Being at the helm of your business can be scary and this can sometimes send people into overwhelm, stopping them from being able to see clearly. Starting up on your own is not easy, nor is trying to find your way in the market place, being isolated and trying hard to attract the right clients. When things are not working out and profits are dwindling, over a few months or even years, your dream can seem unachievable and this can literally eat away at your hope and your sense of self-belief. If this sounds like you, you are not alone.
I meet entrepreneurs who think there is something wrong with their business and that they need a quick fix business strategy meeting in order to solve things. These are the people that are continually searching for another DIY course, another accreditation, another certificate, attending another webinar, and will reach for anything they can externally, to solve their issues. They do this in the hope that all these things will help them attract the right client, or give them the credibility they need to have more visibility, and once they have this, they can drive their business forward. Rightly or wrongly they believe they are doing these courses, webinars, workshops and online DIY to help their business. However this is counterproductive as whilst they are expending all their energy on all this, who is driving their business?
Too often I see clients who have paid a fortune for aimless, haphazard tools that fail them and ultimately they continue to flip flop from one thing to the next. They have so many online tutorials and free workbooks printed off gathering dust on their desk they could have saved a forest! Then comes the total overwhelm… all of a sudden they have an insurmountable do list, of things that are not a business priority and the cycle continues… Does this sound familiar?
The problem is not your business acumen or the credentials you need, or the fact that you feel you have to learn another 200 skills that “might” come in handy one day. You see the real issue is…. You. You think you are not enough. You feel everyone else out there is doing a better job, they are more professional, they have a better website, they have a fancier logo or more time in the industry and you keep asking yourself – how can you compete? You do not believe what you have to offer is good enough. You are putting so many hurdles in your own way that you cannot reach your customers. But even if you were visible to them the barriers you have up are so high, they cannot reach you and right now you are self sabotaging any chance of success.
My advice to you is spend time working on YOU. Not the next best technological system that will help you send fancy emails, not another book on how to be a rock star in business and not another expensive online course in branding – but YOU. You see if you work on the inside you will then have clarity of the path forward, you will have released the fear, and most importantly you will have understood the issues and released the blocks that are stopping you from propelling yourself and your business forward. Without this you are always going to be skirting around the quick sand but never far enough away from it to know you wont get pulled in. So start to soul search, look at what your real problem is and get to work on it. Stay in your own lane, focus on you and master what you currently do so you become the expert in your field. Don’t tag on new skills out of vulnerability if they are not gong to serve your business long term.
Invest in you, not the tools, which will make your business, look cooler, make you feel more lost and create more self-doubt. Don’t make the same pitfalls that most entrepreneurs do. Invest the time, effort and energy into you and doing the inner work that is needed. Ultimately you will finally realise…. you are more than enough and this is the most powerful USP you will ever have so own it.