if it’s imagined, fear still makes you feel afraid. These feelings can hold you back from achieving your dreams in life as well as business.
We started online in 2011 and we have had many perceived failures along the way. But we try not to take this as a negative. If anything, it gives us the impetus and push to keep going. Had we let fear hold us back, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
So what are the most common fears when starting a new business?
Upfront Costs
In any business start-up there will always be a financial outlay of some sort. One thing we have learned over the years is this: if it’s free to sign up and quickly earn thousands, then it’s definitely too good to be true!
You will find a lot of free-to-join companies are MLM’s (multi level marketing). These are typically given a bad name, mostly due to false advertising by their reps. This is one of our pet hates.
Any business you set up will take time, money and hard work. Nothing in this world is free (although there are exceptions, see*). Being an entrepreneur is about taking risks, but it’s also about knowing that if you fail it won’t severely impact your financial security. This is why you need to always act with due diligence.
Not Knowing Where To Start (aka the Fear of Starting)
The best advice we can give is to look for like-minded people who have been successful in your area of work. Study and research them, perhaps even reach out to them to see if they can offer you any advice. They may not reply, but trust that if they have been successful then so can you. You need to remember everyone starts where you are now, and that nothing is achieved overnight.
Not Knowing Your Product Or Being An Expert (Lack of Knowledge Fear)
If you’re selling a niche product, an MLM product for example, you need to know your product and also use it. And most importantly you must love what you are selling. Nikki dabbles in essential oils, which is one of her passions. If someone approaches her and asks if she knows anything that would help back pain, she knows exactly what to recommend. She would chat to them, take notes of the person’s issues, and then match an oil to help with their condition. It’s very important to know where you can find the answers within your business to help your customers.
The Fear Of Not Attracting Customers
This is a fear that everyone has, and it’s exactly why learning about your market is so important. You need to get out of your head that as soon as you launch, everyone will buy from you and trust you – this is simply not the case.
You need to approach your business with honesty. Trust needs to be earned from your target market. Talk about your products and be consistent in your business – this is the only way to earn trust that trust. Start shouting about how you’re living the rich life and making money while you sleep and you will not attract customers.
Be open, be transparent and be truthful. And if you are lucky enough to be making money in your sleep, then you can show them how they can be just like you!
If Things Go Wrong
We touched on this earlier – you can’t expect any business start-up to go smoothly. You’ll have hiccups and problems along the way but the most important thing is, do not give up.
Failure brings success! The only way to progress in life is to learn from our failures, move on, and most importantly, do not let fear hold you back.
Check out the book, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers – the audible version is FREE at time of writing.
*Our ‘free stuff‘ page is slightly different, as you’ll see. 😊😉
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