scared to start

[lookingahead]

Does anybody ever have the feeling of being scared to start the process of entrepreneurship.

I have an idea for my business, but I'm scared to actually start the whole process. Part of it is cause I don't know enough yet about running a business, anybody else get nervous about starting?

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Fear is a part of the process. The only way to know how to run a business, is to start one. You learn to walk by first starting to fall. You learn to hit a ball by first striking out. Fear, and failure, is a part of the game.

 

[TMac]

the only way to possibly succeed is to take a chance. There are no guarantees but if you have passion you will find a way to make it happen. I am currently sitting in a hospital room with my husband. He had a double lung transplant 3 months ago and has had some complications but is moving forward. I know in a few months this will be in the past and all the pain and hard work will be worth it. He is passionate about his life, family, and future. He will do anything to make it. This is how you must feel about your idea or business.
We also have a business we started in 2004. It has been a tough road the past few years but I refuse to give up. Instead I am changing our course and revamping our strategy. I have wanted to do this for a few years but it has become a necessity now because the economy. My path has now forced me to follow my passion, my original idea.

As MJ said Just do it. You will make mistakes but what is great about mistakes and failure is you learn what
doesn't work.

 

[Rickson9]

Does anybody ever have the feeling of being scared to start the process of entrepreneurship.

I have an idea for my business, but I'm scared to actually start the whole process. Part of it is cause I don't know enough yet about running a business, anybody else get nervous about starting?

It is possible that entrepreneurship does not suit your personality.

Best regards.

 

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[IceCreamKid]

Fear is something that Felix Dennis spends a lot of time discussing in his book. It is all part of the process. Yes, he admits that even billionaires like himself have fear. You just have to accept that fear is a natural feeling, but make sure that it isn't the type of fear that paralyzes you into inaction.

One issue that I had many years ago was the habit of spending forever trying to learn everything about a certain industry before taking any action. Weeks of research turned into months which eventually turned into 2 years. After just 1 month of taking action, I learned more than I had in the prior 2 years. My mindset has changed since then and now I feel horrible if I don't take quick action.

 

[Anon3587x]

No matter how great that first idea is, do not expect to hit a homerun lol


But keep chugging along and you will figure it out eventually.

Each second wasted being afraid, is a second not used moving forward

 

[tmetz168]

Everybody has the same type of fear when starting...
Fear of failure and etc... there so many what if ... I fail, I was laughed at, I don't do well...
Why dont we change it with What if I succeed? Think of all the good things you could have or the freedom you could enjoy.. I am sure that the fear will diminished.

 

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[lookingahead]

Wow, thanks guys. Such motivational words, but let me get this straight. I'll learn more from striking out then sitting here and watching others strike out or hit home-runs?

 

[ChrisRempel]

The fear is always there. It just shapeshifts as you become more experienced, even after knocking a few projects out of the park.

Half of "success" is a mental game anyway. The idea isn't to become superman and be 100% confident all the time.

The idea is to ACT in spite of __________ (insert obstacle here, eg. fear).

Regarding failure - here's something to consider...

The best hockey player in the world, Wayne Gretzky, was at the height of his career from '85-86, where in one season he racked up 215 points, and scored 52 goals.

Guess how many shots he took to score 52 times?

350 shots.

The "great one" has a failure rate of about 85%, and obviously, it wasn't a matter of lacking skill. Gretzky was incredibly skilled.

It was simply the nature of the game. If you can expect a 15% success rate, you sure as hell better keep on shooting.

This is similar to business.

You learn very soon that fortune favors the SWIFT, sometimes more-so than the brave.

Execute fast and see what happens. Either run with momentum and make the most of a winner, or recognize a failed TEST, adapt and take another shot.

Stop thinking of "failure" as some big personal deficiency. It's just a market indicator. Thus, treat your new business ventures as inexpensive market tests.

Just like fishing, keep switching up the bait until the fish start biting. Then buy shitloads of that bait and pull in as many fish as you can. Don't be like the guy who complains all day but doesn't do anything differently, or adapt. THAT is failure.

Everything else is just a result.

-Chris

 

[Paul Gallo]

ACTION beats INACTION every time....

think of it like this :
If i tell you what sugar tastes like, the molecular structure, what to use it for... etc,
you have the idea-
If you actually taste sugar then you know....
big difference...
striking out in business = tasting the sugar
watching from the sidelines = ideas and no experience

Hope that helps

 

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[Flatlander]

Wow, thanks guys. Such motivational words, but let me get this straight. I'll learn more from striking out then sitting here and watching others strike out or hit home-runs?

Yes. That is how you learn. And who is to say that you'll strike out? Just about anything can make money if you keep at it, hell, we live in a world where guys get rich selling stuff like pet rocks and Flowbees.

 

[rocksolid]

You will learn as you move forward. It's like baseball. I rather get up and bat and stike out swinging then to have even got up at bat. You have to try and you better do it before somebody else does your idea. Don't look at the big picture and let it overwhelm you. Just start at the beggining and go forward from there. Mistakes will be made and that is ok. When I started my venture it was a totally different idea then what I ended up so make sure to have flexablity with your project.

 

[Rem]

I remember looking at the statistics of my soccer team back when I was younger and played a lot. Those who scored the most goals were those who shot and missed the most. We used to have our manager record every time someone shot at the goal. Those who scored the highest in the game were those who tried over and over and over and over again.

Then we went back and realized that the team who had won was always the team that shot at the goal the most. So we learned how to win. By the 2nd half of the season we were winning games simply because we knew we had to fail more times. We all had to shoot at the goal more often. It is those who try to find that perfect moment to take a shot. Those are rare. No matter how awkward you felt, when you got near the goal you fired off a shot. Over time, with those methods, you scored the most.

Business is similar. Awkward or fearful, you shoot anyway. You miss or don't succeed in what you just tried to do, you go back and do it again. So many people fail, because they have 1 or 2 bad experiences and then change their attitude, that "well I guess making money isn't for me, I have such bad luck."

It is those who are persistent and understand that you don't have to change your goal, sometimes just your perspective or your angle of the shot, or you have to kick it harder and lower. Your goal is always the same, you just keep learning how to tweak your tactics until eventually one of your shots goes in. Then the next time you can pull the same move to get by your defense and score another one. You begin to develop skill and experience and you can get more shots off.

Good luck!!!

 

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[lookingahead]

Thank-you, everybody. I plan on taking that dive into my first business. My goal for now, have it started by the summer. That'll give me time to design the web page, get the product, get the money and all.

Thank-you everybody for your amazing words of wisdom.

 

[seomatic]

Thanks ram for the great post.

I'm currently scared to sell but I'm working on it.

 

[MCD]

The only scaring part of owning a business is starting it up for me anyway. Once you have spent your money you really don't feel scared anymore. Just take that initial leap and you realize that your fears were over exaggerated.

When starting off it is probably in your best interest to keep your job as an extra layer of protection, just in case your business fails. Sure you'd lose you capital if your business doesn't work out but you would be able to fall back on your job instead of being unemployed. Since being broke and unemployed is always worse than being broke broke with a job.

If you think you lack business skills you're probably right, but this can be fixed easily. I would recommend you take some courses and read some books in the following fields...
1. Accounting - A business with the IRS after them isn't going to last long
2. Marketing - People need to know about your business in order to have costumers
3. Business Niche - Learning more about the business you're starting will help immensely
4. Management - Many businesses have employees, with out being a good manager employees will disrespect you and put in subpar effort
5. Sales - Mandatory for business success, a master of all other business skills won't be successful with out a good knowledge of sales
6. Confidence / Commitment - I believe most businesses fail do to lack of confidence or commitment. If you aren't confident in your business, no one will be confident in it. And commit to your business, it will FAIL no matter what. You need to work hard in the beginning knowing that you won't make as much money as you would like, but if you keep at it the chance of success increases.

In my experience (not a whole lot) having a business fail didn't bother me. By the time I decided to call it quits on a business I had forgotten about the money I put into it. Its like spending $10000 on a stock and forgetting about them only to find out 20 years later that you lost your whole investment. Will you be devastated? No, probably not because you're still doing okay even without it and really don't remember.

In the end its your call, maybe you aren't cut out to be an entrepreneur as Rickson9 said. The one thing I can say is that you will always regret not taking action but you will probably never regret taking action. The biggest mistake you can make is not taking charge and doing what you what, if doing what you want means starting a business than you better go for it!

 

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[eTyler19]

I am not so much scared to start, but scared of doing something that is not going to produce results.
What if I start using my time to build this website and I don't get any cash flow out of it. Will I even be able to get enough traffic to make it a worthwhile venture...

 

[ChrisRempel]

I am not so much scared to start, but scared of doing something that is not going to produce results.

Then why not start something that is clearly working for others, but offer more value?

With inexpensive tools like SEMRush, KeywordSpy and so on, it takes like 5 minutes to completely reverse-engineer your competitor's entire game-plan. The keywords they invest in, the ads they've developed and tested, etc. It's all "been done".

That's how to go about this realistically.

Can you invent the next Twitter or big-time social sensation?

Maybe, but I honestly consider that stuff to be more along the lines of the "online lottery". It's not really a business. Your whole biz model is to build something "neat" and then sell it to a big dumb corporation, or convince some spend-happy Silicon Valley types to buy in for $500 Million.

(Has Twitter even made a dime yet?)

You have a far better chance of seeing results, and eventually scaling to a business, in clearly established markets with tons of existing customers.

As for the fear of "not seeing anything"...

That's the wrong mindset. I can practically guarantee you that your first attempt will fail. Internet marketing isn't about hitting homeruns, it's about running small test campaigns over and over again - gradually improving your numbers - so that eventually you can scale.

Once you've got solid conversion, then you can basically go as big as the market will support.

It's about getting to a point where for every dollar you spend, you're making $5.

THEN it's a matter of reinvesting like a mother, scaling the thing as high and wide as she'll go - building a huge base of customers at the same time.

But you'll never get to that point unless you accept the fact that you're going to have to systematically "unfail" your processes (landing pages, sales copy, price points, ad copy, ad sources, etc.), carefully testing and tracking your results - continually trying to beat out your current best performing offer.

This is how you go from a 0.01% conversion rate to a 0.5% conversion rate. And then from 0.5% to 1.5%, maybe even 2%.

Then, factoring in upsells, cross-selling, and in general what you do with your sales funnel, it's all about increasing the average customer value until you know your metrics. If you can bring an average of $800 per customer per year, for example - then you'll spend $100 to acquire a customer all day long, right?

This also gives you far more advertising budget and room to provide incentive for motivated affiliates.

MJ always talks about process that leads to the "event".

What I just laid out is THE online process.

-Chris

 

[valuegiver]

Chris, don't you think it is better to create your own SEMRush and KeywordSpy instead?

With inexpensive tools like SEMRush, KeywordSpy and so on, it takes like 5 minutes to completely reverse-engineer your competitor's entire game-plan. The keywords they invest in, the ads they've developed and tested, etc. It's all "been done".

 

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[SKM430]

I'm 100% completely with you. I took the first step in writing out a rough business plan last week for a business I want to start that I am passionate about, but I still have the fear of failure of taking some real action flowing through my mind. I think it's just as the others have been saying, just need to forget about fear and go for it. For every no there are infinitely more yes's to be discovered.

 

[valuegiver]

This reminds me of a quote in another forum (see below). The thread title is What are MUST see seminars when you want to become an entrepreneur?

I was in a nighttime extension class at UCLA once, the teacher was an 80 year old self made millionaire type guy. He opened the class by saying:

"None of you are entrepreneurs here, real ones go out and do something instead of procrastinate or take classes to postpone doing something."

I assumed he had the right idea.

 

[lookingahead]

^^ do you think he did?

 

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[lookingahead]

I need to learn more about business, since one reason why I'm scared of starting a business is not knowing enough. A previous comment said to read some books on the following topics;

1. Accounting
2. Marketing
3. Business Niche
4. Management
5. Sales
6. Confidence / Commitment

Now what are some good books to read in each topic?

 

[Rickson9]

No offense, but in my humble opinion, the most important skill that an entrepreneur must have is the ability to sell. The rest really doesn't matter if the individual can't sell.

The ability to sell can be taught - to a point; I've met individuals who are just natural born selling machines and I think it would be difficult to mimic that level of skill. However, everybody can improve. The skill is a fundamental necessity for entrepreneurship.

Best regards.