3 Ways To Maintain Confidence As A Small Business Owner

So, you’ve started a business.  Although you were a little scared at the start, you did it anyway.  Now time has passed, and you’ve made some progress, but not nearly as much as you had planned and owning the business is getting harder and more complex as time passes.  And then that voice starts to talk to you and anxiety starts to creep in.  You ask yourself questions like, “Is this business going to make it,” or “when is this going to get better.”  Self-doubt and negativity dominate your internal conversation.  Welcome to the club.

Insecurity and self-doubt have crept into most entrepreneurs’ psyches at one time or another.  What happens next makes all the difference.  If you let the doubts linger with no decisive action, you’ve lost already.  You will only see problems and the business will become a drudgery that sucks the entrepreneurial life out of you.  If this doesn’t get turned around, it’s highly likely that either you will get out of the business or the business will fail.  It doesn’t have to turn out this way!  Here are 3 things you can do to get you out of your head, and get your business growing faster and more profitably. 

is what you’re thinking true?  Often, it’s not or is completely overblown.  Even if your business has some issues that need to be resolved, you’re not a failure.  Many of us have made messes we had to clean up.  So, let’s start by changing your mindset.  One thing to do to change your mindset is to try to remember some successes you’ve had in the business or some successes you’ve had in life that point to your own capabilities and competence.

Do this daily or even multiple times a day.  Negative thinking can creep into your thought process, but it usually doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.  What you may be feeling now are not necessarily the facts.  But they can become facts if you follow them down the rabbit hole.

By looking at your current situation with fresh eyes, your energy will change, your creativity will re-emerge, and you’ll start looking for solutions instead of focusing on problems.  Confidence will return.

learn how to run your business properly.  No one is born with innate knowledge of how to operate a business well.  If you need to learn about finance, marketing, sales, process management or developing an effective team, then get the information you need.  Take an online program, find a mentor, or effectively delegate the tasks you’re not good at.  Once you learn how to do things better, some of the problems will go away due to your better decision making.  Confidence will return.

you can hire a business coach knowledgeable in how businesses operate.  The coach will be able to teach you what you need to know, keep you accountable for doing the right things consistently and become a sounding board for you.  You won’t feel alone, you will have access to and implement good business practices and your business will start to turn into what you envisioned.

My intent in writing this is to show you that you don’t have to accept a negative mindset or a business that is not growing or operating as planned.  You can get your thinking right and solve your business’s problems.  Do these things and confidence will return.