A few nights ago at the Entrepreneurial Mom’s monthly meeting, a simple question was asked of the audience—“what is your biggest pain point?”
Unanimously everyone agreed that it was not having enough clients. That sounds like a no brainer answer right? Unfortunately in my practice of helping small businesses grow their client base, I run into a lot of people who are on some level afraid of succeeding. Here are some of the mysterious reasons why entrepreneurs are afraid to grow:
“Things will change”: The fear of change is the deepest and oldest fear of all man and woman kind. It’s a big one to get over.
- “I’ll have to spend less time with family and on myself”: When success in business equals failure as a mom, daughter or wife, women are often guilt ridden and find it tough to make a decision to do things to get more clients.
- “I’ll have to do some things I hate (namely sales and marketing)”: Most small business owners love what they do but hate selling it. On some level, they know that when they decide to get more clients, it will mean that they’ll inevitably have to market and sell more than they are right now.
- “Wanting too much money is greedy”: In a lot of subconscious small business owners’ minds lies the thought that if things aren’t too bad for them right now, that to want more money, more clients and to want to play a bigger game is just plain greedy. Greed is not an attractive trait.
- “My friends and loved ones will think I’m a big shot”: Who would want anything if it meant estrangement and ruined relationships with loved ones? Who would pursue something that could cause their social circles to reject them?
If you’ve known for some time that you’d like for things to change for your business but are unwilling to do things differently or are paralysed by fears, you might want to ask yourself some tough questions and consider if any of these fears are true for you. Once you’ve made your decision for change—call me or anyone who can help you grow your business.
Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk!
Related articles
- 3 Steps to Overcome the Fear of Follow-up (blog.drshannonreece.com)
- Small Business Owners More Stressed Than Ever: 3 Tech Tips That Can Help (smallbiztechnology.com)
- Losing Hope: The small business nightmare (coachtactics.com)
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