3 Fears Shared By Many Small Business Owners and the Responses that Backfire

Recent research that I share in The Confident Leader shows that when we become nervous, we often react by overcompensating. We try hard to handle the fear but our responses backfire. Despite our best intentions, we shoot ourselves in the foot.

Business owners are no exception. There are many things that we fear in terms of getting out there and marketing our businesses. Three of the most common ones include:

1.     Being seen as too small to compete with the big dogs.

2.     Making phone calls including sales calls.

3.     Limiting our market of who we can serve.

 With fear # 1 (Being seen as too small to compete with the big dogs) the common type of overcompensating behavior is to try to look larger than we are. We make our website and all of our marketing materials about the company and leave ourselves out of it.

The problem? Consumers trust individuals not companies. We lose the power of branding ourselves and creating a sense of a person behind the business. We lose our ability to tell personal stories and build relationships.

Fear #2 (Making phone calls including sales calls) is very common. There are many types of overcompensating behaviors. We may avoid making calls all together. We may script them out and rehearse them so much that we end up sounding like robotic telemarketers rather than people who the person on the other end of the line can actually connect to.

Many actions are right on the fine line of smart business move versus overcompensating. For example, delegating sales calls to trained sales professionals can be a very smart business move. On the other hand, taking yourself completely out of the equation can be a mistake. Think carefully about your business, products and services, and target market to decide what and when to delegate sales calls.

Fear #3 (Limiting our market of who we can serve) stems from the concern that we would have to turn away good business if we limit our market. So we try to serve everyone and end up having no niche market and connecting with no one.

Business owners react to this fear by keeping their marketing and sales copy too broad. Prospective clients and customers don’t feel that the message really speaks to them and they decide not to take action. Remember that you can always expand your target market once you’re established. It’s better to start narrow and go broad than to start too broad and not take your business off the ground. 

Whatever your business fear or challenge, work on confronting it without overcompensating, and you are sure to find the best rewards. 

 

Comments

[Annette Pieper]

One fear that I have had is that of moving from a Holistic Life Coach to Small Business Coaching. I had branded myself and been know as the former and was afraid that people would not take me serious as a Business Coach.

To handle this fear, I decided to step out, just do it and trust that my experience in business and wealth building would shine through. It has taken about 6 months to complete the transition and I am successfully booking clients for business success coaching and they are experiencing growth and success.

Annette Pieper
The Energy Goddess
Cultivating Seeds of Success
http://www.annettepieper.com

[Lewis]

Fears such as these occur in the minds of people who go into business, they may indeed have a brilliant skill but as far as the "business" this is another skill entirely, and also "Marketing" is ALSO another skill entirely.

I am producing something right now, with ALL the interconnecting parts explained. I will be showing how the 3 MUST go together, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Join me on Twitter and be the first to get this report completely free, and no, this is not some "free tat" I can promise you.

Please do feel free to tag along with me for the ride... it will be very wothwhile to action-takers and it won't hurt one bit =0>

Best wishes
Lewis
http://twitter.com/lewisclayton

[Nancy Madlin]

I just saw you on Facebook today talking about how you ate a whole bunch of ice cream from the carton....and now I come and read you saying to brand yourself rather than be like a corporation....I totally agree with your message! I am feeling also that the best teachers and writers and "experts" today are experts on living their own lives, and that includes being human. Mark my words, this is a trend which we all will be seeing more of, and I find it very cool....Being imperfect and real is more fun.

My fear right now is that I "have to" limit my market and message further than I already am...Actually, I feel I'm on the right path by not limiting myself further right now and by emphasizing the wholeness and empowerment in my life right now. What if business experts told Eckhart Tolle he "had to" specialize and just serve a small marketplace of spiritually advanced people, and what if he believed them?? By bringing his message of presence to everyone, the world has surely benefitted.

Thanks, Larina, for your thoughts.