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Startup success: 4 top tips for boosting your confidence

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Startup success: 4 top tips for boosting your confidence

Daydreams about launching your own business have taken over your life and kept you occupied on those dreary Wednesday afternoons stuck in the office.

But although you hate your current nine-to-five job and have a great idea for a startup, turning all your entrepreneurial fantasies and talk into action hasn’t proven easy.

An unconquerable concoction of anxieties, doubts and fears have prevented you taking the first steps, and it’s perfectly understandable. After all, the comfort and security of a reliable income is hard to break away from, especially when you’ve got bills to pay.

If you ever want to get the ball rolling on your startup, however, you need to learn to calm your nerves and stop being your own worst enemy.

With that in mind, we’re sharing four top tips for boosting your confidence before you venture out on your own as an entrepreneur. Take a look.

#1: keep on learning

As well as giving your self-confidence a much-needed lift, staying at the cutting-edge of your industry through continual self-improvement will ensure that you’re ideally placed to open a successful business.

Read up on the latest news, go to seminars and attend training sessions, keeping your eyes open for any opportunities or gaps in the market along the way.

There are also plenty of distance learning courses which will let you hone your general business and management skills by studying around your current work schedule. By the time you set up your startup, you’ll feel more than qualified to take on the challenge.

#2: establish goals and timescales

Launching the next unicorn startup and spending your working week jetting off around the world from one boardroom meeting to another might be your ultimate goal, but don’t scare yourself by setting such an unattainable target right from the start.

Instead of getting caught up in a daydream, come up with a clear and achievable plan of action that’s split into small steps.

Simple tasks, like coming up with a name or finalising your location, are much easier to manage. Set a timescale for each goal, give yourself deadlines and celebrate each little triumph as you go to keep yourself motivated.

#3: talk to other startups and entrepreneurs

The easiest way to calm yourself and ease your worries is to talk to someone who’s experienced the trials and tribulations of launching a business.

Whether it’s by reaching out to local entrepreneurs you admire or reading interviews and autobiographies of people like Richard Branson, you’ll soon learn how other people have managed the process of flying solo.

For more tailored, practical advice on things like taxes or startup loans, check out the UK government’s business helplines (there are different options depending on where you’re based). Remember that until you ask for help, you won’t get any.

#4: don’t quit your day job straight away

Do you find yourself staying up all night worrying about how you’ll afford to live whilst you get your startup going? If so, take off some of the financial pressure by keeping your current day job, at least to begin with.

So long as you’re willing to deal with late nights and long weekends as you work on your own business venture outside of your office hours, you’ll still be able to enjoy a steady source of income.

It won’t be easy, but once your company starts to bring in some money you’ll have the security and confidence to hand in your notice and become a fulltime entrepreneur.

Remember, everyone feels scared when they first launch their startup – it’s a huge risk, after all. But if you can follow our top tips and keep your nerves in check, the stress and hard work will be more than worth it.

I am the founder of Startup Today. I am the main writer and have put in many hours of work into creating this blog. If you want to find out more about me then lets get in contact.

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