Fear of Investment Holds Back Your Business Growth

Fear.

If you’re afraid of making that investment to get to the next level, that’s often the investment you’re going to have to take.

Whether you’re working with a team or alone, if you’re working towards a new launch and realize you’re going to need investment to keep moving forward, you may need to let go and invest.

This may be investing in yourself and your professional development, or upgrading your team members by bringing more of them on, or using new platforms that are more expensive or using parts of platforms that were previously locked behind paywalls you were afraid to pull the trigger on.

Fear of making the leap is what will keep you stuck.

You have great ideas, you’re excited to get going, and then you see what it takes and it all comes to a jarring stop.

It’s a scary thing to know that you have to invest money and effort into something for some time before seeing any kind of return.

Especially when there’s no certainty. And there rarely is.

Many people arrive here and decide that’s when they’ll stop and what they’re building. They’ll use makeshift tools and systems to get an approximation of what they know they’ll need.

In essence, it’s like being handcuffed to the side of the pool on the shallow end, when you’d really like to be swimming all the way towards the deeper end.

THE MAIN FEAR

The main fear is that you believe that your product, service, or idea… might not be worthy of that investment.

I know this is a crazy topic, sparking tons of internal debate. Plenty of business owners shake their heads, saying (or thinking), “No, no, no – I’m very, very confident and comfortable.”

But if you’ve ever been in a place where you’re trying to hire a new provider or employee – because you know they’ll help you get to the next level – and then once you see the quotes you start stumbling back, then you know the fear I’m talking about.

You start to feel anxious about it, like something doesn’t feel right. It’s a fear that happens at all levels.

That fear of investment is what’s holding you back.

At that moment, you need to step back and ask yourself: Is this all rational? Am I making these decisions? Have I evaluated this rationally? Do I believe that this is the missing component?

Then, start working through your fears: What are the fears that I have about this? Am I afraid that I’m going to lose all of my investment? Or that the return won’t be anywhere near what it should be?

These are the questions that you need to ask yourself to begin unraveling your fears and figure out whether they’re based on reality or not.

THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO

Then, ask yourself what the worst-case scenario is for your fear. If you don’t make the investment and move forward, and if you do. What’s the scenario look like?

And what does it look like if things work out (which they invariably do in one way or another)?

What I’ve found is that it is never the worst-case scenario. Maybe there are slight drawbacks, but you progress and move forward like you always have and eventually, make it to that next level.

All in all, fear is the number one thing I see across the board when a client of mine is trying to get traction or momentum.

If you’re in this place now and are uncertain about what to do, and you want some feedback or advice or guidance, reach out to me.