It’s a story all too familiar for some people. They’ve got a good paying job and naturally start to build a lifestyle tailored around that particular income, with some tailoring it to an even higher income level and for whatever reason, the entrepreneur bug starts to itch and they want to quit their job in order to start their own business.
Maybe they hate the idea of working for someone else, maybe they want more freedom, more time with the kids, more flexibility, but whatever the reasons are, they want to quit their job but feel stuck financially as they need the job to pay for all the bills.
What’s more, their life is comfortable. They’ve got a routine. And it’s going to take a lot to get them out of it.
Obviously the biggest fear that prevents most people from making the leap from quitting their job to starting their own business is one of financial stability so how can we deal with this issue?
We can attack it in 3 ways.
The first one is very obvious and it’s to live a simple life. You know what the drill is here. Cut out all unnecessary expenses, budget, save every month, raise cash by selling what you don’t need, pay off the credit card debt, really clean all the clutter from your life and get down to the basics.
Don’t look at this process as a bad thing because it’s really a good thing as it’s training in disguise. The process teaches you self discipline and instills in you the habit of delayed gratification - two skills essential to succeeding in starting your own business.
It also acts to strip all the clutter in your life so your business can benefit from your clear and undivided attention.
You’re going to need cash to start the business so you might as well save all you can and sell what you don’t need and you’re probably going to have to live with the basics anyway in the beginning of your business so you might as well get used to that kind of lifestyle. Plus, when money is not that big of a concern on your part, you’ll have less worries and it becomes easier to concentrate on growing the business.
The second thing to do is to get knowledgeable about succeeding in business in general and the biggest mistake that employees will make in being ignorant in that aspect is the pure shock that comes with marketing and sales.
Most employees, unless they have worked directly in marketing and sales, will overlook these two factors and grossly take them for granted. Marketing and sales is the lifeblood of any business and both factors are hugely responsible for the success or failure in the beginning stages of any business.
Don’t make the mistake of diving right in without thinking of how you are going to access your market and sell to the people within it. They say you should ask yourself if there is a market for your business and of course you should ask yourself that, but the next question you better be able to ask and answer is how you can gain access to that market or attract it.
And after you have that question answered - how you can sell to the people within that market? Selling is a whole other beast. You need to craft your USP (unique service proposition), in other words, what sets you apart from other businesses, overcome potential objections, show exactly the added value your potential customers can derive from your business, etc.
The answers to all your marketing and sales questions lie within your own creativity and in the books. Read the books. Go to your local bookstore and head over to the small business and marketing and sales section. There are plenty of books there that can jumpstart your creativity and give you the ideas you need to get your business off the ground.
And it wouldn’t hurt to start learning people skills as well if you already haven’t done so. You’re going to have to start dealing directly with many people so you might as well start learning the ropes.
But above else, if you really want to succeed in marketing, sales, and dealing with people, just keep that desire of serving others burning as hot as you can. When you truly desire to serve other people, you will discover ways to find them (marketing). You will find ways to be able to convince them that you can genuinely help them to make their lives better (sales) and you will naturally deal with them in the best possible way you can (people skills).
The third thing to do in order to deal with the fear of financial instability is to actually start the business part time while you’re still working at your full time job, in other words, just get it off the ground and maybe get a few customers under your belt.
Obviously, this might be hard to do but again, just think of it as training in self discipline and time management. And if you succeed in doing this, imagine how much more business you’ll be able to drum up working full time.
The benefits of doing this are pretty obvious – you get a taste test of the whole experience so to speak, you can get a preview as to the kind of obstacles you’ll be bound to face, and you’ll get leverage too if you succeed in the sense you get a few success stories under your belt that you can use to convince other potential customers to utilize your business.
With regards to making consistent, stable income, it might be hard to see how you can make that kind of income in the very beginning, but I guarantee you that when you’re well into the later stages of working on your business, opportunities will begin to present themselves to you on how you can make more money.
In short, the reason for this is that as your business grows, you start to gain leverage.
You’ve got more satisfied clients which you can use to easily attract more potential clients.
You have an established client list with trust already built in so it becomes easier to sell new products and services to the people within it.
You can ask for referrals from your satisfied clients to find new clients in no time.
You can offer special deals that offer fantastic value to your loyal clients to get a boost of income.
You can make joint venture deals with other businesses that are non-competing which complement your business.
You can’t really see all the different ways you’ll be able to make money in the beginning because you haven’t gone through all the experiences, made all the contacts, implemented the ideas, built your client list, etc., but you will begin to see them later on in the journey.
We discussed the ways in which we can help logically dismantle the fear of financial instability so now we need to discuss how we can emotionally dismantle that fear.
Simply put, you need to value something stronger than the all the fears combined that come about from starting your own business.
You need a strong enough catalyst to take you out of your comfortable job and income to put you in that place where few people dare to go, and the catalyst needs to be strong enough to help you weather your time there.
This is why you constantly hear how important passion is when it comes to business. If you’re passionate about your business, if you love what you do, then that love will conquer the fears.
Think about it.
Fear tends to wither away in the presence of love.
Love is the ultimate antidote to fear.
If you really love what you do, you’ll never want to stop doing it and that will help overcome all your fears.
And it doesn’t really have to be love for what you do. That love can be based on other things.
For example, some people love the idea of freedom, to not have to wake up early and get stuck in traffic while commuting and it’s that love for freedom that drives them to start their own business and help overcome all their fears.
Remember, fear has a really hard time surviving in love. Love can mitigate fear like no other.
The last issue to address is the biggest elephant in the room:
How do you know you can do it?
How do you know you can succeed?
How do you know you can make the amount of money you want/need?
People tend to paint the worst case scenario when it comes to the idea of starting their own business – they think they will incur huge loan debt, fail miserably, and file for bankruptcy.
What about the scenario on the other end?
A successful business. Sustainable income. Leverage. Freedom.
Realize that you can choose between either scenario. Don’t just choose by default to the doomsday scenario.
If you can choose which scenario to plant in your mind (which you can), that will start to influence your thoughts, beliefs, actions and results, so you might as well choose the best scenario that will work in your favor.
Realize that the future is in your hands.
And you can determine as to what degree, the outcome will be.
译文:
如何破解辞职创业所面临的困惑
大家对下海经商的故事并不陌生。主人公有一份收入不错的工作，过着舒适规律的生活。出于某种原因，需要更高的收入来改变这种生活。这时，自己做老板的欲望开始蠢蠢欲动，他们想辞去现在工作开创自己的事业。
他们可能不喜欢给人打工，可能想要更多的自由，可能想多些时间陪陪孩子，想更灵活些。不管出于什么原因，总之想要辞去现在的工作，但所有的账单需要一笔固定的收入来支付，就如同需要一份固定的工作一样，这时“经济收入稳定”的烦恼开始困扰他们。除此之外，现在的生活舒适规律，如果创业，他们需要付出很多。
显而易见，大部分人在创业前，迈出辞职这一步，最大的困惑是经济收入是否稳定。
我们可以通过三种方式来破解你的困惑。
⒈ 生活简单化
做到这一点很重要，你知道这可是破解烦恼的锐器。
把每月所有不必要的预算和开销都存下来，把不需要的东西卖了，还清信用卡里的所有债务。切实把所有杂物从生活里清除，让生活回到本原。
可别小看这个过程，如果你默默的完成了，会从中受益的。这个过程教会你自我训练，养成延迟满足的习惯。这是你成功创业必备的两种能力。清除生活里所有的杂物，也会让你在创业时保持清新的头脑和集中的注意力。
创业需要启动资金，所以存好你的钱，把不要的东西换成钱。创业初的生活可能会很简朴，所以你必须适应这种生活。而且，如果你生活方面开销小一些，就会少一些担忧，你就能轻松的把注意力都放在刚起步的事业上。
⒉ 市场推广和销售
你要知道一般在商业上取得成功得做些什么。打工一族创业时往往会犯这样的错误，忽略了与创业相伴而来的市场推广和销售，而对此只是表示惊讶。大部分职员，如果没有亲自从事过市场推广和销售工作，往往会忽略这两个因素，蛮目的将其视作理所当然的事。市场推广和销售是任何企业赖以生存的血液，这两个因素决定了所有商业开始阶段的成败。
别以为不考虑市场推广和销售因素是对的。有人说你要问自己：这个生意是否会有市场？无庸置疑，这是你应当回答的首要问题。接下来你要回答：怎样打开市场？或者说怎样把市场的目光吸引过来。回答了以上问题，接着你要回答怎样做才能把东西买给别人。销售又是另外一只怪兽，你需要修炼出你的独门密集，换句话说，就是怎样让你的产品从其它产品中脱颖而出，说服潜在的客户接受产品，向他们展现可以从产品中获得的实实在在的附加值。
要回答以上问题，需要查阅相关资料并发挥你的创造力。去当地的书店，翻看小生意投资和市场推广营销类的书，你可以从中获得很多让创业需要的创意和建议。
如果你初次跟人打交道，不要感到难为情，你以后得跟很多人直接打交道，那么你也就开始学习风土人情了。
除此之外，如果你真的想在市场推广营销和人际关系上获得成功，那么请保持一颗热忱为人服务的心。当你真诚为人服务时，会发现其中的市场和商机。知道了怎样获取别人的信任，让人相信你是真心帮助他们改善生活。你就会自然而然的竭力处理好人际关系。
⒊ 业余创业
为了解决“经济稳定”的困惑，你要做的第三件事是在业余时间创业，真的去实践。换句话说，让创业走入正轨，你可能会拥有少量的本地客户。
这样做起来可能很辛苦，但要坚持下去，把它当作是对自己的训练，从中可以学会如何管理时间。如果你成功的这样的做了，想一想，你能利用这些时间做多少生意啊。这样做的好处是很明显的，你得到了一次从商的全新体验，回顾你曾经面对的种种困难，你会从中获得力量。从某种角度来看，那些你在本地成功经营的例子，可以被用来说服其它顾客使用你的产品。
创业初很难预见你是否能得到一份长期稳定的收入。但我向你保证，当进入创业后期，机会就会自己跳到你面前，告诉你怎样赚到更多的钱。
简言之，这样做的目的是创业在取得进展的同时，你也获得了力量。
你已经获得了一些对产品满意的顾客，可以用他们来吸引更多潜在顾客。你靠诚信有了稳定的客户名单，这将成为你轻松卖出产品的资本。
◇ 你可以让老顾客带些朋友过来，这样你就轻松的找到了新客户。
◇ 你可以给你忠实的顾客提供特别的超值套餐来增加收入。
◇ 你可以与其它产品的商家合资来弥补自身产品的不足。
刚开始你没有丰富的从商经验，所以不可能看到各种赢利的途经，比如有完整的社会关系,把想法变成现实,建立客户关系等等,但你会在接下来的创业历程中看到。
刚才我们讨论了几种如何理智破解源自“经济稳定”烦恼的方式，那么现在我们看看如何从情感上破解。简单说，你需要一种可以降服所有恐惧的东西。
你需要一种强效“催化剂“，让你离开舒适的工作和不错的收入，去没人敢去的地方。这个“催化剂”让你明白你该把时间花在哪。这就是你为什么总听人说创业需要激情。如果你爱你的事业，对它充满激情，那么这份爱会击毁所有恐惧。怎么样？想想吧，爱出现的时候，恐惧就会衰减，最终被消灭。如果你真的爱你所做的，就不会想放弃，这份爱会让帮助你克服所有的恐惧。当然了，这个爱并不是非得源自你做的事，它可能基于其它事物。比如，有人喜欢自由，不想早起，在上下班路上堵车。这份源自对自由的爱，也能驱使你创业，帮你战胜恐惧。
请记得，恐惧很难在爱里生存。爱会化解恐惧，就像什么事也没发生过一样。
最后要处理的问题也是最重要的问题：
你怎么知道你就能创业？
你怎么知道你会成功？
你怎么知道你能赚到需要的钱？
人们在想到创业时，大脑里往往会浮现出最糟的结果——不幸失败了，欠了一屁股的债，被银行起诉破产。那如果是其它结果呢？创业成功了，稳定的收入，能力和自由也一并获得。
你该意识到两个结果都是可以选择的，不要只会假设那个灰黯的意境。你的意境决定了你的想法，信念和结果。所以你也可以带着最好的意境，信心十足的创业。意识到未来把握在你手中，结果是由你来决定的。