Building a successful business takes grit, smarts, and one other little thing most business owners overlook: the right mindset. As an entrepreneur, you wear many hats. You’re the CEO, janitor, marketing maven, and sales director…party of one!
As your company evolves, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do all the work yourself, so you hire contractors or a virtual assistant to help do some of the more tedious tasks. Pretty soon, you have a small team and some success under your belt, but growth has slowed, and you still feel like you are way too entrenched in the day-to-day. Your team still comes to you asking questions that you know you have rattled off approximately 1.4 billion times. And you long to start making proper CEO decisions you know will help add a zero to your bottom line. Honestly, you just want a damn vacation and to see the results of this labor of love turn a profit!
Despite all this, you may be unintentionally holding yourself back from true success. It can be difficult to let go and relinquish control, but if you want to take your business to the next level, you need to get past these nine limiting beliefs holding your business back.
“I’ve Got To Handle Everything Myself.”
The first belief holding you back is the idea that you must do everything yourself. While it’s essential to stay involved and engaged with your team, trying to control every little detail hinders progress and prevents new ideas from coming forward. So let go of the reins a little, and you might be surprised by the innovation that happens when you’re not involved!
Invest in your team. Mentor them, believe in their success, and cheer them on! Buy back your time whenever you can & let your team handle the day-to-day so that you can concentrate on your business’s bottom line & its future.
“But No One Shares My Posts!”
Another common limiting belief is not understanding what real measurements of success look like for your company. This means setting concrete goals and KPIs, tracking progress over time, and focusing on metrics like revenue growth rather than vanity metrics like social media followers or going viral.
“I Can’t Grow When Everything’s Chaos!”
A third limiting belief is constantly keeping your team in triage mode, scrambling from one crisis to the next without ever having time to take a step back and think strategically. Instead of using this as an excuse for not growing your business, fix what’s broken.
Set clear priorities, delegate tasks where possible, and give your team the space they need to focus on big-picture goals. Make sure everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing & when.
“It’s Not Good Enough.”
If you want your business to succeed long-term, you must let go of perfectionism. Striving for perfection can lead you down endless rabbit holes that waste time and resources without actually taking you any closer to your goals. Instead, try embracing imperfection as a way of learning and growing–after all, done is ALWAYS better than perfect!
“I Should Be Further Along.”
The fifth limiting belief is worrying too much about what the other guy is doing instead of driving your own wagon. Avoid fixating on what other businesses are doing or how much money they make. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you “should” be further along in business, but success is a journey–not a destination. Constantly telling yourself that you “should” do something will only lead to feelings of frustration.
“My New Strategy Isn’t Working.”
How long has it been? A week? A month? Strategies take time to implement. There’s no marketing or business optimization strategy that’s going to work overnight. The best way to get results is to stay consistent. Stick with your strategy. And evaluate as you go along. But don’t ditch the strategy until you know for sure it’s not working…and that may not be until months down the road.
“Had A Bad Week This Week, So I’m A Failure”
Number seven is that “all or nothing” mindset. But success isn’t linear. You’ll have off days. Some months may be leaner than others because most businesses have seasonality to their earnings. The essential thing is to track your metrics, not freak out over every little bump in the road, and stay the course.
“I Invested In Marketing But My Business Still Has Issues.”
Limiting belief eight is thinking marketing is a magic pill. Marketing is essential for any business, but it should never be the sole focus. Remember that marketing is a means to drive traffic, not an immediate solution for troubles within your company.
As you work on content marketing, social media outreach, and paid advertising campaigns, always keep your overall goals in perspective and ensure that each action taken supports those grander objectives.
“I’m Not A Marketer.”
And you don’t have to be! Marketing is constantly changing, so don’t feel discouraged if you don’t know everything. You can learn any marketing technique with some effort and perseverance. Whether it’s Facebook ads, search engine optimization (SEO), or email marketing, there are always new strategies to study and implement. So take chances, try new things, and most importantly, continue learning; that’s how true success is achieved in business.
Do you have any of these limiting beliefs? If you do, now you know how to spot them so they can stop holding you back. And remember you don’t have to know it all, your pace is your pace, and there’s always room for improvement!