Is Anyone Truly Prepared when Starting a Business?
Today is hard for me. I established my name, got most of the paperwork done. I completed my operating agreement and even touched up my business cards. Things have been going well for me as I’m setting up my business, which I’m not even sure what I can officially label it as yet. Marketing, communications, account management? It’s not that I am not full of intentions — I’m trying to fit all my wonderful services and talents into a neat one-sentence description.
Things were going well until I got to website design. I create a branding strategy for my clients. But what is my brand? What represents me?
This is where the trouble began.
I had no problem paying the piper. It’s the cost of doing business. The hard part is creating the initial impression that will be my website. Cards are one thing — they allow for a little bit of fun. And if I’m giving them out, they have already met me in person and I was able to speak for myself. But a website has to capture and inform. I have to convince the potential client to hire me and if my site isn’t fully functional or if it doesn’t catch the eye, then I have failed at the job I want to be paid to do.
I began writing, thinking, and planning for myself. I went back to my personal mission statement that I developed some months ago. It says, “My mission is to embody confidence, resilience, and discipline, in hopes to inspire others to build a life that’s entirely their own.”
Well, I’m not feeling very confident in myself right now. It’s a lot of pressure to create something that encompasses all that I do in an aesthetically pleasing manner; to have the brevity that comes with my personality, all while trying to represent my services.
Sitting here, writing this is helping me work it out for myself right now.
I’m also wondering if anyone is ever fully prepared to take the leap and start a business. There’s so much fear in me right now. Fear of rejection and failure. Fear of time and money spent. Fear of making the wrong choices. Fear of being unable to provide for myself and my child.
Given my weakened state, I also ask myself if I believe in me and my product.
Do I?
Yes.
Belief in myself, my product, and that this is the right time is what is going to get me though this transitional period. I also believe that as long as I put on a brave face and show up every single day, I will eventually get some long-lasting clientele.
As many paragraphs as I devoted to second guessing myself in comparison to the little bit of hope I’m holding onto, I need to flip the thinking around. I mean, I haven’t even given myself the chance to fail yet. Yet here I am, thinking self-defeating thoughts.
This is why I write.
If anyone else is starting a business or is thinking about it, send me a comment. Tell me how you’re feeling and what you do to get out of the hole of self-doubt.
After all, building a website and representing myself should be fun.
Let’s try not to be too serious about it.
