3 Fears Shared By Many Small Business Owners and the Responses that Backfire

By Dr. Larina Kase

Recent research that I share in The Confident Leader shows that when we become nervous, we often react by overcompensating. We try hard to handle the fear but our responses backfire. Despite our best intentions, we shoot ourselves in the foot.

Business owners are no exception. There are many things that we fear in terms of getting out there and marketing our businesses. Three of the most common ones include:

1. Being seen as too small to compete with the big dogs.
2. Making phone calls including sales calls.
3. Limiting our market of who we can serve.

With fear # 1 (Being seen as too small to compete with the big dogs) the common type of overcompensating behavior is to try to look larger than we are. We make our website and all of our marketing materials about the company and leave ourselves out of it.

The problem? Consumers trust individuals not companies. We lose the power of branding ourselves and creating a sense of a person behind the business. We lose our ability to tell personal stories and build relationships.

Fear #2 (Making phone calls including sales calls) is very common. There are many types of overcompensating behaviors. We may avoid making calls all together. We may script them out and rehearse them so much that we end up sounding like robotic telemarketers rather than people who the person on the other end of the line can actually connect to.

Many actions are right on the fine line of smart business move versus overcompensating. For example, delegating sales calls to trained sales professionals can be a very smart business move. On the other hand, taking yourself completely out of the equation can be a mistake. Think carefully about your business, products and services, and target market to decide what and when to delegate sales calls.

Fear #3 (Limiting our market of who we can serve) stems from the concern that we would have to turn away good business if we limit our market. So we try to serve everyone and end up having no niche market and connecting with no one.

Business owners react to this fear by keeping their marketing and sales copy too broad. Prospective clients and customers don’t feel that the message really speaks to them and they decide not to take action. Remember that you can always expand your target market once you’re established. It’s better to start narrow and go broad than to start too broad and not take your business off the ground.

Whatever your business fear or challenge, work on confronting it without overcompensating, and you are sure to find the best rewards.

Larina Kase, PsyD, MBA is a business psychologist and New York Times bestselling author. Her latest book, The Confident Leader, provides a 6-step “GROWTH” formula for how to move beyond your comfort zone and achieve the tough things that lead to the best results. Learn how at http://www.confidentleaderbook.com

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