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How To Overcome The Biggest Obstacle to Start-Up Success – FEAR

What is keeping you from start-up success? It could be that old dream killer we call fear. Learn how to move past it to get you desire.

How To Overcome The Biggest Obstacle to Start-Up Success – FEAR - Lioness MagazineThere’s no doubt about it, starting a business takes guts.

Sacrificing the stability of a traditional, steady income for the perks of flexibility and freedom – for some it’s not worth the risk.

For others, the rewards are tempting enough to make a start, and yet initial obstacles put a halt to childhood dreams and adulthood callings. And it’s not about lack of funding, rough economic weather, or unbeatable competition. Many of the ambitious women I have spoken with have admitted that they are held back simply by fear.

Fear. An emotion that’s purely in our mind.

I don’t know about you, but I find the idea that we won’t fulfil our potential or experience our life dreams because of how we feel, to be tragic.

If you know that fear is affecting your ability to take action and create the business that you deserve, I really hope that you can take a confidence boost from these tips and find out how to overcome the biggest obstacle to start-up success:

Get clarity

When you’re looking for a confident foundation for your business – whatever the industry or business – there’s no better place to start than to GET CLEAR. Begin by getting clear on what you want from your business. Be imaginative, have fun – think about what you really desire you’re your business and life. This is your start-up. Your baby. If you work smart, and take action, you can design your business to provide you with all that you want.

Think about: who you wish to serve? How much money do you want to make? What do you want to be known for?

When you get clear about WHY you are in business, you gain a sense of direction and certainty that can only help push you forward.

Do your research

startupWhen you’re clear on who you want to serve, get clear on what they want from you. What do they need from your business? What problems do they have that your products and services can solve?

It’s daunting getting out there and speaking to people about what you do at the start, but when you find out what real-life potential customers really want to buy – and how you can design, or purely market, your offerings to suit their needs – you know that you’re not just launching what you do out into the world and hoping that someone will want it. Take the terrifying guess work out!

Embrace the competition

It’s easy to take competition as a signal that you need to give up. I know it feels almost impossible to be original, and maybe it is. But competition can only help to prove that people are willing to spend on what you offer. If Google’s page-after-page of similar service providers is leaving you deflated, work on your mind-set and get ready to embrace them!

In the digital age, I’d be more worried if there wasn’t something similar available to you online.

Get clear on the ways in which you differ from your competition and use these as a confidence boost – these are the ways in which you can stand out in front of your target audience.

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

There’s nothing wrong with feeling the fear. Wherever you are in business there will always be challenges to face. I like the saying, ‘New level, mew devil’.

The best way to give yourself the courage to get things done despite it, is to prepare as much as you can to improve your chances of success. Educate yourself in areas you feel you’re lacking, practise at those tasks that seem most frightening.

Remember that you don’t need to be perfect as you start-out in business. Learn as your business develops and try to avoid the dreaded comparison: your beginning vs someone else’s middle.

Power through

When you’ve done all of the above and you’re still feeling daunted by fear? And it may even be a fear of success. Now is the time to power through.

All the best things in life are worth taking risks on.

Decide to work despite the discomfort, do things outside of your comfort zone, and push on passed the unknown, and you’ll be off to a flying start.

Saskia 1Saskia Gregory is a success coach for ambitious modern mothers. Helping women build beautiful & inspiring online businesses which provide a lifestyle of fulfilment, freedom, and fun. Want to read more from Saskia? Sign-up to receive her latest newsletter here.

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