Yesterday I had an exciting conversation with a small business owner and a passionate entrepreneur, who despite having the right business idea and business model, being fueled by passion, did share she is experiencing some unproductive thoughts and beliefs blocking her business growth. Despite an evident great potential for growth and scale, she reached a place of exhaustion and frustration, even considering an exit.
When digging deeper, what surfaced were 5 key very common, stereotypical and unproductive beliefs, which are holding her back. What were they?
REASON #1: I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY
How can you change your perspective?
Yes, smaller businesses might seem to have limited access to funding, mainly if being a solopreneur, but it “forces” the business or its leader into making more conscious and strategic decisions, identifying the smart investments with highest ROI. Spending it on the must-haves (over the nice-to-haves). Cherry-picking the essentials for spending. Apart from checking your bank account status its critical to get creative and explore other funding opportunities: Bank loans, selling things you don’t use/need, peer-to-peer lending, Crowdfunding, Angel investment, VC, Network Mapping etc. It’s not about having loads of financial resources, but about your ability to use them well and identifying ways of being resourceful.
What actions can you take to address this negative belief?
- Investigate what amount of money do you (actually) need exactly, removing the vagueness of using terms as “more” or “loads” – quantify it based on the cherry-picked essentials.
- Define all possible ways of obtaining funds – getting creative and going beyond just pure bank loan.
- Nurture Abundance thinking and Abundance Mentality.
REASON #2: I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME IN THE DAY
How can you change your perspective?
Yes, a small business owner tends to wear many hats. But it is in your control to eliminate unproductive, non-essential and no-value adding tasks from your life, leveraging the power of technology to automate and streamline inefficient processes and learn to outsource some of the work to truly focus on tasks you enjoy and also make business sense. It is about changing your routines, gaining focus and starting to use time more efficiently, removing the myth of “I need to do it all (alone)”.
What actions can you take to address this negative belief?
- Learn to use your time more efficiently and eliminate, automate and delegate.
- Create weekly / daily / morning / evening routines.
- Set your focus and key priorities, defining trade-offs and sacrifices which you are willing to make, always checking any task or activity against your focus and priority areas.
REASON #3: MARKET IS OVERCROWDED AND COMPETITION IS FIERCE
How can you change your perspective?
Yes, the variety of choice we have and the number of existing and new market participants did boom in the last decade significantly. A person with scarcity thinking might see it as something negative, seeing the increase in competition. The person with abundance thinking, would on contrary see the boom in demand and spending from the clients’ side, supported by the fact that people actually tend to buy more and more often than before. Moreover, such “competition” can also result in greater growth opportunities as one can spot and identify the right strategic partners, joining forces and sharing resources.
What actions can you take to address this negative belief?
- Identify your key 3 competitors and learn from them continuously, from their weaknesses and strengths.
- Set your vision right, in order to achieve more, keeping connected to your purpose rather than figuring out how to beat competition.
- Define which competitors could you turn into your strategic partners.
REASON #4: I AM MISSING A SOLID TEAM TO HELP ME
How can you change your perspective?
Yes, you might have too few or none official employees or team-members, but there is a walkaround: Getting a part-time support, hiring a temporary freelancer, getting a mentor, finding an accountability group, building a strong professional network, joining expert groups / communities (online or offline), engaging in strategic partnerships or just joining a co-working space will enable you to beat the solitude and build a team or team-feeling around you.
What actions can you take to address this negative belief?
- Define what is it exactly that you are missing: What would the ideal case scenario be resulting from having a solid team?
- Join a co-working space, an accountability group or an expert (online) community.
- Identify ways of expanding your professional network looking for like-minded individuals in your location.
REASON #5: I DON’T HAVE ALL THE EXPERTISE AND KNOWLEDGE
How can you change your perspective?
Yes,…and you should not. Nobody has. You can’t know it all. You should focus on what is your expertise, what lights you up and what makes most business sense (contributing towards business growth). For the rest: Hire an freelance expert, hire a part/full-time employee, outsource and delegate, get it from your strategic partner or a mentor.
What actions can you take to address this negative belief?
- Define your area of passion and expertise – and focus on it, purely.
- Outline your company niche / micro-niche in order stay aligned with your positioning.
- Go knowledge / expert hunting: Identifying what knowledge would boost your offering, exploring freelance platforms or checking with your network for recommendations.
YOUR TURN!
What is currently preventing you from growing your business to the next level?
What negative and unproductive beliefs do you face, which are hindering your own business growth?
What actions can you take in order to change your perspective and address such negative beliefs?
