6 COMMON FEARS OF NEW ENTREPRENEURS AND THE UNDERLYING BELIFS BEHIND THEM

Let’s face it, leaving a 9-5 to pursue your dream of working for yourself and becoming an entrepreneur can be an interesting cocktail of excitement at taking the plunge mixed with just the right amount of terror. As someone who made the decision to do just that after being an employee my whole life, I can relate. You can read more about it here. I also work with clients who are either making the transition to becoming self-employed or are small business owners facing some challenges. I often hear the following expressed as concerns, issues and fears but further examination reveals the limiting beliefs programmed into the subconscious mind.

Here are the six of the most common ones.

1) What they fear: “I don’t have the right experience.”

Underlying belief: “I’m not good enough”.

When starting out there can be the tendency to feel like a fraud in claiming what you do when you don’t have years of experience behind you. It is easy to compare yourself to others with similar offers and feel that you must get another certification or training in order to justify getting paid for something. There is the nagging thought that additional learning is necessary and that people are going to challenge you. You are plagued with the question “who am I to be doing this?

This is probably the most common of all limiting beliefs and it can show up in any area of your life from career to relationships to finances. If a parent was overly critical or you were constantly compared to others, there is a good chance you will never feel “good enough”. You will actually never really have the feeling of “I am now ready” but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have experience, knowledge or wisdom to share with your customers or clients. You have life experience, you have passion and desire otherwise you would not be taking this leap.

Enthusiasm and passion are what magnetizes clients to you, not another certification or training. Many years ago when I worked in marketing and did some product development work in the beauty industry, I was interviewing for a position to be in charge of product development for the brand. I was meeting with the General Manager and wanted to be prepared for what I might be asked, so I called a friend of mine who had been in the industry for a number of years and held high level executive positions to ask her what kind of questions I might be asked. Her response?

Just pretend you know what you are talking about. I don’t think she realized at the time just how powerful those words were to me but I did just that. I spoke with conviction and excitement and I got the job. Passion trumps experience every time.

2) What they fear: “So many people do what I do, why would someone hire me?”

Underlying belief: “I don’t feel worthy charging for what I do”.

The feeling is that what you are offering is not unique enough to get attention in the market and to have people notice you. If you are in a service business it is very easy to get caught up in the comparison game and feel like everyone else has done it before or is doing it better.

The truth is nobody is doing it like you because nobody has had your life experience and your personality. When you embrace the fact that you are different and you bring your own special perspective, you will resonate with those that are perfect clients for you. Not feeling worthy of something that you desire can stagnate the flow of business to you since you energetically are pushing people away. Transforming this belief will have a huge impact on your business and how people respond to you.

3) What they fear: “What if nobody buys my service/product?”

Underlying belief: “I don’t feel confident in the value of my work”.

If there is a need for what you are offering, there are those people who will be looking for and interested in your product or service. If there is the need for external validation that your product is valuable, you are not fully aligned with what you are offering. There is a universal law called the Law of Polarity, which states that everything that exists has an equal and exact opposite. Put another way: for something to exist, there has to be an equal and exact opposite, such as light and dark, night and day, good and bad, etc. How this applies to business is that there is a need (and a customer) for every idea that has been created.

The most important thing in putting your offering out into the world is that you are aligned with it, meaning your intention is in the right place, you are confident in your service or product and YOU see the value of your work. It will act as a beacon to draw the perfect customers to you from the energetic alignment of what you are sending out.

4) What they fear: “People will think I am irresponsible or crazy for leaving a stable job”

Underlying belief: “Playing it safe is more important than doing what I love. I doubt my ability to do this so I believe others doubt me as well”.

To make the decision to leave a full time job takes courage as it always involves a bit of risk. Even if one is financially prepared, there is no guarantee of success and you will be “tested” on how badly you really want this. Self-employment (or entrepreneurship) is not easy. There are many things that are taken for granted when you are employed that you don’t realize till you are out on your own. There are resources available to you, co-workers to commiserate with and bosses giving you deadlines. With this no longer part of your daily experience, it can be challenging being both the boss and the employee and resisting the temptation to play hooky when not feeling inspired. It’s way too easy to “do it tomorrow” only to find that tomorrow never came. On the other hand, when you make the decision to follow your soul’s calling a magical thing happens when you give it the time and energy it deserves. There will come a tipping point where there is no turning back to the old way of being. You will do whatever it takes to make it happen and in the process the gain confidence that you probably haven’t experienced before.

5) What they fear: “What if I run out of money and can’t get back in the job market?”

Underlying belief: “Money is hard to come by without a J.O.B.”.

There may come a point when doubt shows up if the money doesn’t come rolling in immediately. So what we do is go to the worst-case scenario in our minds where we run out of money and have no choice but to have to go out and get a job. Then we start going further down the rabbit hole of how we won’t get hired again since we left the job market to do our own thing. Nobody wants to hire someone who really would rather be doing his or her own thing but couldn’t make it work. What’s really going on here is that you are doubting your ability to create the business and life that you desire and naturally your self-preserving ego wants to keep you from ruin, so it brings up all the terror filled thoughts of moving back in with your parents and eating only canned soup. When you have the confidence to create what you want and have the beliefs to back it up, any action you take going forward will bring you closer to what you desire.

6) What they fear: What if I can’t maintain my success?

Underlying belief: “I don’t believe I have what it takes to be successful.”

One of the main differences between working for yourself and being an employee is that the bi-weekly paycheck goes away. There is not a guaranteed monthly income. It fluctuates, especially in the beginning as you are getting established, so it is common to have feelings that it will be difficult to maintain the momentum once you have some. You can start to attract sales and customers but the most important thing is to believe you can have the success you want even before the results show you proof. There are characteristics of what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur and you may think you are not cut out for it, only because you have never done it before. The power of enthusiasm and passion cannot be underestimated here. If you want it badly enough and are willing to do whatever it takes, you have the blueprint for success. You just need to overwrite the belief which you picked up along the journey of your childhood which told you don’t even try to be successful because you don’t have what it takes. It’s a story you’ve been silently telling yourself and now it’s time to rewrite the ending. You have what it takes, go for it!