False Beliefs Stopping You From Starting Your Dream Business
By Anubhav Srivastava ( Register for his Workshop – Build Super Confidence For Super Success!)
Are you thinking of starting a business but are held back by limiting beliefs that have been taught to you since childhood or from negative stories you may have heard from people in business that may have really scared you from attempting to follow your dream. The fact is that there are a lot of mis conceptions about business that discourage people from following their dreams. Please note that every business is different and every point here may not apply to you. This article is for the individual who wants to turn his passion into money and is looking to run a comfortable lifestyle business to support his family. Not every business will fit the bill but a lot of them will. So if you are thinking of going after your dream but have some limiting beliefs, watch this article shatter them!
Limiting Belief 1. “I will have to work really really hard and for really long hours!”
Not necessarily. While it is true that a lot of people who run businesses choose to work very very hard because they want to grow it really fast or are trying to build an empire, the fact is that a business can be set up in a way where most of the income generating streams become automated or passive. The only work you need to do is to put in the initial hard work to build that system and get it running and some maintenance work from time to time.
Some business owners will say that they are not trying to build an empire and are still working very very hard just to get by. Well there are two reasons for that, one in the beginning you will need to work hard to get things going, there are no two ways around it. Second, maybe your business is structured the way that your presence is absolutely necessary to grow your income. This is especially true for freelancers or small businesses built around the idea of trading your time and skill for money. So your physical presence or your active effort is required to make money. If that is something you want, that is your choice, but there are ways you can generate more passive income streams that will free up a lot of your time.
A great book that will teach you a lot about shifting your mentality from making money through sheer hard work versus creating systems for automated income generation is ” The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss.” Check it out.
Limiting Belief 2 – “Starting My Own Business is so much more riskier compared to staying in my job!”
Here is where I do not agree at all. Unless you are in a government job, there is no way a job is less risky than a business. In fact it is more so. What does risk really mean? Risk means taking on a chance of something going wrong in exchange for potentially great rewards. So let’s examine this for a moment. Do you get great rewards in a job or in a Business? Even if you start off with more income or salary in a job, the pay increments can never match the pay off you get as a result of having a business that succeeds at the level you desire. So clearly the potential rewards are higher in business.
Second, how do we lower risk? We lower risk by taking on things we can control rather than leaving it at all at the mercy of someone else or something else (The Economy, Changing Market etc.)
Now let’s take a look at one more factor. Who can fire you when you run a business? No one, except yourself. Sure the market may be down and some customers may stop doing business with you, you can still pursue other customers. In other words it is you who gets to decide when to say “I quit” in this battle. What happens in a job? People get fired all the time, and often for no fault of their own. When your entire livelihood only depends on a single decision maker, you have taken on a huge amount of risk, you are just not willing to acknowledge it yet!
Limiting Belief 3. “Starting a business requires A LOT of money, I don’t have much!”
Not necessarily. Again it depends on your business. It also depends on how resourceful you are. So you have to know when and how to save set up costs and invest money only where it is ABSOLUTELY needed instead of splurging it on unnecessary things (For example a fancy office when it is not really needed)
A lot of online businesses today can be started for very little cash. Even some of the major e commerce giants started off with very little cash and only brought in outside investors and venture capitalists when they wanted to really really scale things up.
My point is that it is not necessary to put in all your hard earned money you have saved up into your dream venture, at least it is not always necessary. What is more important is that you need a way to provide value to others while figuring out what is the approximate amount you need to spend in your business to generate the maximum ROI or Return on Investment. Money is not always required to generate money. Sometimes it is new ideas and value provided to your market that matters much more so focus on that, especially if you cannot afford to lose your savings.
Limiting Belief 4. “Running a Business will be so much more stressful as compared to a job!”
This is again a matter of perspective. To me a boss shouting at me and making me feel bad about my worth and being forced to work for 80 hours a week and not being granted an off even if I have something urgent to attend seems much much much more stressful.
Now you will argue, OK a client could do that as well in business. Well guess what I can fire the client if I find that person to be rude or disrespectful! I can just choose not to do any business with them. Sure it may result in loss of income, but then there are thousands of other potential clients out there who would be much more good to work with. I can choose to have a positive environment around me. Can you choose to replace your boss if you are in a job? It is certainly much harder to get a new respectful boss than it is to get a new respectful client.
You might again argue that at least a job provides a steady pay-cheque while a business is uncertain and depends upon the market and the economic climate. That is true and the initial stages of setting up a business are truly uncertain because you do not know whether there the market will accept you. But as stated in a point previously, a business that gets going is actually more secure than a job, because a client can be replaced much more easily than a boss. So unless your industry goes absolutely obsolete all of a sudden, which is very rare as compared to the number of people getting fired daily, the uncertainty involved in a business that has found a market and is delivering profits is actually lower as compared to a corporate job.
Limiting Belief 5. “There’s just too much competition in my field, I cannot survive!”
Having competition is honestly a great thing, it means the business you are trying to enter actually has a market that is willing to pay money to solve its problems. Why else would other people be in the same market if it was not making them a good living. It is actually worse to go into areas where there is no competition for they may either be duds or the timing may not be right for the market to embrace what you are offering.
There are thousands of businesses in your area out there that are basically doing the same thing as you intend to and despite this most of them are doing well enough to keep running. Having competition also gives you an idea or an inspiration to emulate what is already working in the market. Sure you may not be the innovator but if your goal is to make money and provide value, without worrying about being ground breaking, having and copying competition is actually a great thing to do. You can still retain your originality by adding your twist or your unique talent to your business in addition to implementing what is already working as demonstrated by your competition.
Final Thoughts
I hope shattering these 5 myths would make you more confident about going after your goal. Now an important thing to note is that while I do support starting your own business, I have nothing against traditional jobs either. If you are in a job that you are extremely passionate about you are a great performer and there is no way you can pursue your passion without working under that organization, go for it! You are treating your job like a business and are thus an employee-preneur and I have the greatest respect for employeepreneurs. If, however you are stuck in a rut and are thinking about venturing out on your own but these limiting beliefs were holding you back, I hope this article will make you reconsider and motivate you to pursue your dream business. So get going!
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About the Author
The author of this article, Anubhav Srivastava is an author, motivational speaker and the director of Carve Your Destiny, a first of its kind inspirational documentary featuring some of the most famous personalities from diverse fields, who teach the viewers how they too can make all of their dreams come true. The movie itself has been seen on Youtube by close to 600,000 people. Anubhav has also been featured in numerous International and India Media outlets such as BBC , The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Rediff.com, Leicester Mercury and many others.
Email Anubhav Srivastava for coaching, consulting or motivational speaking queries at anubhav101@gmail.com. Facebook Profile: http://facebook.com/anubhav981
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