Dealing with the fear of self-employment
(by Isebell Gauche)

Many people are retrenched daily. If you decide to go the self-employment route with the money from you retrenchment package, you will come across obstacles to success.Self employment fear is one of the obstacles.

Dealing with the self employment fear may not always be so easy since many of the points that come up in your mind, may actually be valid. Recognize the fear of self-employment and deal with it head on.

If you allow fear of self-employment to grow within you, you will not succeed and will not even be able to get started. First things first - plan ahead. You need to know that any business takes a while to succeed. Few businesses become profitable within two or three months.

Just because ten clients have said no for your product or service, it doesn't mean you made a mistake. Make a change in your marketing strategy and expand your horizon. If you only tried traditional forms of marketing such as cold calling, pamphlets, magazine ads, newspaper ads etc. go for the Internet.

You may think that it is a whole new world out on the Internet, and you are right. Competition is stiff, but you will be able to expand your market. Team up with a reputable Internet design and marketing company and make use of Google Adsense to ensure that you can pay the hosting fee. This is just one way of overcoming obstacles.

You may face financing problems which is a legitimate reason for fear of self-employment, but you also can overcome this. Keep enough capital separate to get you through as if you have received a salary for six to twelve months. Get an investor to join your business if need be to ensure that you have the finances available. Start small and grow. Select a business in your interest and knowledge field to begin with and create more than one income stream.

Make the most of free and affordable services such as e-Bay, Bid or Buy, bulk sms services for marketing, a free online fax number and places where you place additional ads to ensure that your business can be accessed via multiple sources.

The fears of isolation are also real, but join a club and business breakfast group and break this fear of self -employment. Start networking to build contacts. It won't be long before you have several business contacts and friends which understand your needs.