In my last post, I offered 8 tips on stopping procrastination through increasing your self-confidence. In this week’s post I have 8 tips on increasing your entrepreneur confidence.
As an entrepreneur/solopreneur or blogger, you may spend a lot of hours with your laptop or sitting at your desk. It is easy for doubt to creep in and zap your confidence. Here are 8 strategies to combat doubt and increase your confidence.
Realize Your Clients Need and Want What YOU Offer
Instead of expending energy trying to attract new clients, focus on the ones you already have. They already trust you. They have “bought” from you and they are still coming back for more.
Make sure you meet and exceed their expectations. Be proactive. Anticipate their needs at the next level. Provide aides, extras and resources at the right time.
If you treat your existing clients as treasures, you will automatically attract the same type of client who already wants your services.
Know Your Own Value
The most confident people are those who know their own worth: What their time is worth, what their life experience and expertise is worth and what their services are worth.
Track your time. Look over your achievements and credentials. Read your client testimonials and emails. Identify the area where you help people make the biggest shifts.
Realizing how truly unique and valuable you are to clients can give you the confidence to set a realistic and healthy value on your services… so you can stop over-delivering and under-charging, and have the confidence to know you deserve your fees.
Focus on Client Successes as Well as Your Own
If you really want to feel confident, focus on your clients’ successes; not just your own. It doesn’t matter whether or not that success was a huge one, or a tiny one. Did your product or service increase their sales? Did you help make an event successful? Celebrate your customer’s success.
Acknowledge Your Daily Achievement
You have heard the phrase “attitude of gratitude” a gazillion times. You know the technique of listing things you are grateful for every night.
This is a great practice. Start to add to it three business accomplishments from the day that made you proud. Don’t edit yourself. If you are proud that you finished writing a blog post in record time, be proud!
Start a Support Group
Another way to boost your own confidence in a particular area is to help others. Don’t just join a support group, start one.
It can be incredibly empowering to seize a problem by the horns and help others overcome or deal with it, while admitting you too have issues in those areas. You will find that having to learn all you can about it, discover resources that work and come up with things like meeting structures and strategies to discuss give you a surprising amount of confidence in an area you previously found problematic.
Make On-going Learning Part of Your Business Life
Knowing you are ahead of your peers (and abreast of top influencers) in the latest changes, improvements or information in your field is another good way to automatically boost your confidence. (Read more about learning here.)
Take innovative courses, attend lectures, keep your certifications updated or upgraded, and subscribe to—and read—industry journals, in order to keep ahead of the pack and provide your clients with the best service. Proactively do primary research yourself. Contact organizations, companies and experts. That way, you won’t just be following top influencers: You’ll BE one
Care About Your Clients
Caring about your clients does mean going above the call of duty.
It doesn’t mean becoming a doormat, giving away services for free or putting up with clients who constantly cancel or request refunds. Care about what your customers want and how you can help them.
Volunteer
Giving free workshops or talks to local business organizations and groups is not only helpful to your community—it’s a great confidence-builder (and automatically sets you up to be your community’s favorite expert in your field).
Let local journalists know you are available as an expert source. Join your local Chamber of Commerce and other relevant business organizations. Be the first to volunteer.
The more people you talk to, the more people you help, the more you’ll find your confidence naturally soars.
How to Gain Confidence and Increase Productivity
How to Optimize Your Time for Maximum Productivity
Do You Have a Success Mindset?
