Thursday, April 12, 2012

5 reasons why I’m afraid I’ll grow my small business


Surprising reasons why you’re not doing more to get new clients

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:

1.    “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.
2.    “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.
3.    “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.
4.    “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.
5.    “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.

 
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Bio: Chala is the person you go to if you want to jump quickly to the next level of your business potential. A certified business coach, she cut her corporate teeth as a marketer at companies such as Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Frito Lay, Diageo, Playtex and lastly BIC Inc. With a lifelong desire to use her corporate experiences to help managers and business professionals to increase their productivity, Chala has a practice supporting small business owners who want to get more clients through marketing and branding more effectively




2 comments:

  1. Great article and very true. However, if the choices are grow and be successful or fail in business, I will choose the former. I have found some wonderful tools that take away the fear of selling and it has made a world of difference.

    THX again for a great article.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the kind words. I would love to hear more about those tools to take away the fear of selling.
      Chala

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