What you do and do not do on a daily basis has a long term compounding impact on your Small Business success. Depending on the approach you take and the level of self-sabotaging you engage in will have real effects on the outcome of your business, including whether or not you are actively killing your Small Business.
What does killing your Small Business mean?
Killing your Small Business means that you may be making decisions that are sabotaging your business success and unwittingly committing to a course of action that will eventually see you fail.
It is about the self-sabotaging behaviours that people employ on a conscious and subconscious level to stop themselves from being successful, to slow things down or to completely undermine their goals.
It is a bad habit that can cost you your Small Business;
It is a bad habit of ego-centric, failure enduring decisions etc that do not serve your highest purpose;
It is allowing fears to drive your Small Business direction and kill it from the inside out. Often this is a slow and painful death – one small decision, action or inaction compounding over time.
What does killing your Small Business look like?
Imagine that you decide to put on an event to show off your services and bring in more clients/customers, more money and build your business. As a result of this decision, you go about setting up the event, sorting out the details, thinking about the costs and considering what profit you will make. You’re excited and ready to go, but, then something strange happens and you lack the motivation to do the basics well to get the message out there to your niche audience. You find yourself unwilling to step out of your comfort zone and be vulnerable.
Worries begin to fester about your ability to pull the event off;
You worry that people will see you as an imposter;
Fear takes root and all your decisions and actions are now run through this internal filter;
You think about giving up;
You think about retreating because it all seems to hard to get off the ground;
You may even worry that you will have too many people show up for the event and what will you do then?
Fear burrows deeper in your gut and whispers, “Who do you think you are? You know you can’t handle it, you’re not ready, you need more time. You’re a fake, fraud and you’re not going to cope if they all come.”
Subconsciously you sabotage your every effort to grow your business through inactions and not following through. You now live in Excuse Central! You feel overwhelmed and the last thing you want to do is take action.
You may be asking, what person in their right mind would be doing this! It’s insane and it doesn’t make sense.
But from an emotional safety perspective it makes perfect sense to the Small Business Owner who fears too much success too soon. They may fear not being able to handle the abundance and prosperity that could flow from their awesome idea.
I never said it was rational.
Internally their subconscious seeks to keep them safe through avoiding situations that have the potential to be successful.
Say hello to procrastination!
This kind of self-sabotaging behaviour may not even be something that they can see themselves, however, anyone around them who is trying to help them get off the ground and grow their business can see it. Bystanders are often fraught with frustration as they watch you abort your best efforts.
If a bystander tries to intervene when the Small Business Owner is not ready to receive their message of how to help, it can lead disagreements, resentment, anger and parting of ways.
Fear and an out if balance ego that feels threatened are insidious weeds that, if left unchecked, can become an out of control jungle of compounding self-sabotage behaviours that have a flow-on effect, resulting in you actively killing your own Small Business.
Where to from here?
If you have begun to see yourself in this scenario, that is a good thing to acknowledge. Admitting that you have a fear that holds you back is an empowering step forward. It is an opportunity for you to explore what is really going on inside you.
Check in with yourself to see if your ego has flared up in response to help and give humility a go, you may just end up being more successful than you thought and experience greater support from like-minded people;
Reflect on what you are doing or choosing not to do. Ask yourself the hard questions to get to the deep reason as to why you do not want to be successful right now;
Consider what might be holding you back from success and nip fears in the bud because honestly, having too many people want to attend your event and know about your Small Business is a good problem to have!
Daily reflection on your thoughts, behaviour and resistance will help you to avoid killing your own Small Business.