Starting a business is hard. Make no mistake. The worst part for me was telling people. I think because this business feels so personal, it is hard to separate yourself from what you do.
I believe if I opened a store it would have been easier to ask people to come because they would shop anyway. But when I began, it felt like I was asking for favors since in essence, these people were helping me and I often was their introduce to both the products and the business plan.
I got over my fear the hard way- by doing what I feared most-opening my mouth and asking. I asked people who were comfortable to me like friends and some family. These people aren’t always the easy ones, since many can be more intimidating than strangers. What I asked for was their opinion of what I had to offer. This way, the hard sell was off the table. And really who will say no when asked for their opinion?
Pretty soon, a funny thing happened-all of their opinions were positive and I realized I wasn’t asking. I was offering.
I believe in what I have to give and I know I will take care of my customers better than many other people who offered the same type of products.
When this realization hit, I had no trouble building my business because it was selfish not to ask.
The news you don’t want to hear though, is it only got easy because I did what was hard.
So fight your fear. Get out there and you just may see you have more to give than you ever knew.
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