Written by Cheryl on 23 December 2010
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How not to sabotage your business success
That’s not as crazy of a question as it might seem.
If your business is not as successful as you know you could be… If you’re not making the money you know you should be… If you feel like you’re teetering right on the edge of success – so close you can taste it… but you just can’t seem to get there – then you might be sabotaging your own success…
Want to know why?
One word.
Fear.
Don’t believe me?
Okay, think about this… When you were little, was there ever a point in your life when you were afraid of monsters? Maybe you were afraid of the monster that waited under your bed, with its long, scaly claws, just waiting to reach out and grab you to pull you under…
Or maybe your monster lived in your closet, and waited until your parents kissed you goodnight and turned off the light before it started making noises and slowly opened the closet door…
My personal monster lived in the pitch black of the furnace room in the basement of the house we lived in when I was young. I always ran past the furnace room and never looked directly at it because I was afraid if I looked right at it, it was going to reach out of the dark and pull me in with it…
Of course, my mother helped me to get over that fear. Just like someone probably helped you get over yours. Maybe you learned that monsters are afraid of the light… Or that they can be scared off by a parent’s special monster scaring chant. Or maybe it was something else that scared the monsters away – but whatever it was, you discovered how to do it.
As entrepreneurs, we sometimes still face monsters.
And even though we may know with the adult part of our brains that they’re only shadows, that they’re not real – the fear is still there, lurking in the shadows, in the back of our minds.
Would it surprise you to know that there are usually only two over-reaching things we’re afraid of – especially when it comes to our businesses? Sure they may have different names, or they may crop up in different places. But every fear you have can usually be boiled down to one of these two fears.
Fear of Failure
or
Fear of Success
So which of these ‘grownup monsters’ are you afraid of?
Let’s start with the fear of failure.
People who are afraid of failure are usually afraid that this will happen if they fail:
- They’ll look ridiculous to the people whose opinions matter the most to them
- People will laugh at them and say “I told you so”
- They’ll lose money, time, freedom, or power
- They’ll lose their self-esteem and feel bad about themselves
- They’ll lose the respect of others
And the other fear, the fear of success can be just as powerful of a fear.
People who are afraid of success are often afraid that:
- They don’t really “deserve” the thing they want most in life
- Once they’ve done ‘it’ (whatever it is that you feel will bring you success), if it doesn’t work, they’ll have nothing left to hope for, to dream about
- Other people won’t like them anymore or will be jealous of them or only like them for what they have
- Deep down inside, they don’t ‘have what it takes’ to make their dreams come true
- That success will somehow fundamentally change them, and they won’t be the person they are now
The thing is, any fear is usually nothing more than a monster in the dark. It’s about being afraid of something that’s not real, about the unknown or something that’s outside of our usual comfort zone.
And once you’ve shined a light on the fear, once you look at it full on, it usually shrivels up and blows away, like smoke in the wind.
Fear can be vanquished once you recognize it for what it is, and acknowledge the behaviors that it’s causing.
Here is a short list of the behaviors you might be exhibiting if you’re afraid…
- Procrastination
- Playing the blame game
- Perfectionism
- Perpetual Student
- Piling on the busy work
So lets shine the light on these ‘monsters’ and lets see if we can make them go away…
Procrastination. According to the Wikipedia, ‘Procrastination’ refers to the counterproductive deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. Psychologists often cite such behavior as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision. …
So let’s say that you are in the process of creating a new product or service, and you know that as soon as you get it done, you’re going to be able to start finding your ideal clients – or even better, that they’re going to be able to find you…
But somehow… you just never get any actual work on it done, even though you start each day with enthusiasm, motivation and determination.
Chances are, you’re extremely busy every day, and work your bum off… maybe you’re even putting in long hours. The problem is, at the end of the day, you didn’t get anything that was on your ‘list of things to do’ – done. Or at least not the ones that would have taken you closer to your goal.
How do you eat an elephant?
This is an old joke that goes like this: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
You get rid of procrastination the same way. You cut it down to simple, manageable bites and tackle them one at a time. So let’s look at the same example as before – creating a new product or service.
That’s exactly what I did with the CreativeBusinessCapital.com business site. I broke the entire project down into simple, easy to do steps. And then I scheduled them out over several weeks. So for example, I:
- Did a survey to find out what people wanted to know about finding sources of creative business capital for their businesses
- Followed my Product Creation System to create my curriculum and the modules
- Created the outline of each module
- Created the content of one module at a time
- Started choosing guest lecturers and finding additional products to offer
I’m a huge fan of making lists, because I love how productive I feel when I get to cross items off those lists. And by breaking the items down into smaller ‘chunks’ – I was able to work on the site while doing other work for clients at the same time, without feeling overwhelmed and procrastinating.
So, what about you? What will it take for you to create a wildly successful business in 2011? What monsters do you have to shed light on, so they go away and you can build your own business success… Feel free to leave comments or questions below, and I’ll answer them as quickly as I can.
Or, if you’d like a little help with your business success, check out About Us page, that gives you more information about the Creative Capital Business Funding Models that can help you achieve business success.
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Written by Cheryl on 01 December 2010
Okay, in yesterday’s article, we talked about some of the reasons why entrepreneurs or small business owners would want to find funding for their businesses. If you didn’t read that article, you can find it here: How to find funding for your business – Part 1.
Here are some of the most common reasons entrepreneurs are looking for funding for their businesses:
- To purchase inventory or supplies
- To buy or upgrade computer equipment
- To buy or lease a company vehicle
- To hire one or more staff members
- To start a new business
Now, of course, these aren’t the only reasons. You may be looking for funding for an entirely different reason. And that’s okay. We’ll get into how to position your funding needs later on in this series.
But in the meantime, if you’re serious about finding funding, here’s what I want you to do right now. Grab a piece of paper and a pen, or open a word processing document on your computer, and take notes. Taking action right away is one of the secrets of successful entrepreneurs – because you know as well as I do, if you read the rest of this post, and bookmark it, thinking you’ll come back and do it later – you’re probably not going to do it.
It’s not your fault – it’s that our brains aren’t wired that way. There are always so many things to do – we wear so many hats – that if we don’t do something while we’re thinking about it, chances are we’re going to forget later on, or just decide that we don’t really have the time.
So, if you’re serious about getting funding, do yourself a favor and spend the next 15 minutes making the success of your business a priority.
So, the first thing you need to get very clear on, is what you need the funding for. If you need funding for more than one thing, make a list of everything.
Next, you need to know how much it would cost you if you paid for it yourself.
And now, if you’ve got more than one thing listed, I want you to prioritize your list. What do you need right now in order to keep your business going or to move it to the next level?
What do you want, but isn’t critical to the success or failure of your business?
And what would you just really like, but you can wait on?
By doing this simple exercise, you’ve just moved ahead of 85% of the other entrepreneurs who are looking for funding.
Why? Because now you know what you need, why you need it and how much it’s going to cost.
This simplifies the process of searching for funding, and makes it much easier to pinpoint who could help you.
In the next post we’re going to get into the nitty-gritty details of where the money is and how you can get your share of it!
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Written by Cheryl on 29 November 2010
How to find the funding you need for your business
This is a question I get three or four times a week. “Cheryl, How do I find funding for my business.” The writer usually goes on to say something like this… “I’m a (fill in the blank) and I run my business (fill in the blank). With the economy being the way it is, business has been down lately, and I’d like to find some funding to help me (fill in the blank.)
Does that sound familiar?
The thing is, it doesn’t matter if you’re a soap manufacturer, a jewelry maker, a coach, a speaker or an Internet marketeer, there’s funding available for all kinds of small business owners in all kinds of industries for all kinds of reasons.
Lets look at some of the reasons you might need funding:
- To purchase inventory or supplies
- To buy or upgrade computer equipment
- To buy or lease a company vehicle
- To hire one or more staff members
- To start a new business
Those are just a few of the most common reasons a business owner might have for needing funding for their business.
I’m putting together a live training on Wednesday, December 1 and we’ll be going into just a few of the different funding methods are out there – and the last on my list are using your credit cards or asking your relatives for money. (Although those are certainly real ways of doing it.) There just not the only ways.
So, while I’m putting the finishing touches on my curriculum, if you’ve got any questions about finding funding for your business, go ahead and ask me here – and I’ll answer you on Wednesday.
By the way, I’m giving away a prize at the end of Wednesday’s live training – a free membership to the Creative Business Capital site… That’s got a maximum value of almost $1000 – and it’s actually more, because you’ll also be getting all the bonuses too! Of course, you have to attend the call to win… So post your question below and register – it’s free – over on the right. And I’ll look forward to answering your question on Wednesday!
Tags: Finding Funding, Live Training
Posted in Blog, Business Grants, Finding Funding, Live Training | No Comments »
Written by Cheryl on 30 July 2010
Special Announcement: Due to technical difficulties, the ‘Show Me the Money’ teleconference call is being rescheduled!
Which means that if you haven’t registered, you still can – plus, you’ll also get access to the special bonus I’m giving away for free ($497 value)!
Are you tired of struggling with your online or offline business? Do you wish you could get a small business loan – or better yet – a grant that doesn’t have to be paid back?
Would you like to hire a new employee or two – but just don’t feel like you can afford it?
Do you dream of having office space, or wish you had somewhere other than your kitchen table to meet clients? Is your family tired of eating in the living room, because the dining room table is always stacked with your work projects?
Then I invite you to attend the next “Show Me the Money” teleseminar! Because on this content packed call, you’ll learn:
- Which government agency will be happy to give you a small business grant for up to $10,000 – and I’ll also tell you why, in this particular case, less is actually more. (Also, there are only two requirements to qualify for this program, and if you’ve been hit hard by the current economic mess, then you probably already meet one of them!
- Who will send you a new employee – for up to a year – and will pay anywhere from 50 to 100% of their salary for up to a year at a time… And if you want more, it’s usually ‘no problem’!
- Ever dreamed of being able to go back to school to get a business degree, or really learn how to use your computer?
- Need new computer equipment? A vehicle for your business? Inventory? Supplies? I know who will sign a check…
- Ever wished you could afford an attorney to help you with the legal structure of your business? Or an accountant? Or what about a business consultant? Well, now money is no object. I can walk you through the steps of setting up your own ‘dream team’ of advisors who will help you build your business – absolutely free…
- And if it’s really cash you need… we’ll go over how to find funders using the Web 2.0 – and you can tell your banker to take his loan and shove it!
Plus, sign up now and I’ll even answer your ‘most burning question’ about finding creative business capital for your unique business!
But that’s not all!
I will also give you a special handout that walks you through the entire presentation – so you can take notes and then start taking action as soon as the call is over!
And one last thing… Janice (my amazing VA) will even send you a link so you can download the call. That way you can listen to it again and again so you can make sure to take advantage of all the free resources you need for your business.
Registration is easy – and the call is free. (Except for whatever long distance charges your phone carrier charges.) Just put your name and email address into the box below, and we’ll send you an email with all the information about the new date and time of the “Show Me the Money” call, so you don’t miss a thing!
And don’t forget to send me your question about finding the creative business capital you need! I’m looking forward to seeing you on the call!
Warmly,
Cheryl Antier
CEO, Dream Weaver Enterprises
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