by Ronald Nzimora
This post is an accusation. A call to the battlefield. A sharp stick that says “get off your ass and do something.”
Don’t worry I didn’t write it for you; I wrote it for myself.
Every one of these reasons has haunted me at one time or another over the past 10 years. Many months ago I thought I was the only person who struggled with them. Now I have several conversations a week that indicate otherwise. Hundreds of people suffer the same thing.
Touche. I’m not lonely anymore.
In my experience, fear is the #1 reason that keeps people from launching their new business. Except most people don’t recognize it as fear because it reveals itself in many other ways. Like…
These reasons will come to life every time you start something new, be it an application, a website, a book, a soap formular or a presentation, whatever. Excuses don’t discriminate based on what you’re creating.
So with that, here are five reasons you (and I) haven’t launched that new business idea…
Reason #5: You’re Scared
I was. We all are.
In my experience, fear is the #1 reason that keeps people from launching their new business. Except most people don’t recognize it as fear because it reveals itself in many other ways. Like…
They need to make everything perfect, to add one more feature, or to read one more marketing book. These are all ways that fear turns itself into excuses to yet delay the launch.
Yes, this is how fear really works. It keeps you from launching by tricking you into thinking you have real work to do, when that work is actually pointless busy work created to postpone your launch. Because launching is scary.
Actually, it’s terrifying.
The truth is they really are afraid of losing the money they put into the business.
Now that it understandable.
But guess what?
Nothing ventured nothing gained.
You don’t refuse to move from your house in Surulere, to your place of work in Victoria Island, just because there might be an accident on the way.
No. You simply get up and start moving with faith that no matter what happens on the road today, you’ll be safe.
That’s the spirit.
You have to believe that no matter what, this new venture will succeed.
We’re all terrified at one time or another. Think when you were a kid and a masquerade used to make you bolt into the safe confines of your room whenever you saw one? These days, you just walk past them, and even dance a little with them. You can do this because, you have learnt to deal with that fear.
You just have to deal with fear and move on or you’ll never get your product out of the door and into the hands of a customer.
Reason #4: You’re Busy Making ‘Improvements’ To Your Ideas (That No One Will Use)
When was the last time you spoke with someone who is planning to use your product or buy your idea in the outside world?
Not I don’t mean your friend who’s testing it out your website to make sure it doesn’t crash when someone logs in, or that your new cake recipe doesn’t taste awful when bitten into vertically.
I’m talking about a real customer who put a hand in their pocket and drew out some cash and told you they are anticipating the release of your product and can’t wait to hand over the money in exchange?
If you’ve not working directly with at least two customers you have no idea if what you’re building is adding value. Or a total waste of time.
Push the idea out into the market. Let paying customers determine what they want or don’t want.
Reason #3: LindaIkejiBlog, Goal.com, and [Insert Extra Distractions Here
See, there are distractions everywhere, including new-invented ones that disguise themselves as productive work (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, gossip blogs).
If you really want to get that new business idea started, please, forget the TV and video games.
How many times have you found yourself thinking you were being productive only to look back and realize you spent 3 hours searching and evaluating something you may not need until 6 months down the road?
And which frankly, you’ll probably never need.
Another common distraction masquerading as productivity is reading business books. It’s a perfect way to escape reality because you think you’re ‘learning’. Suffice to say, most business books are the entrepreneur’s Kryptonite.
Avoiding distractions takes discipline, and discipline is hard. Especially when building your product is supposed to be fun.
Wait, this is supposed to be fun, right?
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but coming up with an idea and turning it into a sellable a product isn’t quite what most ‘gurus’, blogs, books and magazines make it out to be. It’s actually long sessions of repeated hard work, late nights, and a boatload of discipline. For some people that’s fun. For others, not so much. You should decide which camp you’re in before you get started.
Reason #2: You’re Set on Doing Everything Yourself
Yes, I am going to say it.
One of the most time consuming startup roadblocks is your need to control every detail and do every piece of work yourself. When you’re scraping together 15 hours a week of night and weekend time, outsourcing 5 hours a week makes you 33% more productive.
You may be able to design graphics, but there are people who can do it faster and better than you. For $50 at 99 Designs.com, you can save yourself several hours of time. Hell the folks at Fiverr.com can do it in about 24 hours for less than $10.
You may be able to write advertisements that generate business prospects, but there are people who can do it faster and better than you.
The same goes for web design, theme creation, programming, and a long list of other pre-launch business tasks.
Time is one of your most precious commodities. Conserve it with a passion.
Launch!
Reason #1: Waiting for Validation
In 2008 when I started my business, I went to a conference where I met this guy, who obviously was successful. We got talking and he asked me what I did.
I told him I was a internet marketing consultant. He then asked if I was a member of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN), and I replied in the negative.
He also asked me if I studied marketing in university to which I said, no.
He looked at me with some derision and then proceeded to give me a long lecture why I couldn’t practice marketing of any sort without being a member of the institute.
When he was done, I told him I didn’t need him or his institute (obviously he was a member) to express rights of expression which were guaranteed by the Nigerian constitution.
Many people fall prey to the snare of validation.
They’re thinking…
“I’m not good enough.”
“I need some extra qualification.”
“I need to be “certified”.”
“I have to take some more training.”
“So, so and so has said I am not qualified”
Etc. Etc.
C’mon!
Who dictates how much you know? And just how old do you have to be to become successful and rich?
There is no rule that says you’ve got to spend X amount of time working in the field until you’re good enough to go out on your own. There’s no law that says you must have some extra qualification to start a business.
This is what I told a friend of mine who is an amazingly talented make-up artiste who wanted to take some “certification exam” abroad in order to qualify to create her beauty and skin lighting soap formular.
I told her it was unnecessary.
I said, get the product to market first, and even see if it will sell. Use the funds for the certification for marketing the product and getting your name out instead.
The market is the only true test for how much you know. Not some exam. Not some certification. And definitely, not some training.
Of course if you are starting in a new venture and field you have no knowledge about, you must take some upfront training.
But understand this: You’ll only be as successful as your mindset allows.
If you don’t think you’re an expert, then nobody else will, either. In other words, the first person you have to convince of your expert status is YOURSELF!
My guess is that you already have enough knowledge to be an expert in your chosen field…you’re probably just not comfortable with “being” an expert yet.
Well, it’s time to get over that!
You have to accept that your knowledge is sufficient, and start projecting the image that you want others to have of you.
Like Dan Kennedy said, ‘Get extremely good at something and anoint yourself an expert in it.’
(I have a lot to say about this topic but I’ll stop here for now. Your brain surely now has more food it’ll need to digest. Stay tuned here, we’ll bring you more juicy info.
Have a great week.
Ronald Nzimora
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Ronald Nzimora runs Profits Marketing Systems Limited, an online marketing communications and publishing firm. He’s also invested in two more. He tweets from @ronaldnzimora
Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.
