Saturday 10 September 2016

Finding Your Focus - Taking The Plunge

"You're so lucky to have your own business, doing something you love." This is a phrase that successful business owners often hear. However, when you ask people why they don't do the same, a range of answers are given:

I don't have enough money
I don't have any marketable skills
I don't know anything about business
I have the mortgage to pay.

Well here's the truth. Successful business owners haven't been lucky. They aren't more intelligent, born with different skills or from a wealthier background than the average person. The difference is that they have taken the plunge and set up their own business. Taking this step is a huge challenge. If you wait until the stars are perfectly aligned, you will procrastinate indefinitely, which leads to a heartbreaking amount of regret.

The biggest initial challenge after you have taken that step is creating enough income to live on. This is scary, and the reason why most people procrastinate so much in the first place. But guess what, when we are pushed out of our comfort zone we grow and learn. Needing to create an income from your new business is a hell of a motivator! You will push yourself to learn more about business and marketing. You will overcome a fear of public speaking and talk about your business at networking events. You'll develop your business and your own skills. And guess what, you'll feel amazing, confident and proud of yourself for it.

There will be tough times. No business owner will tell you it has all been plain sailing. When times get tough, you need to keep focussing on your big why. What are you passionate about? What does your perfect job mean to you? What does your perfect day look like? And how does owning your own business contribute to this? What extra security will your ideal business give you and your family? What new excitement and freedom will it give you? Have a clear vision of how you want your life to be. A good idea is to create a vision board or your dream lifestyle.

The vision board shows you the best case scenario. Looks pretty sexy doesn't it? Yet, sometimes, despite knowing how much better life will be, people still stay in jobs that bore them to tears. Why? It's the fear of it all going wrong. A huge challenge for all business owners is overcoming the fear of failure.

A great way to overcome this fear is to explore the worst case scenario. Think about this realistically and you'll see it is not that scary. If, and it is a big if, your new business does not work out, the chances are that everything will still be ok. As therapists, our start up costs are relatively low, so you are unlikely to need a large loan. The worst case scenario is that your savings seriously dwindle and you get into some debt to cover your living costs. While this is not ideal, it is manageable. You can more than likely go back to your old job (or a similar one), if necessary, providing you didn't bellow out a string of expletives to your boss on your last day. We don't recommend doing that! So, financially, if things don't go to plan, you will still manage. Then there are the social fears. We are scared of being judged negatively. We worry that if we try something as audacious as setting up our own business and it doesn't work out, we will have lots of people saying,
"I told you so."
In reality most people will admire you for having the guts to try and who cares about the people who are nasty. They have never had the courage to step outside of their comfort zone.

So, the realistic worst case scenario is that you end up in the same position you were in anyway but with a new repertoire of skills. In contrast, the best case scenario is wonderful. Taking the plunge is a big challenge but keep focusing on your vision, go for it and enjoy the journey.

As part of our 4 week Business Success Course, we provide a hypnosis MP3 to guide you through this visualisation exercise. Just for readers of this blog we are giving away a free copy. Download yours here.


Get the 7 Steps To Create A Successful Therapy Business here. 



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