Why Is It So Hard in the Beginning?
I often talk to people at events who tell me that they are surprised about how “hard” it is to run a business. They aren’t complaining. They are just pointing out how challenging a business can be on every level.
If you are feeling this emotion, know that it is totally normal. Here’s an explanation of the process and how it works. It will help you to become more accepting of the emotions and less resistant to the challenges.
Here’s why:
As an entrepreneur you are always doing three things:
1. Learning and executing business and management skills to increase your income and savings.
2. Working through your fears, blocks and limiting beliefs so that you can continue to move forward (even when you don’t want to).
3. Perfecting and refining your products and/or services to continually please your clients and encourage more referrals.
The problem for many entrepreneurs (especially those in the personal development field) is that they focus 70% of their time on more training, 20% of their time on point 2, and 10% of their time on point 1. And when it comes to point 1 they are spending the majority of their time taking in information and only a small bit of their time actually executing and taking action.
The truth is that all 3 parts work together.
You need to develop sound business skills so that you have a solid plan and the right strategies. You also need to be continually perfecting your sales and marketing skills so you aren’t beating your head against the wall trying to make more money and not getting results.
You need to work through your fears and blocks so that you can take the actions that come out of having a plan and a strategy. The more actions you take (especially big bold ones) the more fears and limiting beliefs will surface. So dealing with blocks becomes an on-going process and feeling a bit of fear and discomfort is just a sign that you are continually growing.
You continually develop your skills as a better service provider or perfect your products in order to keep up with the market and maintain your stance as an expert in your industry. But here’s the big red flag: you are often already way better than you think you are. I would bet that the majority of you do not need any more formal training in your area of expertise. You will get better and better with every client that appears or with every product feedback form that you receive. So this means that if you focus on business skills and mindset work, you will naturally become a better service provider.
