As part of my new podcast series designed to support people looking to leave the corporate world, myself and my co-host were speaking about the topic of FEAR when it comes to starting a business.  

This brought back a vivid memory for me of waking up about four days after I had been made redundant, having made the crazy decision to set up my own financial planning firm. I remember feeling overwhelmed with dread and worry, almost to the point where I was almost physically sick.

The strange thing was that I had been buzzing about setting up my own business for the few days before that. In fact, I’d been thinking about ‘going it alone’ for at least 12 months before.  Yes, I had been worried before and had negative thoughts, but this was the first time it had really hit me.  Luckily, the feelings did subside, and I decided to go full steam ahead and set up my business.

Fear can take many forms. I believe fear is something that all successful business owners need to become comfortable with.  Whether it is the fear of not finding enough clients, earning enough money, not feeling worthy, worrying about the competition doing a better job, or wondering why on earth anyone would actually work with you. This is all rooted in fear.

It doesn’t matter how prepared or confident we are. It doesn’t matter how long we have been running a business for. This fear is unlikely to go away. It just rears its ugly head in different ways.  I have almost got quite comfortable with the fear showing up regularly. At the moment, it is rearing its head at the thought of hiring a VA for 5 hours a week and committing a good chunk of money in order to do so.

The fear is essentially the same as before I started; what if I don’t bring in enough clients to cover the costs.  I am constantly becoming more aware of the barriers my own head is putting in the way, and I work on reframing my thought process.  

One way I deal with fear is to write about it and explore what is causing this stomach-churning dread? Getting it out on the page allows me to delve into the real feelings behind it and then work through ways to deal with it.  We want to approach dealing with fear from a logical perspective, but the thing is - being afraid isn’t logical. It’s a primal response useful for situations when you are face to face with something terrifying, a tiger for example, but less so when it stops you taking the actions you need to.  

When it comes to the root of the fear, I find it is normally me projecting a vision of what will happen in the future when I have no way of knowing if it will be true or not.  By drilling down into my thought process, I can stop myself thinking ‘I am worried about not bringing on another client’ and swap this to, ‘Does anyone in the UK still need financial advice?’  Happily the answer to the more effective question is yes. This helps me to start to think about making decisions from a positive mindset.

I love the Henry Ford Quote “whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right”.

Fear becomes a problem for me when it prevents me from doing something or taking on an exciting challenge.  In my experience, once I actually do something I’m nervous about, I do enjoy it.  Sometimes we have to accept the fear and say ‘screw it – I’m doing it anyway’.  

As business owners, our fears are always going to be there, whether it is taking that leap in your business, or doing that thing you need to do in order to move forward.  The key has to be not to let it control us, whether that is through journaling, getting exercise or just spending time away from the business.  Once we accept the fear and the fact we aren’t going to die (hopefully) if we do that thing in our business, then it becomes much easier to embrace it and take action anyway.

So, for any business owners or start ups that have felt the fear and made the leap anyway, you have my respect.  Just remember this …

“The cowards never started and the weak died along the way”.  Phil Knight