Top 10 Fears About Launching a Startup: How to Fight

Fear was given to humanity at the time of its birth as a protective mechanism. This insures us against potentially dangerous decisions and immediately signals when it is time to run. And when we want to meet new achievements, this subconscious, inexplicable and irrational fear tells us – do not go there, there are wild animals, stay in your warm and safe shelter. And if you transfer this fear to the plane of business development, then it is at this moment that development ends before it even starts. Everything remains in its place.

We do not urge you to go for a walk in the forest with wild animals (although figuratively, you will still be there when you develop your startup), but we offer a scientifically proven algorithm of actions to cope with your fears about starting and developing a business.

Here are 10 fears about launching a startup and how to fight those fears.

1. The Fear to Start Because of the Lack of Money

Of course, starting any business requires money. Perhaps you think that it is simply unreasonable to start something because you have nothing but an idea and one shirt on your body. However, not everything is so bad. Many startups were run without money or with minimal investment. Let’s see how this is possible.

How to Fight

In fact, to start you do not need money, contrary to popular belief. You need things that are much more important. You need common sense and an adequate assessment of your capabilities. Plus, modern technology makes starting a business so easy that you don’t need huge amounts of money to evaluate the potential profitability of your idea. Begin at least with this, and then you will already think about money.

2. The Fear of Losing the Money Invested

So, if you appreciated the profitability of your idea, then now the next fear may arise – the fear of making a mistake and letting all the money down the drain. And this fear is also justified, although it is irrational in nature and says that you simply do not have a certain knowledge of business and marketing. But fortunately, this can be fixed.

How to Fight

The only way to deal with this fear is a competent and detailed strategy, which also takes into account unforeseen situations. Moreover, it is necessary to show this strategy to your investors and discuss an action plan if suddenly events begin to unfold in an unpredictable scenario.

3. The Fear of Not Being Invested at All

And this is another very common fear. Its underlying reason is banal, and it still lies in the fact that you are not yet sure of the profitability of your idea. We propose to fight this fear not with the help of psychology, but with the help of economics and real data.

How to Fight

Only thorough research will help you overcome the fear of not getting an investment. Therefore, use the following methods to assess the prospects of your idea in order to gain confidence, or reformulate the idea until the moment you have not yet made a mistake.

• Swot analysis
• Pest analysis
• The model of the five forces
• Focus group research

4. The Fear of Not Finding a Team of Like-Minded People

Many analysts are unanimous that the team is the foundation of a successful startup. And by the way, many investors agree with them. And even just common sense suggests that combining the efforts of several people who are aimed at a common goal gives a better result than hard labor alone. Therefore, you definitely need a team and the fear of not finding it is completely natural. Even professional HR managers say that it is much easier to find a cool specialist than an adequate person. And you need both characteristics at once.

How to Fight

Start with people you know personally and whose integrity you can be sure of. However, if among them there are no specialists you need, then you will have to look for people around the world. The key to a successful search is honesty at the start. Honestly describe who you want to see next to you. As a rule, volunteers who want to participate in a startup themselves understand what they agree to.

5. The Fear of Having Nothing to Offer Your Team Except for One Idea

This fear is an offshoot of the previous one. Obviously, if you have nothing but an idea, then you really have nothing to offer in return. You may even be ashamed of this, but this is not the best feeling for the development of the project, so we will tell you how to deal with it.

How to Fight

In fact, you have more than you think. You have a cool idea, passion, inspiration and a real plan for how to turn it all into life. If you managed to find like-minded people, then this will be enough to convince them to work with you for the future. In addition, many novice specialists are actually ready to work for an idea and for experience, so this fear can be dispelled very easily.

6. The Fear That the Audience Will Not like the Product/ Service/ Offer

An idea that seems cool to you is not enough. It is necessary that your target audience also share your views. And of course, you may be afraid that it will have a different opinion.

How to Fight

According to the best laws of the genre, the best way to deal with this fear is to ask a direct question or to offer a product with a minimum set of functions in order to test the response among the target audience. Start with the economic analysis methods that we have already talked about, and then develop MVP according to the principles of LEAN startup. Then, you will get the opportunity to speak no longer about abstract fears but about objective reality.

7. The Fear of Competitors

Well, your fear is justified enough. Perhaps this is almost the only fear that has a fairly rational justification – about 100 million startups are launched every year, in addition to the 300 million that are already launched at the moment. These are striking numbers, and it’s hard not to get scared. However, to defeat this fear, let’s analyze your competitors from the other side.

How to Fight

Firstly, the above statistics are global; they do not take into account the specifics of each niche. Secondly, if in the net, 400 million people at least were able to come up with a worthy idea and implement it, then why are you worse than them? These figures are shocking, but at the same time they say the opposite – now we have the most favorable conditions for starting a business like never before. You already have an idea in your arsenal, powerful opportunities for research and analytics, plus common sense. And this may already be enough to start.

8. The Fear of Not Managing to Go Global

The main goal of any online startup is to grow to a global level. And it is logical that now you are asking yourself questions about how this is possible and experiencing fear. There is only one way to defeat it – this is a well-thought-out strategy of gradual growth. Below, we describe which items should be included.

How to Fight

So, in order to defeat this fear, you need a strategy for the following points.

• Start conquering new markets from one new country and move gradually.
• Localize your product to the needs of a new target audience.
• Create multilingual versions of the main site, and localize and translate content to them using The Word Point.
• Localize the SEO of your website and start testing advertising campaigns aimed at foreign audiences.

9. The Fear of the Biggest Collapse Ever

So, now we are getting close to the most important, strong and global fear – the fear of total failure. It is very likely that you are afraid to fail completely, on all fronts, and then all the fears that we listed above will become a reality at the same time. And in this case, it is not enough to use only economic and balanced approaches to business development. You also need to work through this fear within yourself from a psychological point of view.

How to Fight

We are sure that you clearly remember that each of your actions requires a preliminary study of the consequences and prediction of results, but the fear of failure can sit very deep in the attic of the subconscious.

If you feel that it is defeating you, ask yourself a few questions. Will I become happier and calmer if I give up this venture now? Will I regret it? Obviously, you will. Remember that to try and fail is much better than not to try. In the worst-case scenario, you will at least know which approaches are definitely not working.

10. The Fear of the Biggest Success Ever

This is a paradoxical, but very real fear. And sometimes it scares even more than a complete failure. What will I do in the case of success? Will I be able to cope with this responsibility for my employees and clients? How to maintain a strong market position? And this is not a complete list of questions.

How to Fight

Do not fight. Just accept. Just accept as a well-deserved reward for all your efforts. We are sure that you deserve it.

Conclusion

As you can see, all these fears are irrational in nature. It is possible to defeat them all together using common sense, logic, research, laws of economics and marketing, analytics and strategic thinking. In this article, we have provided the most complete list of possible fears of startup initiators, and we really hope that this is not about you and not about your business. But even if you recognize yourself in one of the points, you already have a guide to action, so do not let your fears become obstacles in your way.