Overcoming Fear of Startup

Think about this famous quote by Franklin Roosevelt after Pearl Harbor: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." I never really understood this quote until I started working with people who wanted to start their own practices, and until I started my own businesses. I have thought a lot about fear and the way it can paralyze us and I have seen this paralysis first-hand.

For example, I spent a lot of time, and many phone calls and emails, helping a grad with the startup process. He would go only so far, only to stop. He would find a practice to buy, and then he would back out of the deal because it wasn't quite right. Or he would find a location, but never actually sign a lease, convinced that this location wasn't perfect. He couldn't find a loan, but he only tried a couple of banks then gave up. After months he finally decided to stay as an associate, where he was unhappy; for all I know, he's still there.

Why does fear paralyze us?

1. Old voices. We all have voices in our heads, from times when someone (parent, friend, spouse) told us, "You can't do this," or "This is stupid. You'll fail," or "Don't risk failure." "If you fail, it will be terrible." As long as we listen to those voices, we don't move ahead.

2. Perfectionism. It's great to want to do things well, but we often are way too picky about how things must be. For example, the guy who wanted the perfect location. A friend of mine gave me some advice about writing: "My rotten published book is better than your perfect unpublished one." So I'm sending it off to be printed.

3. "Don't just do it." We figure we have to start at the beginning and work toward the end, in some kind of specific sequence. Then when we get stumped at a certain point, we figure there's no way around. Not necessarily. Sure you will have to get a loan before you can start buying equipment, but there are lots of things you can do to get started with little money, and there are lots of paths, not just one.

Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek (Crown, 2007), has some suggestions for overcoming the paralysis of fear:

1. First, define your nightmare. What is the worst thing that could happen if you fail in your new practice? Spend some time thinking about this. Create a worst case scenario. Then consider two factors: Probability and Severity. These are insurance terms, but they apply. First, what's the probability (on a scale of 0% - never happen, to 100% - guaranteed to happen) of failure? Then look at the severity – the cost – of failure. While I'm not a fan of dwelling on the negative, I do believe you need to look under the bed to convince yourself there really are no monsters under there (like Grover.)

2. Then look at the steps you could take to repair the damage. How could you get your life back on track if you fail in practice? Spend some time thinking about alternatives, like starting again elsewhere, or working for someone else. Think about what's really important, and "don't sweat the small stuff."

3. Consider the outcomes and benefits of more probable scenarios. Think about what your life would look like in a "best case" scenario. Then set yourself to thinking that this is the more probable outcome of starting your own business.

4. Prepare to succeed. Start taking baby steps to overcome your fears by working on the positive steps to success. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear. Do one small task every day that will move you toward your start date. It might be as simple as calling the Yellow Pages and ordering an ad in the next book. Work on your business plan. Focus your energy on positive action. By the time you are done writing the business plan, I think you'll find you will see that startup success is not only possible, but you'll feel more confident about starting your practice.

PPC

Although search engine optimization is the most effective means of promoting a website, the problem with search engine optimization is that it can take up to a year before a website starts ranking well for competitive keywords.

The situation is further compounded by the fact that search engines continuously recalculate their rankings, and a search engine optimizer has to stay on top of his game to achieve top rankings on a regular basis.

The odds are stacked against new websites as Google takes nearly 3 months before it starts calculating a website’s ranking /PageRank and any changes to a website take almost a month before materialising into search rankings.

Not all webmasters can afford the luxury of paying thousands of dollars to search engine optimizers or wait for a year before their website start ranking well. When Google launched a unique concept called Google Adwords, a webmaster could pay Google a certain amount to display ads for his website.

Today, Google has a unique PPC (pay per click) advertising model in place. As the name suggests, a webmaster only pays for an ad when a user clicks on the ad and visits his website. Pay per click advertising is one of the most cost effective methods of advertising and it is not surprising that every successful search engine has its own version of pay per click advertising.

Advantages of pay per click advertisingCost effective Compared to search engine optimization, pay per click advertising can be more cost effective. There is no denying that in the longer run search engine optimization is the best option, but pay per click advertising is ideal for websites that are starting up or under search engine optimization. Once a website starts ranking well for ‘organic searches’, the webmaster can choose to end his pay per click campaign.

Target specific keywordsAlthough search engine optimization is also carried out to target specific keywords, pay per click advertising is the only guaranteed way of ranking well for keywords.

A webmaster can choose exactly which keywords he wants his website’s ads to appear for and can choose to advertise his website for more than one keyword.

Equal opportunitiesA website can end up spending nearly $5000 on search engine optimization for competitive keywords, larger organizations have an unfair advantage as they have virtually endless resources to spend on SEO and link building. Pay per click advertising is the only way smaller websites can compete with larger websites.

It is a well known fact that search engine optimization can only do so much for a website, the rest is usually link building and creating search engine friendly content. This is why websites that are looking to rank for keywords without spending thousands of dollars in advertising and link building, prefer using pay per click advertising to publicize their website. In fact, many websites prefer spending their SEO budget on pay per click as it guarantees results and is much faster than traditional search engine optimization techniques.

Get results much fasterA typical website takes around 3 months before it starts showing up for ‘organic searches’. Any changes to a website take an additional month to ‘reflect’. Sometimes, websites do not have 3 months before they start ranking for keywords. For example, a website selling Christmas cards will only do business a few months in a year and a three month delay can make the difference between doing business and not doing any business at all.

Pay per click ads make the task of advertising a site simpler.

Once a webmaster has decided which keywords he wants his website to show up for, the website’s ads are displayed for relevant keywords within 24 hours. In addition, a webmaster can choose to modify his existing pay per click campaign with ease.