How To Build Your Self Confidence in Entrepreneurship

Confidence is a skill and just like any skill it can be learned but it has to be practiced. Having self confidence in entrepreneurship isn’t a must in the beginning. And before you gasp in shock, it simply isn’t.

It’s nice to have for sure, but the truth is most entrepreneurs don’t in the beginning.

Instead, they build confidence overtime.

If you’re lucky or just really optimistic you may experience some bursts of confidence during the early stages of your entrepreneurial journey. It won’t be consistent though.

I don’t say that to discourage you or just to be mean. Quite the opposite actually. I want you to be prepared and know that it’s not only you that’s experiencing the highs and the lows.

In all honesty, all businesses experience the highs and the lows but just like with anything else you tend to get better at managing it the more you go through it.

In the early stages though everything is so new and there’s such a learning curve that I don’t want you to think you’re doing it wrong when those spurts of confidence are replaced with endless questions, confusion, overwhelm or exhaustion.

Most importantly, I don’t want you to let the lack of confidence keep you from moving forward toward that business you so bravely set out to create.

Because all too often it's our mindset and mental health that keeps us from becoming successful, self confident entrepreneurs.

So if we can’t rely on confidence to get us where we want to go, how do we keep moving forward?

When you’re feeling stuck or you just hit a setback or discovered a challenge, don’t stall out, give up and walk away. Use these strategies to keep moving forward and over time they’ll help you build self-confidence in business too.

Manage your fears.

When starting anything new, it’s normal to have different fears come up. Whether it’s a fear of failure, that it won’t be perfect, someone will make fun of us or discount our idea, we have to be prepared for one fear after another.

I think it’s a little presumptuous to simply suggest that you overcome your fears. That will come with time and consistent forward action.

In the meantime, you need to get comfortable being outside your comfort zone. And that’s what I mean by managing your fears.

It’s okay to have them but don’t let them hold you back or have you throwing in the towel.

Don’t compare yourself to others.

It’s easy to look around at everyone and feel like they’re ahead and you’re behind. It’s human nature to compare to other people but that’s not going to help you at all.

We all have our own paths.

Some businesses may have started earlier and end sooner or last longer. No matter where you are on your entrepreneurial journey though you can get to where you want to go. And it has nothing to do with where anyone else is.

Which brings us to the next one…

Everyone starts as a beginner.

It doesn’t matter how successful someone becomes, the number of degrees on their shelves or how many awards they receive, they started out as a beginner. They had to learn everything from scratch, practice, and make mistakes.

And so do you. It’s important to understand that from the start because you too will have no product or service, no customers and no income in the beginning.

Just remember that’s a totally okay place to be.

Give yourself grace.  

You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to spend time doing something that you scrap later.

Challenges are going to come up that put you off your plan or timeline. It happens to everyone. We tend to be so self-critical in entrepreneurship instead of committed and determined.

Instead of getting frustrated and defeated when these things happen, take a break from it, regroup and give yourself some grace. The same grace you would give to someone else who’s a beginner.

You’ll be surprised how far you’ll get giving yourself some grace along the way.

Keep up with your daily tasks.

It’s not motivation you need. It’s clarity and direction. You need to set smart goals and follow through with them.

If it feels difficult to get back into things each day or make steady progress, it’s important to find ways to make it easier.

One that works for me is setting my daily tasks for the next day at the end of the current day so I know where to start the next day. I’m not wasting time trying to remember or get back into it. It’s written down and ready for me to get going.

Progress over perfection.

As a recovering perfectionist myself, I totally get the feeling that you need things to be perfect before you put them out there for others to see.

On the other hand I can say with certainty that perfection is the enemy for entrepreneurs. Because perfect doesn’t exist. You’ll always find a reason to keep changing things. And that procrastination for perfection will keep you from moving forward.

So focus on getting things done instead.

Nothing is ever truly final.

The beauty of entrepreneurship is that you can always change it later. Your content, products or services, even branding can change over time.

In my opinion, knowing that relieves some of the pressure and makes it easier to put things out there. You’ll get feedback, learn and then you’ll make something better and more suited to your customers next time.

And the best part is you’ll keep growing from there.

These tips and techniques are truly just the beginning of growing your self confidence in entrepreneurship. The more you do in life and business, the more you’ll learn and the more confident you’ll become. And for long-term involvement in entrepreneurship, there is such an importance of confidence in entrepreneurship.

One of the best lessons to learn as business owners is that successful entrepreneurs just keep producing. Because success, no matter how small, is the biggest confidence booster. It’s what helps put all that negativity to rest.

And it will make you ready to take even more risks and do even bigger and better things next time. Ultimately that's why being confident is important in business.