What is stopping you?

4/8/2014

What is stopping you from getting started?

On what ever project that may be, starting a business, making more money, planning that first mini-retirement?

I consider myself pretty good at getting things done but just like anyone else i suffer from anxiety, doubt and not wanting to face the world! Sometimes all it takes is getting started and then things flow; but getting started can be the most difficult part of any project!

Recently I asked 40 want to be entrepreneurs what was stopping them from getting started and I want to share the results of the survey with you and give you some top tips on overcoming these barriers to getting going

Encase you can't read the small writing on the right of the chart the three main things that stop people from starting are:

Confidence
Money
Focus

Two of these are directly related to our mindset and the other could be said to be indirectly related to our mindset!

The number 1 thing that was stopping our want to be entrepreneurs from getting going was Confidence.

Confidence: the magic ingredient

Confidence is this weird thing that can stop us from doing anything or gives us the energy, drive and motivation to go out there and take on the world! My friend Simon who I co-founded the Pop-Up Business School with always used to say "spend as much time building your business as you do your confidence" and i think that is great advice for anyone. So here are three ways you can work on your confidence:

Go to YouTube and search for videos on confidence building
Read a book on Confidence (My favourites are Tony Robbins when I need a boost!)
Come to one of our Pop-Up Business School events and we will help you

Money: the life blood of any venture

The belief "it takes money to make money" is one that keeps coming up every time we talk to people who want to start businesses. At the Pop-Up Business School we have started 100s of businesses without any money and we will show you how on the course. For now here is the secret in brief:

"Go and sell something to somebody" before you have created it and ask for the money up front before delivery. Sounds simple but that is it!

Focus: which of my 42 ideas should I start and what should I do first?

This can be a tough one. We had one lovely lady on the first ever Pop-Up Business School in Weston Super Mare that had 11 ideas for business and didn't know where to begin. Having too many options is paralysing.

The toughest thing to do is to pick one idea and get going. But what if you are wrong and pick the wrong idea??

That is the paralysing element of all of this. So our mantra is "fail fast and fail cheap" and you do this by going to sell your idea to a potential customer before you have even created the product. you will get a very quick answer and you will either fail fast and fail cheap or know that your idea has legs and you should pursue it!

We would love to hear what is stopping you from getting started, leave it in the comments below and we will give you some ideas of how to overcome it.

Of come to one of our upcoming events and we will help you start your business for free.

11 Comments

Patty Shayler link

4/8/2014 06:46:35 am

you forgot to put: raising a family.. not the best time to start :)

Alan Donegan link

4/8/2014 06:50:43 am

Patty, does that come under focus? That can be a big challenge! Time can just disappear! How are you doing?

Diana Jenkinson

4/8/2014 07:41:01 am

POP up gave me an understanding of how to break things down to manageable bites. Before I met these amazing people, there was a lot of stuff floating around in my head. I now have my product, and I can tell you it has evolved some what. I will soon be meeting with bounty who supply all gifts to hospitals, and Im also preparing for the NEC expo this year and wedding fairs next. couldn't have done it without these guys. xxx Thank you.

4/8/2014 07:43:12 am

Diana, wow thank you. I am so glad it is going well. I think you are going to have fun going out and selling your idea and showing people what you do. I a so impressed you have got going and are making things happen. GO GET EM! Hope to see you soon. Alan

magpie-market (sarah)

4/8/2014 04:03:32 pm

pop-up business are amazing people, Laura and Mark made a lot of us see that starting our own business is easy if we just did it. confidence and self belief are the only things that were holding us all back. its not a big jump, just a few small actions that lead to being self employed. thankyou pop-up

Matt Jackson link

5/8/2014 01:20:38 am

I agree with the three main aspects that stop you from going out on your own. In my personal experience those three manifested themselves slightly differently in as much that I already had a job and a decent wage, albeit a job that I didn't particularly enjoy.

My issues with confidence, money and focus were more rooted in leaving the security of a paying job and taking a risk with starting a business on my own. It was something I had thought about for several years, but it was also something that was very much outside of my comfort zone and a change from what I deemed normal.

In the end, the company I worked for made the decision for me, as I lost my job. I joined a Pop-Up Business School session in Aston, Birmingham less than a week later and it's safe to say that I learned more in that week than I did in my previous 15 year career. That was over 10 months ago now, and Alan and Mark have continued to offer support and advice ever since.

I'm now proud to be able to say that I am self-employed. I have more time for my family and friends and am doing a job that I love. But if I hadn't had that initial push and subsequently met the Pop-Up Business school I'd still be doing the same old job. It's a leap of faith and it is a little scary, but the rewards far out-weigh the risks!

5/8/2014 02:13:09 am

Matt, thank you for your comments. Wow. You have been on an incredible journey and Mark and I feel honoured we could be part of that journey. It is had been incredible seeing you grow your own business and make such a success of it and thank you for staying in touch and allowing us to help as you grow and become more successful! Incredible. I had exactly the same push as you did to start my own business. Sometime the world conspires to push you in the direction you need to go!

Graham Jennings link

5/8/2014 02:53:01 am

Firstly I would like to say thanks to Alan and the team at PopUp Business School, for giving me the legs to go out there and do it.
It has been a slow start, and having been on benefits for many years as a carer the switchover was not very smooth, but I had a great adviser at the Job Centre who helped me sort all of it out.
So far I have not made a lot of money, in fact it has been very sporadic so far, but I have made a lot of contacts along the way, and I feel that next year I will fly.
I still feel very positive about my business, but when I get the occasional 'Why am I doing this' doubts I just read through the notes I took at PopUp, look at my framed PopUp certificates and then go out into the big wide world and spread the word.
Yes, starting a business is a scary thing. Yes, you will have doubts, and Yes, there will be days when you long for the security you used to have. On those days you have to work hard to remember why you started your business, and then get out there in the big wide world and tell people about it.
Oh, and I have also made a lot of new friends along the way, through networking. These, on occasion, have even turned into paid work.
Never give up, Never overload yourself, and always remember why you started on the fantastic journey of being your own boss, and business owner.
Make it the ride of your life.

5/8/2014 03:20:54 am

Graham, what brilliant words. Thank you for that. Wow. And the doubts don't go away, we all get them sometimes. you are right it is remembering why you started and doing something that gets you going and excites you again. There have been several times over the 7 years I have run my own business I have had the thought "Should I go back and get a job" but I am so glad I didn't because I could have never had the life I have now working for someone else! Thank you for your comments Graham and let us know if there is anything we can do to support you. Alan

Ken Morton link

6/8/2014 10:08:17 am

Motivation can be a factor in getting started or just having a plain old mental block when it comes to having ideas about how to get your product or service to market.

6/8/2014 11:28:52 am

Ken I think you are exactly right. You need energy and motivation to get going and a clear idea of what getting going looks like. if you don't know what direction the first step should be in then how can you make it!?