You’ve got big dreams but are scared of starting your own business.
You’d love to work from home, be with your kids more, and make more money, but the thought of finding the courage to actually quit your job and then try to make money from your own business feels impossible.
What if it doesn’t work? What about insurance? What will people think? What if I fail?
In this article, I’m going to help you find the courage to start your own business and quit your job so you can finally stop letting life happen to you and start taking action to pursue the life you want.
And it all starts with failure.
Failure is key to your success
I know.
You’re trying to succeed at starting your own business.
Not fail at it.
But this is such an important concept that a lot of new entrepreneurs miss and I don’t want you to be one of them.
Failure is something that a lot of us think is a bad thing. We even go far as to fear failure. What would it say about us? What would others think if we failed?
If you really think about it, failure is just a perception. We can choose to see something as a failure or we can choose to see it as a lesson. You get to control how you view it. I know that might sound cheesy but it’s true. You learn something every single time you don’t succeed in the way you planned or expected.
Really failure is required to lead to success. This is true both in life and in business.
A practical example is your work history. Your first job teaches you a lot about what you love and don’t love to do at work. Maybe you found out that you loved working with people but really don’t like being in a fast-paced environment. So you find another job that aligns more with these values and you keep repeating this until you find the job or career that works best for you.
The first job wasn’t a failure. It was simply part of the process to finding the right job for you down the road.
The same thing goes for starting a business and for going after the dream life you want. You’re going to have to try and fail in order to get to the success you’re looking for.
So, how to get past the fear of starting your own business and go after your dream of working from home?
1. Figure out your big why
This is just a fancy way of saying that you need to figure out your big reason for wanting to pursue this life in the first place.
There’s a reason that you want to do it. Really take some time and think about your root reason for having these thoughts of starting your own business and living life on your own terms.
Is it for your kids? Is it to spend more time with your kids? Is it because you’re tired of working for other people and you really want to have more control over your income and your time? Maybe you really want to travel. Or you want to have more life experiences with your family and feel that your 9 to 5 job hinders that.
Whatever it is for you to write it down on a piece of paper so that you can refer back to it time and time again when things get hard and you need a reminder.
2. Name your fear
Figuring out what’s really stopping you can help you to conquer it. The book Do it Scared by Ruth Soukup is a great resource for this. With the book, she gives a free fear assessment that will tell you your top fear archetype (there are 7). It’s really fun and interesting to see what your top fear is.
Here’s the important part: once you know what is really holding you back, you can figure out ways to overcome that fear and not let it get in the way anymore.
For me, when I took the fear assessment, my top archetype was a people pleaser. This means that I care a lot about what other people think and fear that I’ll let them down or disappoint or bother them in some way.
One of the hardest things I had to overcome was my fear of disappointing others when I started my business.
After going to graduate school and getting a Ph.D., I quit to be a work at home mom. ‘
Talk about thinking I was disappointing people.
But I had to come to terms with the fact that it’s my life and the people that really matter to me will love and support me in whatever I do.
And they did.
So figure out what fear is really getting in your way so you can deal with it head on.
This is a great place to bring in a coach. If you’re wanting insight and support around the fears holding you back and how to overcome those so you can be successful, then I’d love to help you via a coaching session.
3. Map out your dream life
Pray and ask God to align your desires with His.
So often we think it’s bad to have dreams as Christians, but as we draw near to Him, He will start to show us what His plans are for us. Think about the Israelites and where God was leading them. It was to a land that would give them an amazing life.
So don’t hold back. Write it all out. Claim what God is putting in your heart.
Imagine what it will be like when this comes to be.
Does it include being able to eat breakfast with your kids every day? Maybe you have the freedom to travel the world and give your kids those life experiences. Is it the people impacted by the business? Is it generational wealth you will build for your family?
Whatever it is, don’t hold back. Your brain is going to try to tell you that some things aren’t possible but write them down anyway.
This is to motivate and inspired you to receive what God has for you. But it will take work.
4. Tap into your skills and passions
If you can get paid to do anything, what would that be? Don’t think logically here. Just dream and put down everything that you love to do and would love to get paid for on a daily basis.
When it comes to your skills, are there things that you have learned through a job or schooling that you really don’t want to give up?
You want to be true to yourself here. One of the best ways to get the courage to start your own business is to make sure that you are excited about the business idea. What better way to get excited than to imagine a life where you get paid doing something you love and using it for doing what God intended?
5. Start a side hustle
You don’t have to quit your job tomorrow and start a business. You can ease into it with a side hustle or side job.
Starting a side hustle is a great way to test out your ideas, too. It doesn’t require a ton of commitment upfront. You can start it while you maintain your job security and just see what it’s like.
The best way to do this is to tap into your skills and passions, figure out the best side hustle for you and make a commitment to yourself to simply get started.
For side hustle ideas based on your skills and passions check out this article.
In that article, I also point you to a variety of resources to help you get started if you’d like a little more guidance.
If you’re a podcast listener like me, then there is a great podcast called Side Hustle Nation with Nick Loper that has a lot of great examples of different side hustles people are doing. That’s how I heard that people made money blogging and doing so many other amazing things. Hearing all the different businesses can spark your ideas but also show you that people make money online all the time.
6. Know that failure is part of success and that’s ok.
The issue a lot of us have with failure is that we think it means it’s the end. But if failure is simply part of the process and required for us to reach our goals, then we can embrace any perceived failure because it really means we’re on our way to success.
You might start a side hustle and it might not work at all.
At that point, you have the option to either throw in the towel and go back to life as it was or you could learn from it, figure out what you should’ve done differently, what you didn’t like, and try again.
Doing this over and over and over is not only going to give you the confidence to keep pushing through and figuring out what works but it’s also going to get you closer and closer to the life you’re longing for.
This is how I did it.
I tried Etsy. Totally failed. Learned a lot through that (like that I really didn’t like creating physical products).
I tried selling on Amazon FBA. Didn’t fail at it, but I didn’t love it. Doing retail arbitrage and selling brand new items wasn’t exciting for me. But it might be for you.
I tried ebay. Loved it, but I also know that I love to teach and help people so I couldn’t see myself only selling things on ebay for the rest of my life.
In comes blogging and podcasting It’s perfect! I can help and teach moms how to navigate being a work-at-home mom while using my years of teaching experience and selling online to help me do that.
If I would’ve stopped with Etsy, then I’d still be working my 9-5 job and just trying to make it through. But I kept trying until I found something that works for me. And I’m sure it will continue to change as I change.
For more on how to keep taking steps toward your goal, you’ll definitely want to check out the book Dream Big, Step Small by Kristin Ostrander.
Summary
Up this point, you’ve been wishing you could have the life where you are working from home, being with your kids more and making amazing money to live an amazing life, but you’ve been holding back.
Using these tips, you can get past your fear and move toward your goals.
The 6 steps you need to take are:
Figure out your big why
Name your fear
Map out your dream life
Tap into your skills and passions
Start a side hustle
Know that failure is part of the process and that’s ok
With these strategies, you’re going to go from just thinking about quitting your job to actually taking action steps toward that goal and making it happen.
Thank you for the inspiration! I’m starting my own business!!!!!!