Rethink and address your excuses

When plagued with self-doubt, new entrepreneurs tend to dig up countless excuses to give up or procrastinate their plans for a new business startup. Common concerns include issues about money, time and, most importantly, fear of failure. This is when people often become blinded by how much they may lose, and lose insight on how much they could potentially gain if they just focused on the bigger picture and worked towards the final goal. This is why there are so many people who dream of becoming entrepreneurs, yet never actually take any concrete actions to realise their ambitions. It is thus important to try to find solid solutions to your excuses and see whether they can be eliminated for good.

Advice for New Business Owners

Of course, this does not mean that new business owners are encouraged to plunge headfirst into some new venture with blind courage and positivity. The key is for a new business owner to take calculated risks. Assess your finances, analyse the feasibility of your business idea, arrive at a legal business structure, purchase insurance, build a good team, market your products and services, and then continue to work very hard.

A good way to kick-start things is to seek advice from experts and pick up key lessons from the success and failures from other entrepreneurs. Having trusted advisers will also make a big difference when starting up and growing a new business.

It’s also important to understand that starting and running a new business is a learn-as-you-go process – no one has it all figured out on day one. The earlier you accept this, the higher the chances you can make a successful move towards your goals.

Embrace mistakes – learn the bigger lesson

Failure often has a bad reputation among new entrepreneurs, who often do not recognise that it can be the important stepping-stone to future success. Regardless of how you see failure, it is an inevitable part of starting and running a new business, especially when you are forced to venture out of your comfort zone. By reflecting, reviewing and staying humble, valuable time and energy can be applied to identifying the reasons behind failures. It is also crucial to avoid playing the blame game; instead, help your business team learn and grow as a cohesive entity.

Over time, your business will be equipped with a set of useful business solutions and be rid of any habitual reasons that could otherwise have resulted in repeated failure scenarios.

Lastly, always dedicate some time to re-evaluating your business model and plans, and do not resist change if there is strong evidence to support it.