When is the last time you said, “I’d love to try this, but I’m afraid I won’t succeed?” Fear of failing and the consequences of it hold many people back. But taking risks is an inherent part of being in business. In fact, it’s not realistic to think that that you can completely eliminate risk from your business. The fact that you are running your own massage practice or spa or running it for someone else means that you already took a risk.
So now you need to take a look at your aversion to taking more risks to move your business forward. For starters, you need to learn to become comfortable taking risks and that means changing your frame of mind. Here are five ways to do that:
Set achievable goals: You may have big ideas about where you want your business to be in five or 10 years, but be realistic. Don’t set unrealistic goals, which may seem too overwhelming to undertake.
Start small: Make a small change to your business that won’t have serious implications if you fail. You might want to build a reputation among a certain niche, such as seniors or new moms. Build a marketing campaign targeted just to those audiences and promote your specialized services. No doubt you’ll attract some clients in these areas and it won’t impact your current business if you don’t get the traction you want. However, if you are successful; you can consider other types of clients you might want to attract, adding specialists to your business and getting additional training, if necessary.
Give yourself options: Don’t put all your eggs into one basket. Maybe you think about generating more income by expanding into another area or buying another spa. But that might not be the best way to grow from a financial standpoint. That’s why you want to consider other ways to expand, such as through co-marketing partnerships with other businesses, expanding retail offerings on and off line and bringing in other specialists who can rent space adding income to your bottom line.
Learn as much as you can: Taking risks means looking at the possibilities from all angles and that may include doing more research and talking to other people in the industry and other professionals, such as financial advisors, accountants, marketing experts or commercial realtors. Having as much information as possible helps to minimize the risk because you know what obstacles you may face down the road.
Do worse-case scenario: You can eliminate or reduce your fear of failure by considering what’s the worst thing that could happen if your risk-taking doesn’t work out as planned. In this way, you can be prepared for any setbacks by having a contingency plan. In this way, you’ll be prepared for the inevitable setbacks.
Taking risks means being realistic about what you can accomplish and being prepared. With that in mind, you should feel confident about making changes to your business to move it forward.