How to put passion into practise: Overcoming your fears and starting your own business
By: Eleanor Kate
Tags: Fear Of Failure, Finance And Banking, New Business, Entrepreneurship, Employment

Image from Unsplash @rahulp9800

Have you ever thought about starting your own business but then felt the financial risks were too big? Or decided not to take the leap for fear of failure?

Well you’re not alone, when Australians were asked why they were afraid to start a business the main answers were fear of failure and financial loss.

So why do people want to start a business? The reasons included financial control, passion, independence and a desire to help others. Starting a business is gaining interest, with business registrations with ASIC increasing 10% year-on-year in the 6 months prior to June 2020.

I conducted a series of interviews as well as a quantitative survey among men and women aged from 20–55 between August and October of 2020.

Fears

So although wanting to start a business, participants expressed hesitation. Fear of failure and financial loss were the overwhelming reason. For many their life circumstances were feeding into their fear of failure due to pre-existing family commitments. One participant said, “with the life stage I’m at there’s added responsibility. I’m married and we’re probably having a family soon…It would be good to move on with your own passion but at the same time you can’t compromise on family.”

Not having had the foundations within Australia nor the financial freedom yet to set up her own business another participant stated that she “still does not have many Australian friends,” and that her lack of connections were impacting on her confidence to start a business. She also said that money was a big concern stating “I need a job to pay my rent and bills first, then I can think about doing something different. Ironically I need to be an employee first to afford to be an entrepreneur.” Participants who had previously had their own businesses and had not achieved their goals were wanting to try again. The experience that things don’t always go to plan may have also raised concerns about business failure.

‘Impostor Syndrome’, qualifications, where to start?

Other factors holding people back were a lack of capital and “impostor syndrome.” This was explained by one participant as questioning whether he was qualified enough to charge people services he was currently providing for free. He expressed self doubt about how to run a business and his lack of qualifications. Others highlighted similar feelings about a lack of professional experience and not knowing where to start.

Interestingly participants expressed and interest in starting businesses that were in a different industry to the ones they were currently working in or qualified for. Such as people in childcare wanting to move toward textiles, and people moving from education toward hospitality and moving from computer studies to environmental sustainability. I noticed a pattern of people wanting to move away from their professional careers into areas they were more passionate about.

Overcoming Challenges

So what would help people to move forward with their plans to start a business? The overwhelming responses were coaching, help with planning and a checklist of what needs to be done. Almost all of the respondents found that whilst they have their ideas, they are unsure of where to start. These feelings stemmed from not having an understanding of what is needed to start a business, being unaware of what clients may actually want, wanting coaching to ensure they were setting the business up correctly, or the desire to find contacts to bounce ideas off.

Next Steps

If you are thinking of starting a business and would like some tips to help you push past your fear and reduce your risk of failure, then here is a free downloadable guide.