At the start, most of us business owners have a certain fear of selling. It is usually caused by the bad images of pushy and annoying sales people that keep filling our heads with dreadful experiences and cheesy tag lines. Also, another reason why we might hate selling is that we never want to get rejected by a prospective client.

As business owners, we need to overcome this irrational fear and get over it as soon as we can; because if we don’t there are great repercussions as to what it can do for ourselves and our business.

There are three main reasons why we need to reconsider our unwillingness to sell. The first reason is very obvious. No selling equates to our business suffering. No sales equate to no revenue. No revenue equates to no profit; and ultimately, no profit means no business.

The second reason is very obvious too. Not selling also has its negative effect on our self-confidence. It may even come to a point that the fear of rejection can stop us from entirely selling.

The third, and last reason – though not so obvious and is usually forgotten by most of us, is that not selling equates to us not helping as many people as we wanted. We established our business and created our products and services so that we can help people out (and profit while doing it). Not selling means that we are not fulfilling our mission as business owners to help our customers and the industry.

If you’ve got that fear of turning into the salesperson you hate, then now is the time to change your mindset. We are all in the middle of an alleged economic crisis where every dollar earned counts.

I also kind of did an introspection as to why I am hesitant to sell my product; and these are the things I found out.

There are also three reasons why I don’t want to sell; and these are mainly just biases based on very bad experiences with sleazy sales people. I’m sure these might also look all too familiar to you.

The first reason being is that I love to buy, but I don’t like being sold to. I’ve had that experience with an annoying car salesman wherein I felt that the only thing he cared about was  getting my money. Oh, how I despised that person that time. I felt like that he was desperate and only focused on getting that fat commission.

Next reason was that I always had a notion that all salespeople are insincere, dishonest, and are very self-focused. This was another bias that stopped me from selling. The third and last reason was that I always had that fear of being rejected. Who doesn’t?

If you can relate to these three reasons, then, like me, you’ve put some limitations on yourself regarding selling and have already sold yourself short of what you can actually put on the table.

Here are some tips on how I cured this fear. Who knows? It might cure yours too.

1. You need to change your mind set when it comes to selling. Selling is an exchange of value. It means that I provide you something, and in exchange, you give me something of equal value. Think of the ‘barter trading system’ of the old days.

1. You need to believe that your product or service is the best. When you have this kind of belief in your product or service, selling usually comes naturally. Just think of the best movie you’ve watched this year. When you discuss it with your friends, aren’t you very enthusiastic about it to a point that you try to sway your skeptical friends to also consider your point of view? This is what most people call the ‘raving fan syndrome.’

If you’re not a ‘raving fan’ of your own product or service, then you might want to re-evaluate the product/service itself. Be mindful that not being a ‘raving fan’ of your own product and service might turn you into the ‘sleazy car salesman’ who’s only goal is to hit the quota and get that commission.

1. Always remember that the customer is more important than the sale. Offering value and helping people with their needs are your most important goals as a business owner. Though you may not have made a sale this time; but if you continue focusing on these important goals, you will build a lifetime fan. This will, of course, equate to more sales in the long run.

Fear is a natural human instinct, even the bravest and most experienced feel fear, and the only difference is how well it is handled. Fear can even be used as a catalyst to do something great, as a stimulant to want to be better.

I have come to witnessed someone spoke in court with the excellent confidence that one glance of him would make someone think his gift is in-born. But the truth is, he was just like anyone of us, he started as a terribly speaker, he trembles in front every time he speaks. His fear overwhelms him when he stands and speaks. But instead of succumbing to the paralyzing effect of fear, he rather did the opposite. He used fear to stimulate him to become better. He went out of his way and learned the required techniques of public speaking. He desired to be better, and so he became way better than he was. He grabbed every opportunity to test his newfound confidence and skill, and then fear gradually become lesser until he was able to conquer it.

He might have stumbled and made a few mistakes as he learned but all the while he makes his leaning greater; he never wavered. He conquered his fear by fear and so succeeded.

We have a tendency to procrastinate towards conquering fear. But fear stays as fear when we do nothing about it. We have to make an active stand on overcoming our worst fears. Fear keeps us from being the best that we are designed to be. So to help you with overcoming fears, it might help you to repeat some Positive Words and Affirmations:

Speak Positive Words

• I will conquer my fear
• I will not be deterred by fear in any way
• I will not procrastinate, I will do it now
• I will improve my skills, I will become better
• I will seek people’s council and wisdom
• I will make mistakes my stepping stone towards progress
• I will exhaust all possible ways to improve myself
• I will never be conquered by failure
• I will succeed at all cost
• I will experience growth and progress along the way

Speak forth Affirmations

• I am successful in everything I do
• I am as brave as any of the great heroes
• I am as skilled as the greatest artists
• I am poised for all the great possibilities
• I am loved
• I am secure
• I will live to be a blessing for others

You get to choose your own affairs, you choose your fate. Success do not happen by accident, it is always by choice. Therefore, when fear grips you, choose to be confident instead. When you feel like giving up, choose to strive harder instead. Choose to become better than dwindle in frustrations. Choose to be confident.

Often times, we are a little bit of hesitant about spending money for our business; and we should be. After all, the money that we spend is good, well-earned money. However, as business owners, it is our task to disburse our well-kept funds in order to make our business grow. A growing business is a surviving business in this cutthroat competition-driven market.

Money is not being grown on some money tree; it is being earned through hard work instead. We must be vigilant in spending our money not because we are stingy, but rather, there are things that we could avoid spending too much on with the right outlook on things.

Public relations, for example, does not need to be overly-funded. However, we stress that the advice of experts in the field will be a great help. One way of overspending in the PR field is if you are trying to sell a bad story. If you do not have a good lead or an interesting pitch to your sales call, then definitely no one will buy it. The public will rather see it as a nuisance and will just put it back in the shelf where they have stumbled upon it. So, no matter how much money you spend trying to boost your PR, if the public does not want it, the media will not even bother to look at it.

What you need here is a good lead; a great story. If you have something worthwhile, worth talking about, and worth repeating, even if you have an understaffed PR unit, the media will take it. This is because the public wants it.

Another important thing for business owners like us to remember is the fact that we have limitations.  These are not just economic limitations, but social limitations as well. We must not take this as something bad or unnatural; but this is something that we should always take into consideration.

Here’s an example. Even if you do have a logistical capability and all the resources that you need to undergo long and expeditious trips, always remember that you have a family and you have a home. Those entrepreneurs that can afford long trips are those who are not attached, unmarried or just free-spirits who hunger for adventure and new knowledge.

For us home-lovers, we should take care of our marriage, wife and kids. After all, we undergo business not to just earn money, but to provide a better future for those that we love. This is a central philosophy that we should always take into our minds and hearts as we go along doing our daily routine.

The battle of the cutthroat competition of the free market will make us stronger business owners, but we do not want yourself to be distracted by issues of domestic concerns. We should always set our priorities and goals and always take into account the scope and limitations of our abilities. In the end we will know what and what not to do.

You have an enormous faith in yourself that you could do great many things, and then suddenly you hear voices telling you that you could not. Does it sound familiar? Do you hear voices that inject doubts and negativity? You have the power to shut them all off!

I always thought I could give as much knowledge about Leadership as any other Leadership experts. I know that I have all with me my needed ingredients to be as effective as anybody else. But then the annoying voices start whispering thoughts and words that make me curl and fold. The voices seem to gain strength every time I resolve to reach my true potential. It makes me feel small and unworthy. It seems to have all the right reasons why I should not aim high. It never stops in pointing out what I lack; that I would not amount to anything worthy. It injects fear and worries. The little voice of disappointment is only good in one thing, to disappoint you from gaining confidence and eventually succeed in achieving your goals. You have the power to not listen to its lies. Here are a few steps to help you combat the ill effects of the voice:

• Invite the voice to state all its reasons and opinions, and then take time to think over maybe he has a point.
• Write down all that the voice said to you. If it injects doubt then write down what specific doubt is it referring to and the corresponding reason. This way, you allow yourself to gain a better understanding of your capacity and your limits which you could use to your advantage.
• Talk back to the voice. Make conversation with it and deal with it as if you are really talking to a tangible being. Thank it for the help, and that because of him you gained a far better perspective that would have taken you longer if you were left alone to your own devices. Make a resolve to craft valuable resolution about the things that need improvement.
• Start making decisions that impact your way of life towards achieving your goal and making things possible. Believe that you are capable of achieving anything that you ever thought of achieving. Do not concern yourself about the impossibility; just think that you can do it.
• Project a healthy image of you in your mind. Make a goal of achieving that image. If you wish to become a successful leadership guru then you better start imagining yourself standing on stage giving lectures upon lectures on countless numbers of audiences. Your reality starts in your mind.

By thinking positive, you create positive outcomes. By thinking that everything is possible, you make every bit of your goals possible no matter the circumstances. Your mind has the power to make things into being. If you think of becoming physically strong then you will indeed become strong. If you dream of ever becoming a successful businessman then indeed your dream will be yours. That is the power of possibility.

In every venture, either personal or professional, confidence is an effective yardstick for success. The performance of your business is directly proportional to your expectations and your confidence on meeting those expectations. I believe it is worth your while and mine to discuss a few of pointers about the importance of confidence in starting a small business.

The first thing that comes to mind when starting a business comes up is whether you have the capacity to run it, or even start one. You could be overwhelmed by the tremendous pressures even way before you had your first day of business. It is the tendency of the human instinct to formulate ungrounded fears based solely on unfounded facts. When you fear even way before you move, you lose. Your analysis of what happens in the future keeps you from making bold moves in the present; which is definitely detrimental to your fledgling business.

Before I had my own copy write business, I took a tremendous amount of time deciding whether I am really good enough for it. For days, I kept seeing reasons why other writers are better than me. I was hopelessly on the edge of giving up my aspirations merely because of my own imagined fears. Thankfully, there was one person who told me to get hold of myself and start gaining confidence in my own abilities. He said I should start out by being clear with my goals, vision and capacity. I need to be clear on what specific fields do I really want to flourish. Once things are already clear then I already began building up my confidence, which is a lot easier because I already have a strong foothold about issues at hand. My confidence started to climb unprecedented heights until I realized that people flock to me to hire me to write for their websites. That was just quite amazing for someone who started out without strong self confidence.

I became very good with what I do which probably the reason why people trust my ability to do their work for them. When potential clients approach me, they see a clear terms of what they expect from me as much as they are also crystal clear of their obligations to me as being my clients.

When you have clarity on your skills and your abilities, people get the sense that you could do a certain job seriously wonderful and worthy of their spent resources.

I personally believe that success is impossible without a taste of failure. It is in failure where the learning is found and not in success. As one of the famous people says, “Success is a poor teacher”.

Success belongs to the daring, to those who are willing to brave the tides without remorse on the consequences. For you to succeed, you have to take risks somehow; to make valuable investments with pure audacity. When you are in a quest of achieving and accomplishing a great task, you need to be ready for the risks you are about to take. And when you take them, you must contemplate on the consequences. But you do not really think about this if you really want to succeed, right? Because all you could ever think of is the prize beyond the challenges. You are thinking of the celebration after an ordeal.

One reason why many people fail is because they fear failure. They do not want to fail that they do nothing at all. But if you rather not do anything at all, how will you suppose to succeed? Michael Jordan is one of the greatest players in NBA history, if not the greatest. In his lifetime, he scored noteworthy points. He was a scoring champion several times while he played. But what many people do not understand is: while he makes the most points for his team, he also makes the most number of shots and consequently the most number of misses. Yes, you heard it right; Jordan made the most number of missed shots too. But did it deter him to succeed? Did it cause him to fold and mourn? He was only making true of a mathematical truth that if you want to make the most number of shots, you have to take as much opportunity to shoot and risk a high probability of misses.

There are quite so many people in history that failed so many times and yet lived victorious lives because they were able to glean the lesson from the pain. Winston Churchill endured dozens of failure before he made his mark in history. Roosevelt, the crippled President was in his wheelchairs when he made the best moments of his life making the most important decisions in a time of war. There are countless others who have failed, and failed many times over, and yet become great because they do not see failure as it is, they only consider it as a bump for which an opportunity for them to reorganize.

Do not fear failure, be bold, take risks, and success will follow you all the days of your life.

I and my husband watched Roger Federer play, and my husband had been adamant on me asking Federer to coach for him. The idea really sounds absurd, but my husband was clearly driving a different nail; he wants me to believe I could be a coach.

How would I ever feel, offering my services to one of the most successful athletes of all time? It does not seem right for someone like me, with nothing to show for compared to Roger Federer, to literally go and point blank ask him to make me his coach. He made his millions when I was still dreaming of making one. He is popular, and nice, and smart, and gorgeous. But my husband’s point is: so what? My hubby wants me to think far beyond the way I think now. He wants me to realize that if I need to convince people on something, I need to be convinced of it first. I’ll tell someone it is black when I see it and know that indeed it is black. I just wish it was as easy as that to ask Roger to make me his coach.

In business, you need to project an image of self confidence. You need not flaunt an image that does not project the real you; No, that is exactly not what I meant to drive out. You have to be genuinely confident; you should be able to answer your clients’ questions without gaps and uncertainty. You must assert you authority on things you know you are really good at. But of course it is entirely different from bragging. Your clients will trust you based on your track record and on your confidence that you will deliver what you promised.

How do you exactly do this; by dreaming big! When you set your goals real high and you eventually achieve it, the rest will become a lot easier to handle. If I get to make myself Roger’s coach, don’t you think it would not be simpler for me to approach lesser players to play under my tutelage? That is exactly my point. Expand your tent. Make your dream bigger and your goals loftier each time. Not long from now, you will just realize that in the process, you were helping yourself build up your self-confidence. If need be, affirm yourself. Speak words of affirmations:

• Say you are the best
• Say you are becoming the man that you ought to be
• Say you are a success everyday in every way

When you believe that you are capable of reaching a lofty goal, the necessary ability to do it will automatically follow. So when you are having trouble with self-confidence, just dream big.

Have you often experienced a few brushes with some of your closest friends that made you question your self-confidence?

There are times that all the plans and the goals that go with it, things you were so certain about, suddenly become shaky and precarious simply because other people are not as enthusiastic as you are with your vision. This should not bother you at all. It is supposedly your call, not someone else’s. Believe in your dreams to come true without having to wait for anyone else to believe in it too. Make it a point to stand your ground even in your weakest state. You are only as great as you allow yourself to be.

When you experience a season of doubt and despair, get hold of yourself and do not be overcome by it. These 4 simple steps could help you during this bout:

1. Analyse it

Allow yourself to analyse the situation. Take a step backward and see things in an entirely different perspective. Give yourself time to contemplate on things that evoked doubt and frustration within yourself. You do not need to jump into hasty conclusions right away. Consider talking to people who could help you sort things out. By doing this, you give yourself enough time to learn things that need attention and apparently make you reclaim your self-belief.

2. You need to decide appropriately

After spending enough time to analyze all the feedback you received, you need to make an appropriate decision that rightly addresses the issue at hand. Deal with it. Meet it head on. Make a resolve to become a better individual and then move on. All you really need to do is to glean the relevant feedback for your own benefit, and then decide to continue with your pursuit. Decide to go on with your aspirations. Your decision matters what becomes of you.

3. Be utterly focused

When everything goes tumbling down, your focus will get you through even in the direst circumstance. Your focus will strengthen you when your body already feels weak battling self doubt. You should never, even for a moment, take your eyes off your goals; you must magnify the result, the prize. Your focus allows you to see things clearly which consequently boosts your self-confidence.

4. Do not give up

Do not give up. Do not even contemplate the idea of losing, even for a moment. You need to believe that nothing could deter you from achieving your dreams that you are meant to achieve. If you make mistakes, learn and then start over again. If you fall, stand and strive again. When you get tired, rest for a while then get fired up again. Do not allow yourself to give in to defeat. Failure is never permanent, unless you allow it to be. That is why you must never give up. Do not give up on your dreams.

You cannot feel responsible about what other people say about you. You just have to believe that you possess the ability to believe in your dreams and make them come true. 

I bet you always have this nagging feeling of wanting to succeed in your business. If so, you are not alone, every businessman thinks the same.

Do you feel troubled at times, about big and petty things in your life? Do you always wonder where the next paycheck will come; where to get the next source to pay off an order? Are you afraid of failing of what you are doing now? Are you being paralyzed from doing anything at all because you cannot imagine yourself being a failure?

If indeed you have these thoughts, then you are playing safe, you are not trying to succeed even. When you play safe, failure looms all the more nearer. It makes you cranky and desperate and weary. You cannot succeed if all you ever do is worry about failing. When you fail, that could not be permanent unless you allow it to be. So you need not fear. Anything bad that could happen in a business could be an imperative part of your success, so you just have to learn from your mistakes and get up every time you fall. There is no point staying fallen when you have all the capacity to get back on your knees.

I once had a bout with cancer, and it could have been the end for my personal life and my business. I however met it head on. I went out to fight cancer and was back running my life and my business in a short span of time. I made essential changes, I let my business went through constructive renovation and the results are just quite amazing. I had every reason to give up, of fearing that I might just lose everything, but I stood up and undoubtedly achieved what I needed to achieve. My attitude has always been to win every game in life, even the losing one.

Do not make fall-back plans

When you make fall-back plans, you are not trying to win at all; rather you are still playing it safe. Contingencies are good, but you need to believe that your primary plan will work. For your businesses to succeed at its best, do not be clamped with so many worries, but you need to be pretty positive; you have to believe that you will succeed

Live by your commitments

You have to craft a genuine commitment and live by it. You have to live by your vision. Your commitment is proportional to the progress that your business will experience. Make your decisions that will truly impact your position of not succumbing to fear. Your attitude must emanate strength and faith.

You win if you play to win

There is no one who could tell whether you are a loser or a winner, in life you are the one who decides, not other people, not anyone else. Failure is a conscious decision, as much as success is an act of choice. So if you have already decided to play a winning game, how else could you lose? Playing to win does not necessarily mean things will always happen the way you want it to happen. Of course, there are bumps and curves along the way, the only question there is whether you go on or you give up. Winners always go on, always anticipating the prize, the end of the road. But losers look at the downs and the holes, and eventually lose. The success of your business depends on your decision. You better decide it to win, to succeed.

Failure is not failure at all for someone who wants to succeed. Do not give in to fear, practice thinking positively instead.

For many years, I literally gave up watching TV, but just recently I got hooked to watching the famous reality show “the biggest Loser”, mainly because it teaches valuable lessons in life. I even find it worthy of applying some of its principles in running my business.

The reality show is centered on people trying to lose weight while trying to win the prize. Along the way, I believe, the show teaches a lot more than just mere losing weight, it teaches people to not easily give up on their aspirations, to believe in themselves, no matter the cost. They are teaching the participants to look in their images in a better perspective, to look at their lives with more faith in their selves.

Believing in yourself at all cost

Your success heavily depends on your ability to believe in yourself at all cost. When the going gets rough, what makes you through is your belief that you will make it through. When the goals seem impossible to achieve, what makes you succeed is your belief in yourself that you can succeed. Every single phase you go through, believing in yourself matters whether you will pass the test or not.

My greatest challenge of running my own business is not on the technical side whatsoever, it is in believing that I can certainly do it.

Every time I have a great task ahead of me, I always make it a point to start the work believing that I could finish it to its completion. Whenever I believe in myself that I can do it, then I can do it indeed.

Sacrifice and discipline

When you believe in yourself that you can do it, you also have to be prepared to make ample sacrifices and go through the process of discipline. In the “The Biggest Loser”, they are taught to give up something to achieve a higher goal. They are trained to follow a routine of discipline to renovate their system in accordance to achieving their goal. It is the same in business, sacrifice and discipline are essential ingredients of success. If there is something that you really want to happen or possess, you can bring it to reality by having a strong resolve of achieving it no matter the circumstance, even having to sacrifice. That is the true test of believing in Yourself.

Prioritise and do not procrastinate

The antithesis of success is procrastination. Do not wish, do it now. Do not wait for tomorrow, do it today. If you believe you can achieve your goals, start doing it now. Do not wait. And while you start doing things, work only on the relevant ones. Drop anything that does not contribute to your well-being.

It is practically the same for business, if there’s one you needed done; you could always find a way to outsource it. The resources we have now are overwhelming. You can get all the help you need in the web. When to do it? Now!

Enjoy life to the full. Reach your potential. Exceed boundaries. You can do it, when you believe in yourself.