Click to the "Tips" you want!
TIP 1: If you are worried about what everyone else thinks about your business idea you will never do it. Only listen to those people who are positive, supportive and show their sincere interest in what you are doing by asking good questions. Look for people to discuss your business with that have a true desire to help you. The typical "discouragers" of your dream to start your own business are:
* Your Relatives: They have seen all the things you have done that went wrong or did not work so they "know" this will never work;
* Your Peer Group: They know you for what you do and find it hard to believe you can be an Entrepreneur. They may have a personal hidden agenda of keeping you down, or they may be jealous and envious of your desire because they are afraid to try starting a business themselves.
* Former Business Owners: They failed once maybe twice at some business or maybe never got really started and therefore they don't believe anyone can succeed. They judge your possibility for success based on "their" failures or "lack" of initiative and understanding of how to develop a small business.
These discouragers will raise all kinds of questions about the money you need to fund the business, who will manage the business, what product or service you will sell, tell you there are to many headaches with employees, and on and on. So remember this:
"DON'T LET THEM DISCOURAGE YOU. JUST STAY FOCUSED,
AND KEEP BELIEVING, START DOING and MAKE IT HAPPEN!
TIP 2: How can you handle "your" fear of change? Change is a funny condition that impacts us daily. The amount of change we experience in a given period of time contributes to the level of stress and anxiety we have, our physical condition, our mental condition, our financial condition, our spiritual condition, our motivation and the condition of our life as a whole.
These recent events have had a major impact on the world and each of us to different degrees. The "9/11" attack struck us all in the U.S. at a very high level and triggered a strong response. But it didn't do much to trigger the same in distant parts of the world like China, Russia and South America. The "tsunami" in the Indian Ocean near Indonesia triggered all kinds of fears and change throughout that Indian Ocean coastal regions of Asia and Africa that experienced the disaster. The four hurricanes that blew through Florida in two months in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina's destruction in the Gulf States increased the level of fear significantly in all Americans, particularly in these affected areas..
Change is a constantly moving variable that requires you to remain flexible in business and accept that the business you own may experience change daily. It will require that you adjust in some cases gradually and in some cases very quickly, but you will have to adjust. The most important thing to remember about change is that you will experience it, there is no way around it. Therefore, accept it and deal with it the best way you can!
TIP 3: Marketing is common sense and requires a unique approach ...think non-standard...out of the box! How can it be that there are such great marketing people and then thousands of the "norm" or people who just fulfill their job requirements as marketing professionals? The answer is simple and many times ignored. The great ones are always out of the box in thinking and seeing things from the perspective of how they want to market in a "unique way". How many times have you seen an ad on TV and wondered out loud: "I don't get what that ad means". This is the perfect example of how someone writing an ad can be off in the wrong direction and as a result thousands of dollars are lost, but who would know it until after the ad is run. The big problem is that even though the testing of the ad may have passed with many of the people it was shown to before airing it may not hit the desired market buyer's perception.
I am a perfect example. As for me, I just don't like or think the GEICO Insurance ad with the "gecko" is impressive or funny even though the narrative (background voice) is trying to be funny. But there must be lots of people in a certain age bracket that it appeals to because they are spending millions with it and I seem to see it everywhere.
TIP 4: Brilliant people who think they are...are so ridiculous you should laugh at them. Why? Because if a person is brilliant they do not need to tell you so. Instead, it will appear in their life and work in some manifestation. Brilliance is a matter of application and focus of time and energy in studying a specific topic. Brilliance is many times misunderstood as some mysterious sort of mental capacity. When a person says another person is brilliant because they did this or did that it is only because the person who is being defined as brilliant simply applied enough "effort" over "time" to finally figure things out. Thomas Edison made 10,000 attempts at lighting a bulb known as the light bulb and finally got it right. Just imagine if you work on something and attempt doing it 10, 20, 300 or 1,000 times how brilliant you would be? But if you don't have success on the "1,000th" try you will obviously be classified as not so brilliant, and in some peoples mind you may be thought of as "dumb" for thinking you could accomplish what you tried 1,000 times. However, the minute you try "1,000 and 1" times and get it right all of a sudden you are now brilliant. Therefore, this being true, know that you are as brilliant as the next person as long as you apply your talent and skills to what you believe you can do until you do it. And, plan on being considered "dumb" until you have success and then be prepared to be classified as "brilliant" by everyone.
TIP 5: Sometimes, do you wonder if you are headed in the right direction? I love this verse from the Lord's Prayer: "Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven." Even when I think I am headed in the right direction with my business goals I may not actually be seeing what is clear before my vary eyes. This may be because it is "my" will and not "thy" [God's] will being done. It is so hard at times to change your thinking and the older you get the more apparent this seems to be. But why does it become harder to change as we grow older? Because we have the following thinking:
1) We have difficulty accepting the fact that something needs to be changed.
2) When we see that change can be made we immediately ask ourselves why we need to change.
3) We question our desire and discomfort of making the change identified.
4) We fail to check our receptiveness to change once we agree that it needs to occur.
5) We question if we are willing to go through the steps or "personal growth" to make the change.
6) We hesitate just before changing and ask ourselves once more if there is truly a need to change.
TIP 6: How many times do we dream of how we want something in life but it seems so ominous and gigantic that we can't comprehend our accomplishing anything near what we dream about. If this is you then maybe you need to read about how David overcame and beat Goliath in the book of Samuel from the Bible. Do you really know what "GOD" has planned for your life? Do you truly understand the dynamics of GOD's "spiritual power" as described in detail throughout the Holy Bible? I can tell you GOD is "AWESOME" by any stretch of the imagination and in so many ways it is impossible to even comprehend the magnitude of the minute detail in his plan. Imagine this for example:
What is it that keeps you breathing? Here is what I mean: Try holding your breath to the count of 100 by 10's. Easy, right? Now try holding your breath until you count to 100 by ones. A little more difficult, right? Now try holding your breath until you count to 1,000 by ones again. What, you only made it to "178" and then you gasp for air. Why? What made you do this? Was it your conscious desire to get air? Was it the fact that you thought this was a rather stupid exercise? Did you really think you could hold your breath until you passed out? Well...no matter what you think, the fact is that GOD knew a mechanism was needed in your body and connected it to your mind so that it would sound an alarm when every blood cell in your body was screaming for air. Now, trust God, use your "faith" combined with "works" and make your dream of owning your own business come true!