Halloween is the one day of the year when people like to scare themselves, or others, on purpose; but if you’re an entrepreneur, feeling scared—either a lot or just a little—is an accepted part of your general existence.
For better or worse, it’s this fear that motivates you to start a business in the first place, and, when channeled correctly, you can use fear to keep you going through challenging times, and ultimately reach heights you never imagined possible.
Here are the 10 scariest things about being an entrepreneur. Read on if you dare… 👻
1. You might fail
By now, you probably know the stats—1 in 5 new businesses in the UK fail within the first year. But if we all let fear of failure stop us, none of us would do anything with our lives, never mind something great. Before even starting a business, it’s essential you accept that it could all go to pot; this’ll encourage you to put as many systems in place to stop that from happening. If you deny the potential for failure, you’ll just get cocky and complacent—that’s when things can easily start to go wrong.
2. You might succeed
Weird as this sounds, some entrepreneurs worry that their venture will get so big, they won’t know how to control it anymore. Establishing a great reputation also increases the pressure to keep to hitting those high standards and constantly adapting and improving to meet demands. Both as a business and an individual, you might end up in the public eye, which means greater scrutiny, as well as a magnification of both your successes and failures. But there are way to counteract these daunting possibilities—be certain of and loyal to your personal values and founding principles, and have a team of people around you who you trust to ride the wave of success with you. This includes your family—they’ll keep you grounded if it all starts to go to your head a little.
3. You might not get paid for a long time
A lot of entrepreneurs start out with wild visions of becoming an overnight millionaire. This can happen, but very, very rarely. The truth is any money you do have/make will be poured into the business. You’ll be buying equipment, renting offices and, of course, investing in the best talent you can find. At the very beginning of your journey you may well be cutting out the luxuries you got used to with a regular paycheque, but all great entrepreneurs recognise that sacrificing the present for a better future is key to enduring success.
4. You might run out of money
One thing a lot of entrepreneurs learn very quickly is that cashflow is never as fluid as they think it’s going to be. Especially at the beginning, you’ll probably spend a lot of time teetering on the edge of running completely dry. This is scary enough for yourself, but when you’ve got people—with families and mortgages—depending on you to pay them every month, it’s… utterly terrifying. As with the possibility for outright failure, the best way to manage this particular fear is to plan properly, put good systems in place, and not getting cocky!
5. You can say goodbye to any semblance of work-life balance
Let’s be blunt—for the entrepreneur, work-life balance is a myth. You can forget steady hours, weekends and sometimes, unfortunately, special occasions. There is no such thing as a day off. Even when you block out holiday time, there will be instances where something pressing will arise and you’ll have no choice but to deal with it while sitting on a beach in the Maldives. There’s no avoiding this, but you can reduce its effects (and prevent burnout) by looking after your body and mind, not feeling guilty to take regular holidays (even if they’re still 10% work) and, most importantly, when you do have downtime with your family and friends, focus on being present—set your business aside and enjoy the moment, absorb it.
Photo by James Kovin on Unsplash
6. Some people won’t like you
While being an entrepreneur will ensure close bonds with your team, peers and fellow business owners, you also have to accept there will be people who don’t like you. Whether it’s because of the way you do business, the type of company you run, the decisions you’ve made, or simply out of sheer jealousy, there will be individuals you clash with and who dislike you, sometimes for no obvious reason. The best way to overcome this particular fear? If you didn’t do anything wrong and/or you acted with everyone’s best interests at heart, stop caring about what other people think of you. Simple as that. Stay on your path.
7. You have to hire people
The hiring process is fraught with hazards. You’ve basically only got your first impressions to go on; sometimes this works out really well, sometimes it’s what you expected, then other times it’s a disaster. Accept that no matter how many interviews you do, or how many good references a person comes with, you won’t really know if they’re a good fit until about six months into the role. The only things you can really do to negate this fear is to work with a good HR company, do your own research (people’s social media profiles can tell you a lot these days) and, perhaps most importantly, trust your intuition—even if the candidate doesn’t tick all the boxes, if he or she ‘feels’ right, that’s most likely the one.
8. You have to fire people
If you think hiring is scary, wait until this part! For while it can be relatively pain-free to let go of someone who is consistently not up to scratch, having to make good people redundant simply because you can’t afford them anymore is a horrible experience. There is no easy way of doing this. All you can do is be kind, understanding and respectful and, if possible, use your contacts to help them find a place elsewhere.
9. You have to relinquish control
For some, this is the most frightening prospect of all—handing control over to someone else. There are two obvious reasons for this. One, you built the business up from nothing, all on your own and you’re emotionally attached to it, as if to a child. Second, most entrepreneurs are control freaks. So, two ways to reduce the fear of dreaded delegation? Acknowledge the fact that you even having to think of getting someone else involved is a sign that your business is growing (which is what you want), and that learning to let go a little will open up your time to come up with fresh ideas to keep your business evolving.
10. You’ll never sleep again, ever
Just kidding. Or am I?
