If you were to ask an aspiring soap & bath products business owner what their biggest fears is for their business, you might expect to hear “fear of failure”.
That would be the logical answer. The fear of starting a business and not succeeding. Not being able to sell enough to make the business work. Not reaching your goals.
However, what I have found as a coach to soapmakers is that the biggest fear is not actually of failing.
It is of succeeding.
What? Why would anyone be scared to have a successful, thriving business?
It starts with your identity. This means how you perceive yourself. How you view your capabilities, strengths and role in the world.
It is comfortable for many of you to live in an identity of struggle. To accept life being difficult as inevitable. To embrace hardship, setbacks & rejection as normal.
More often than not, soapers don’t see themselves as the CEO of a growing business, or as managers of a team of employees or as the head of sales at a thriving product business.
Whether you are a stay at home mom, or in the corporate world, odds are high that starting and running a $1MM dollar bath & body product business is not ALREADY on your resume.
So, when you venture into new territory, there is going to be a natural fear of being unqualified for the role (see “imposter syndrome”). If you don’t believe that you have the necessary experience to take on a task like running a business on your own, your subconscious will try to keep you “safe” and prevent you from being in the position of running a thriving business. In other words, you sabotage your successful business (often without realizing that you are doing so).
Related to my point above is simply not knowing how to run a business, and being fearful of letting people down as a result. For example “if I got 10 wholesale accounts and they all ordered at once, and I could not fill those orders, I would disappoint them / burn bridges / get a bad reputation.”
Unfortunately, fear of success can cause you to stay stuck at the bottom of the ladder.
It is easier to dream about your business than it is to take action. It is easier to embrace struggle than it is to learn how to see yourself as the CEO of an amazing company. If you come from a place where money was always a source of worry, where people complain about unfulfilling jobs “working for the man”, then that will be a familiar place for you. Your subconscious will try to keep you there because it feels like home.
If this sounds familiar, what can you do to overcome this fear?
First step is to see what is going on. You cannot work on your mindset if you don’t become are of what you are TRULY scared of. What you are genuinely worried about. Sometimes we get stuck in the weeds with excuses about little things, when the real issue is something completely different.
Second step is to understand that every entrepreneur goes though this struggle. It is part of the journey, and if you want to overcome fear of succeeding, you have to keep pushing yourself DESPITE the fear. That is what being brave means – doing something even though it is scary.
Third step is to realize most of what you fear is imaginary. You are worrying about things that MAY happen but probably won’t. You have the power to change what you think about, and you CAN choose to focus on an outcome where everything works out perfectly. Train your mind to prepare for the best case scenario.
Be aware – YOU can figure out anything that anyone else has figured out with business ownership.
Perseverance and determination will get you so much further along than pretty much anything else. Most problems are solvable. Get out of your own way and give yourself permission to live up to your true potential. Give yourself permission to pursue your dream without fear of succeeding.
Being successful is in the cards for you, but you are going to have to get out of your safe, little bubble and seize the opportunities around you.
