Three whales of our indecision, or Why are the dreams of starting a business just dreams?

In the modern world, private enterprise has become fashionable and desirable. Almost all of us dream of starting our own business, but only a few dare to take the first decisive step towards our dream. Full-time freelancing and working on the Internet seem like real chances to earn money without leaving your home and develop your company with little blood. But, nevertheless, people still do not find the strength in themselves to change something in their life, even if reality does not suit them. What is the reason? As a rule, among many factors, the main ones are time, money and fear. In this article we will talk about all three reasons, and we will pay most attention to the latter (fear) and talk about some life hacks of the fight against this bad weather. I hope that this article may be useful to those who wish to open a private business,

So, let's analyze in detail the essence of the three whales on which our indecision rests in the foundation of our own business.

TIME

As for the lack of time, then, perhaps, this is easiest. Trite, but true: 24 hours a day, and this figure is the same for all mortals. How do you like this argument? And while someone finds time for their business, and someone does not. I remember my mother often told me: “If you don’t have time for anything, it means that you are not loading yourself enough.” And in my case it was an absolute truth, no matter how amazing it sounded. When, in addition to my main job, I signed up for foreign language courses, a fitness club and a kung fu section, then I had the time and energy to do something more and meet friends more often - I just had to plan my daily schedule more wisely .



Of course, this cannot be applied to everyone and everyone, but basically the problem of people nevertheless lies not so much in a lack of time, but in the inability to dispose of and value it. You can read about how to build your work schedule and use precious watches most effectively in other articles of our blog .

MONEY

Speaking of money, to be more exact, about their absence ... We can imagine in our imagination a magnificent flowering business with a wonderful office, staff and first-class equipment and be weary of the fact that we do not have the funds for all this. Yes, you need to mark high, but start small: with work alone from your home office and with the equipment that is available to you.



If you can not do without certain investments, that is, there are many ways to get the necessary funds - there would be a desire. First: make money yourself. Yes, in our reality today, venture capital funds and outside investments have become a new trend. As a result, when thinking about their own business, novice entrepreneurs immediately dream of tightly stuffed wallets of business angels and various crowdfunding platforms. If there is such an opportunity, then it is better to allocate a certain amount of time to collect the necessary funds yourself. Oddly enough, but experts recommend not just attracting outside capital (at least initially) - this will save you from getting into the debt hole in the event of failure and teach you how to manage funds more efficiently. If this option doesn’t suit you, you can find many startup financing programs to help you get started. And if your ideas are not of interest to investors, then you should think carefully - this can have very real reasons.

At the very beginning, you can try to reduce the cost of your business. You can save in a variety of ways. For example, in the case of business via the Internet, you can buy a domain for little money, and build a site on the basis of a free template to reduce waste. Instead of regular employees, you can use the services of other freelancers who will spend a couple of hours daily on your project - this is much cheaper than maintaining full-time employees. I'm not saying that this is the best option - free cheese has its drawbacks, but, nevertheless, all this can help start a business and stay afloat, with a small amount of capital.

AND LATEST: FEAR

This is perhaps our most serious enemy. We are all afraid of the unknown, which is associated with the prospect of opening our own business. We all fear failure, stress and loss. In the end, people tend to fear change. What does it mean to start a startup? First of all, this is parting with your old work, stability, the established rhythm of life. And even if we are not happy with our gray, but familiar today, we are still afraid to take a decisive step, fearing that we will make a mistake, because of which our tomorrow will turn into a complete disaster. We are not sure of a thousand things, but most importantly - in ourselves. Fear is connected with the fact that, as an entrepreneur (especially when it comes to small business), you must be a universal fighter, because you will have to shoot back on all fronts.



Suppose you are a translator. You adore your work and know a lot about it. So why not create your own company and do your favorite thing, working for yourself? Just keep in mind that you will need to deal with a bunch of unloved (and incomprehensible) questions besides the “favorite thing”: finding partners, clients, negotiating and many organizational issues that are very far from working with texts. Add to this the creation of a site, the organization of an office (optional), advertising and promoting your company in the media, as well as a ton of bureaucracy, reporting and communication with the tax. Oh yes, and at the same time - no stability and constant stress. No one guarantees you a monthly cash reward in a predetermined amount. As a rule, at first the founders of a small business work from morning to night without breaks and days off.

Let's think about what can be done to overcome this fear.

1. Failures

You need to change your attitude towards failure. From childhood, we are accustomed to the fact that defeat is bad and shameful. In fact, you need to try to perceive them as part of the evolution of your business and yourself as an entrepreneur. No one expects your company to become a market leader in the first days of its existence. On your way there will be both victories and defeats - and this is an integral part of a huge exciting adventure. If your product or service does not take root in the market or is too difficult to maintain, this is not a tragedy - it is just a signal that you need to reconsider your ideas, your tactics and learn a lot more.

2. Plan B

Consider the worst case scenario. This will help you avoid a lot of unpleasant surprises and will also give you an idea of ​​exactly where to lay the straw to mitigate the potential fall. As a rule, when failure catches a person by surprise, things are not at all as tragic as it seems. Make a retreat plan. Even if your venture with your own business fails, life will not stop there: having learned from your own mistakes you can try to restore it from ruins or start a new business. And you can completely abandon these "adventurous undertakings", and even then you can still find a job. By the way, this approach is good not only for business, but also in other areas of life.

3. Lost opportunities

Understanding what you will lose if you do not open your own business. First you need to realize the simple fact that if you spend your whole life in fear, not deciding to take an important step, then in any case you will lose. You are afraid that your business will collapse, that you will lose money, that you will waste time in vain. But without changing anything, you are depriving yourself of your own business in absentia and the prospect of working on your favorite business. Just think, you are afraid of losing what you don’t have yet, and therefore refuse this in advance.

4. Motivation

Make your motivation overpower fear. Surround yourself with those people who have already achieved something in the area that you plan to do. Ask for their advice, learn from them, be inspired by their stories. Nothing motivates people. Seeing what they could do to succeed, you yourself can overcome the doubts associated with starting your own business. They will be able to dispel some fears and teach how to deal with others. Communicate with coaches, watch motivational videos, attend seminars.

5. Purpose and plan

Since we are afraid of the unknown, it’s worth it as clearly as possible to determine what exactly we want and to figure out how we plan to achieve this. Setting a goal is great. To draw up an adequate plan of action is already half the battle. And if your own business seems to you a huge complex mechanism, then it is worth disassembling it into its components and studying it in detail. The more detailed your plan is, the better. So you will know what to do and why, and the frightening unknown will take on quite understandable outlines. Our SmartProgress service can help you in setting goals and creating a plan , and in our community you will find like-minded people and teachers who will support you and will motivate you to make your dreams come true.



In this article I described those methods of dealing with fear, lack of time and money, which I myself tested and convinced of their effectiveness. If you have other interesting and effective life hacks, feel free to share them in the comments. The more ideas, the better.