21: How To Deal With Naysayers When You Share Your Business Idea

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Feeling down because your close circle doesn’t support your business idea?

You were so excited about your project that you decided to share your plans with others.

Naysayers gave you many reasons why you would be wasting your time.

Now, you wonder what to do.

In this episode, I list examples of negative comments you might get and how to handle them.

You also learn why naysayers might not be that bad for you and what to do to validate your idea.

Let me know if the following comments sound familiar.

Everyone is already doing the same thing

Starting a business in a crowded industry is not a bad idea. Make sure that you choose a profitable market.

The world is big enough for you to find your own clients.

Find a niche where you can help your ideal clients solve a specific problem differently from other businesses and peers.

I don’t use the word competition because your peers could often become your partners and friends rather than competitors.

You don’t have the skills needed to start a business

Those skills can be learned or delegated.

Your expertise, your personality and your story can’t be taught as they are unique to you.

List the skills you need to be successful and decide if it is something you need to learn or if you can hire people to do the work better than you.

Marketing is a skill that I recommend you learn to be familiar with marketing strategies.

You are too old or too young

It’s never too late or too early to start a business.

Have you joined some online communities of business owners? If not, you should.

You will find any ages over there, and that what makes communities so rich and inspiring.

The success of your business will depend on the value you provide to your customers and on how you deliver your messages, not your age.

Who you are and how old you are will help color your message and make it unique.

Your age is an advantage.

I believe that you can turn anything you consider as a weakness into a strength.

You need a lot of money

If you start an online business, thanks to technology, now is the best time to get started with nearly nothing.

For example, you can start a blog for free with wordpress.com. I would still recommend that you have your own domain and platform (using wordpress.org) for your business.

You need to adopt a business mindset and consider spending money on your business as an investment.

Once again, you don’t have to spend a lot of money. If you start small, plenty of companies offer a free or low-cost version of their products to solopreneurs.

Also keep in mind that time is a currency.

Your time is valuable and it might be worth it to invest money and get external help to launch your project faster, instead of spending months or years trying to do everything by yourself.

It’s too risky, many business owners have failed

Again, there are many ways to start a business with a low budget.

The main thing you could lose might be your time.

The important question to ask is: will you regret it if you don’t give it a try?

If your business idea doesn’t work, this is not a failure but a learning experience.

Entrepreneurs keep experimenting and don’t give up after the first attempt. They pivot or change ideas.

You don’t know if something will work until you try it.

It’s challenging to face our own fears, don’t let naysayers add more stress to your life.Click To Tweet

Action items for this week

Review what naysayers tell you by answering the following questions:

• Who are your naysayers?
• Where are they coming from? Are they giving you negative feedback because of their own fears? Or do they mean well because they just want to protect you from doing something different?
• Are their comments valid?
• What do you have to lose if you test your idea during one month?

Get started now by showing up for your business with the following goals: finding out what problem you can solve and validating that people would pay for your services.

Make sure that you enjoy those activities.

As always, you will only know what you like to do by taking action.
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